Patriarch Ponds

Patriarch Ponds ( Russian Патриаршие пруды, transcription Patriarschije Prudy ) is a common but unofficial name for a neighborhood in the historic center of the Russian capital, Moscow, and a there located, just under 10,000 square meter and two meters deep artificial water bodies (pond). The neighborhood is located within walking distance of Tverskaya Street, the Garden Ring, and the metro station Majakovskaya. The Patriarch Ponds were still in the 19th century as a popular residential area and also provided material known artists for their works ( including the writer Mikhail Bulgakov for his most famous book The Master and Margarita).

History

Since it is near the present pond originally two others were, used the plural form Patriarch Ponds for the quarter to date. In the 17th century, the time, which still consists of swamps and streams grounds belonged to the resident in the Kremlin courtyard of the Moscow Patriarch. Towards the end of the century, the then Patriarch Joachim the swamps dry up and create in its place three artificial ponds where fish were bred for since the kitchen of Patriarchenhofs. However, after the patriarchate was abolished in the Russian Orthodox Church in 1721, lost their original meaning, the waters were no longer maintained and therefore boggy over the decades. Only in the 19th century, when the area now no longer lay on the edge of the city and was increasingly populated and built-up, it has been completely redesigned. It was poured on two of the three ponds and laid on the banks of the remaining lake a good two-acre park on that resembles a boulevard.

The present building was the area around the pond is essentially the beginning of the 20th century, as it now became a popular residential and tourist resort of Moscow. It originated there genteel apartment buildings, isolated well as townhouses. In the early Soviet period, fitting roads were primarily built with monumental elite houses in the style of the so-called Socialist Classicism. In 1986, on the south bank of the pond one held in retro style pavilion, which now houses a restaurant.

Currently, the patriarch ponds are considered one of the most prestigious residential areas in Moscow and are valued for their historical value as well as the central and at the same time relatively quiet location. The pond and the surrounding park were him last retreaded 2003. In the winter months the frozen pond is traditionally furnished as a public skating rink.

Well-known artists and reception

In the district around the Patriarch's Pond lived or worked several well-known artists. In one of the streets near the pond the poet Marina Tsvetaeva was born in 1892, also lived at times the poet Alexander Blok and Vladimir Mayakovsky (in honor of the latter in 1938 to the nearby Metro station named) in the quarter. As Naherholungsort the pond served in the 19th and early 20th century, a number of other famous artists as a goal, including Leo Tolstoy, Alexei Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol.

The most prominent mention in the literature is the Patriarch's Pond in the novel The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. There the park at the Patriarch's Pond is equal to the scene of the first scene, a number of other scenes in the novel also play in the area around the pond from, so for example at the Garden Ring ( Sadowaja ). On the latter, a few minutes walk from the pond, there is also a former tenement building, where the author was living in the years 1921-24 (in his former apartment, which is in the book as " uncomfortable apartment " mention, today houses a museum ).