Patriarch Ponds

Patriarch Ponds is a pond and public garden in the Presnensky District of Moscow, inside the Garden Ring, between Malaya Bronnaya Street and Bolshoy Patriarshy Lane, two to three kilometers from the Kremlin. The water surface covers about 9,900 square meters with a depth of up to 2.5 meters, while the surrounding park occupies 2.2 hectares, a third of it green space. Since 2003 the ponds and the adjoining area have been listed as a federal cultural heritage site.

History

Until the 17th century the site was a marsh known as Goat Bog, named after the goats raised nearby whose wool supplied the tsar's court. In the 17th century Patriarch Hermogenes ordered a Patriarchal settlement built here, which gave the area its present name. After the patriarchate was abolished under Peter the Great the ponds silted up again, and by the 19th century only one of the original several ponds remained — the one that exists today.

In 1924 the Soviet authorities renamed the area Pioneer Ponds; the historic name was officially restored in 1992, and a year later the neighboring Bolshoy Patriarshy Lane, which had been named after Adam Mickiewicz since 1964, regained its old name as well.

A wooden pavilion on a granite base was built on the bank in 1938, housing a snack bar, a changing room and a skate rental for the winter rink; an earlier boat station had already been demolished in 1913. The current stone building dates from 1985, designed by architects Mikhail Khazanov, Boris Paluy and Dmitry Lukaev; since 2004 it has been protected as a regional historical monument. In 1976 a monument to the fabulist Ivan Krylov by sculptor Daniel Mitlyansky was installed on the bank, its pedestal surrounded by reliefs depicting characters from twelve of his fables.

The park underwent a major renovation in the early 2000s: fish were released into the pond in 2003, and in 2015 the "My Street" program removed the parking lot and buried the overhead wires. In 2020–2021 the pavilion was refurbished to house a restaurant.

Bulgakov and legends

Patriarch Ponds is one of Moscow's most recognizable literary settings: the action of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" opens here. According to one version, the writer drew on a real story — a gang that used hypnosis to commit crimes operated in the area during the 1920s and was caught in May 1934.

An older legend holds that in pagan times the site of the future ponds was used for worship and sacrifices to an ancient cult, though no documentary evidence of this survives. In the post-Soviet years a sculptural ensemble based on Bulgakov's novel was planned for the park, but a lack of funding and protests from local residents kept it from being completed in full; individual figures from the composition are now kept in various places around Moscow.

Today

Only one pond remains today where there used to be several. Every winter an ice rink of about 12,000 square meters is set up here, a tradition dating back to 1900, and a New Year tree is sometimes put up as well. Since 2013 the park has hosted the charity run "Patriki Begut" in aid of a children's fund, along with public Maslenitsa and City Day celebrations.

The square is ringed by a dense cluster of cafes and restaurants — the area is commonly known simply as "Patriki" — offering everything from Georgian and Italian cuisine to sushi bars and patisseries. In the summer of 2025 a small stage for the "Theatrical Boulevard" festival opened here as well.

Getting there

The nearest metro stations are Mayakovskaya, Pushkinskaya and Barrikadnaya, each roughly a kilometer from the ponds. From Mayakovskaya, walk along Bolshaya Sadovaya Street past the Akvarium Garden to the junction with Malaya Bronnaya and turn left; from Pushkinskaya, head along Bolshaya and Malaya Bronnaya streets toward Yermolayevsky Lane.