Patriarch Ponds

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Patriarch pond, aerial view
Pavilion by the pond

Patriarch Ponds ( Russian Патриаршие пруды , Transkription Patriarschije Prudy ) is a common but unofficial name for a district in the historic center of the Russian capital Moscow as well as for an almost 10,000 m² large and two meter deep artificial body of water ( pond ). The neighborhood is within walking distance of Tverskaya Street , the Garden Ring and Mayakovskaya metro station . The Patriarch Ponds were already a popular residential area in the 19th century and also provided material for their works to well-known artists (including the writer Mikhail Bulgakov for his best-known book The Master and Margarita ).

history

Since there were originally two more near today's pond, the plural form patriarch ponds is used for the quarter to this day . In the 17th century, the area, which was then still characterized by swamps and small rivers, belonged to the court of the Moscow Patriarch, located in the Kremlin . Towards the end of the century, the then Patriarch Joachim had the swamps drained and three artificial ponds built in their place, in which fish have been bred for the kitchen of the Patriarch's court since then. However, after the patriarchal office in the Russian Orthodox Church was abolished in 1721 , the waters lost their original meaning, were no longer maintained and therefore swamped over the decades. Only in the 19th century, when the area was no longer on the outskirts of the city and was increasingly populated and built on, was it completely redesigned. Two of the three ponds were filled in and a two-hectare park that resembles a boulevard was created on the banks of the remaining lake .

The area around the pond received its current development mainly at the beginning of the 20th century, when it became a popular place to live and go on excursions for Muscovites. Upmarket apartment buildings were built there, and occasionally town villas. In the early Soviet era , the adjacent streets were mainly built with monumental elite residential buildings in the style of so-called socialist classicism . In 1986 a retro-style pavilion was built on the south bank of the pond, which now houses a restaurant.

The Patriarch Ponds are currently considered to be one of the most elegant residential areas in Moscow and are mainly valued for their historical value and their central and relatively quiet location. The pond and the surrounding park were last renovated in 2003. In the winter months, the frozen pond is traditionally set up as a public ice rink.

Well-known artists and reception

Several well-known artists lived or worked in the area around the Patriarch Pond. The poet Marina Tsvetaeva was born in one of the alleys near the pond in 1892 , and the poets Alexander Blok and Vladimir Mayakovsky (the nearby metro station was also named in honor of the latter in 1938 ) lived in the quarter. As a local recreation area, the pond served as a destination for a number of other famous artists in the 19th and early 20th centuries, including Leo Tolstoy , Alexei Tolstoy , Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol .

The most prominent mention in literature of the Patriarch Pond is found in the novel The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov . There the park at the Patriarch Pond is the scene of the first scene, a number of other scenes from the novel also take place in the district around the pond, for example on the garden ring ( Sadowaja ). On the latter, a few minutes' walk from the pond, there is also a former tenement house where the author lived from 1921-24 (in his former apartment, which is mentioned in the book as "bad apartment", there is now a museum) .

Web links

Commons : Patriarch Ponds  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 55 ° 45 ′ 50 ″  N , 37 ° 35 ′ 32 ″  E