Patriarch's Ponds (russian: Патриаршие пруды, ''Patriarshiye prudy'') is park, pond and an affluent residential area in downtown
Presnensky District of
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. For the last 200 years, there has been only ''one'' pond, although, as the name of Tryokhprudny Pereulok (, lit. ''Three-Pond Lane'') suggests, there used to be more. The area of the existing pond is ; the depth is about two meters.
The Ponds area is accessible via the
Moscow Metro Mayakovskaya
Mayakovskaya (russian: Маяковская), is a Moscow Metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line, in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow.
The name as well as the design is a reference to Futurism and its prominent Russian exponent Vladimi ...
(eastern exit) and
Pushkinskaya stations.
History
Origin
The area is named after the seventeenth century
Patriarch
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...
's Goat
Sloboda
A sloboda ( rus, слобода́, p=sləbɐˈda) was a kind of settlement in the history of the Old Russian regions Povolzhye, Central Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for "freedom" and may be loosely ...
(Патриаршая Козья слобода) located on the Goat Marsh (Козье болото). This marsh was once connected by a brook to the
Presnya River
The Presnya (russian: Пресня) is a river in Moscow (Russia) and a left tributary of the Moskva (river), Moskva. In 1908, Presnya was led into an underground concrete tube. The Presnya gave its name to the Presnensky District of central Mosco ...
west; by 1739, when the first topographic map was compiled, the brook disappeared and the marsh separated from Presnya. People considered the swamp as an anomalous zone; apparently this caused a proverb "Фома поспешил, да людей насмешил – увяз на Патриарших" ("Thomas has hastened, but made people laugh - he got stuck in Patriarshy").
19th century
![Patriarch Ponds, skating ring](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Patriarch_Ponds%2C_skating_ring.jpg)
The pond acquired its present shape and was cleaned up in 1830–31, a part of a plan to rebuild Moscow after the
Fire of 1812. The buildings around the pond were wooden; stone construction proceeded slowly through the second half of the nineteenth century. In winters, the
Russian Gymnastic Society operated a skating rink on the frozen pond.
At the turn of the century, cheap rental buildings around the pond were occupied by the
University
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
students. During the
December 1905, the area was held by left-wing student militia and became a war zone. The Ponds also housed Moscow's first hospital for children (the Filatov Hospital, which later relocated to nearby
Garden Ring).
Soviet history
After the revolution, the spacious apartments in buildings occupied by wealthy merchants were converted to
communal apartments with shared kitchens.
The author
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Soviet writer, medical doctor, and playwright active in the fir ...
and his wife Yelena Shilovskaya lived in this area in the 1930s.
From the later 1930s to the 1950s, the lowrise buildings were torn down. The two most important Soviet-era buildings constructed were
The House of Lions, a luxurious residence for
Red Army Marshals (1945, designed by
Zholtovsky workshop) and the 1935
Aviazhilstroy Apartments, a yellow
postconstructivist high-rise by Vladimir Vladimirov (the building, conceived by
Panteleimon Golosov
Panteleimon Alexandrovich Golosov (1882, Moscow – 1945, Moscow) was a Constructivist architect from the Soviet Union and brother of Ilya Golosov.
Career
Golosov graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1911 ...
, was completed in part. Se
original design. The boathouse on the ponds was built in wood in 1946. It was not until the 1980s that it was rebuilt in stone.
Modern history
In 2000–2002, the controversial Patriarch Apartments were built (design by Sergei Tkachenko); this 13-story building, crowned with a 1/50 scale model of
Tatlin's Tower
Tatlinʼs Tower, or the project for the Monument to the Third International (1919–20), Honour, H. and Fleming, J. (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Laurence King Publishing, p. 819. was a design for a grand monumental buildin ...
is also known as
Alla Pugacheva's home.
As of 2016 the neighborhood had become
gentrified
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the econ ...
. Owners of the communal apartments had been bought out and the apartments reconverted into luxury residences. Fashionable shops, restaurants and bars serve crowds. The area is so popular that the upscale residents of the neighborhood complain.
Bulgakov legacy
The Pond is one of the main settings of
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Soviet writer, medical doctor, and playwright active in the fir ...
's novel ''
The Master and Margarita''. Monuments to Bulgakov and to
Ivan Krylov
Ivan Andreyevich Krylov (russian: Ива́н Андре́евич Крыло́в; 13 February 1769 – 21 November 1844) is Russia's best-known fabulist and probably the most epigrammatic of all Russian authors. Formerly a dramatist and journalis ...
have been erected near the pond. ''The Master and Margarita'' begins with a
tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
accident by the pond. Although there was never any regular tram service or permanent tram tracks around the pond, for a short time in 1930s, there was a temporary service track used for night storage.
Gallery
Image:Patriarshy.JPG, Houses and the pond.
Image:People on a park bench, Patriarshy Ponds, Moscow.jpg, The pond
Image:A Christmas tree in Patriarshy Ponds, Moscow.jpg, Patriarshiye Ponds in winter
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Russian: П. В. Сытин, "Из истории московских улиц", М, 1948, с. 186–189
* Russian
Булгаковский Трамвай на Патриарших Прудах explanation of Bulgakov tram paradox, tram.ruz.net.
External links
Patriarch’s Ponds– mysterious place of Moscow
n English
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
{{Commonscat-inline, Patriarshiye Ponds
Parks and gardens in Moscow
Geography of Moscow
Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Moscow