Fountains in Moscow
Encyclopedia
The Fountains in Moscow once provided drinking water to Muscovites, and now decorate many of the city's squares and parks. Only one fountain built before the 1917 Revolution, the Petrovskiy Fountain in front of the Bolshoi Theater, still remains on its original site. Few fountains were built in Soviet times, but many new fountains were built in the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century during the city's post-Soviet economic boom. Because of the cold climate, the fountains only operate in the warm season, usually from May 1 until October 1.

Moscow Fountains in the Czarist Era

The first fountains in Moscow were built in the early 19th century, after the completion of the Mitischinskovo aqueduct, which brought clean drinking water to the center of the city. The first fountain in Moscow was located on Trubnaya Square, near the Roshdestvenskovo Monastery. Several fountains were built along the Neglinnaya River
Neglinnaya River
The Neglinnaya River , also known as Neglimna, Neglinna, Neglinka , is a 7.5-km long underground river in the central part of Moscow and a tributary of the Moskva River. It flows in the tunnels under Samotechnaya Street, Tsvetnoy Boulevard, Neglinnaya Street and Alexander Garden and Zaryadye...

 up to Kuznetskiy Most Street.

Between 1830 and 1835 five new fountains were constructed in Moscow; the Sheremeteskiy Fountain near the Sukhareva Tower; the Nikolayevskiy Fountain on Lubyanka Square
Lubyanka Square
Lubyanka Square in Moscow is about north east of Red Square. The name is first mentioned in 1480, when Ivan III settled many Novgorodians in the area. They built the church of St Sophia, modelled after St Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, and called the area Lubyanka after the Lubyanitsy district of...

; the Petrovskiy Fountain on Theater Square, in front of the Bolshoi Theater; the Voskresenskiy Fountain near the entrance to the Alexander Garden
Alexander Garden
Alexander Gardens was one of the first urban public parks in Moscow, Russia. The park comprises three separate gardens, which stretch along all the length of the western Kremlin wall for between the building of the Moscow Manege and the Kremlin.-History:...

, and the Varvarskiy on Kulishkakh Fountain, near Varvarskaya and Slavyanskaya Squares. The Sheremetevskiy and Nikolayevskiy Fountains were later demolished. The Varvarskiy on Kulikakh Fountain was moved in 1932 to Leninsky Prospect, in front of the building of the Academy of Sciences. Only a part remains from the Voskresenskiy Fountain at Alexander Garden, hidden by a metal covering. Only the Petrovskiy Fountain remains in its original site separated from the Bolshoi Theater by the Monument to Karl Marx.

In 1851-53, following the construction of a new water main between at the Babyetgorodskiy Dam and the Krasnoholmskiy Bridge, the city engineer Maksimov built new fountains for supplying drinking water on Arbat Square and Tverskaya Square (now Pushkin Square), at the Pashkov mansion near the Kremlin; on Zatsep Square, Serpukhovskaya Square, Kaluzhskaya Square, Pyatnitskaya Street and Polyanka Street. Decorative fountains were placed on Sobachaya Square, the corner of Mokhovaya Street and Znamenka Street and other locations around the city.

The Nikolayevskiy Fountain and Petrovskiy Fountain, both built in 1835, were embellished with bronze statues of the muses of theater, made by the I.P. Vitali. Water-porters carried drinking water from these fountains to local residents. The Petrovskiy Fountain on Theater Square also had a two basins providing drinking water for horses.

Moscow Fountains of the Soviet Era

During the massive reconstruction of Moscow carried out by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

 beginning in the 1930s, all the old fountains, with the exception of the Petrovskiy Fountain in front of the Bolshoi Theater, were demolished. A few new fountains were built to take their place; in 1941 the architect V.A. Vlasov constructed a new fountain on Sovyetskaya Square (now Tverskaya Square). Between 1940 and 1950 other new fountains were built on Arbat Square; Pushkin Square
Pushkin Square
Pushkinskaya Square or Pushkin Square in Moscow, historically known as Strastnaya Square and renamed for Alexander Pushkin in 1937, is located at the junction of the Boulevard Ring and Tverskaya Street, 2 km northwest of the Kremlin...

; Repin Square (now Bolotnaya Square); on Second Peschanaya Street; and in Sokolniki Park
Sokolniki Park
Sokolniki Park, named for the falcon hunt of the Grand Dukes of Muscovy formerly conducted there, is located in the eponymous Sokolniki District of Moscow. Sokolniki Park is not far from the center of the city, near Sokolnicheskaya Gate. The park gained its name from the Sokolnichya Quarter, the...

; and on Kaluzhsaya Square.

The most imposing fountains of the Soviet era were begun in 1954 in the new Park of Soviet Economic Achievements, or VDNKh. They included the Colossus Fountain, the Stone Flower Fountain, and the largest of all, Friendship of the Peoples Fountain, an enormous basin decorated with statues representing the different nationalities and Republics of the Soviet Union. This fountain was the work of architects K.G. Topuradze, G.D. Konstantinovskiy, and sculptors Joseph Chaikov
Joseph Chaikov
Joseph Moisevich Chaikov was a Russian Jewish sculptor, graphic designer and teacher, active both before the revolution and as a Soviet artist....

, E.V.Bazhenova, P,I. Dobrynin and others. The basin of water had an area of 3700 square meters, holding 4000 cubic meters of water. The water was shot upwards from some 800 spouts, and the highest spout jetted upward 24 meters. The fountains were lit by 4525 lamps and projectors.

Later, different color lights were added to older fountains; the Pushkin Square fountain had three colors, while the Tverskaya Square fountain had six colors. In 1975 the Bolotnaya Square fountain became the first musical fountain in Moscow with light synchronized with recorded music. It was the last fountain built in Moscow in the Soviet Era.

Moscow Fountains of the Post-Soviet period

The first fountain built in Moscow after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 was the fountain in the memorial complex on Poklonnaya Hill, built in 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

To mark the 850th anniversary of the city of Moscow, a number of old Moscow fountains were rebuilt restored; notably at Pushkin Square, where the fountain was rebuilt atop the Metro Station; the Petrovskiy Fountain at Theater Square, which was restored, and the Colossus Fountain in the old Park of Soviet Economic Achievements.

In 1996 a series of water jets, some shooting water upwards and others twirling, were installed in the channel parallel to the Moscow River near the Luzhkov Bridge, between Bolotnaya Square and Lavrushinkiy Street.

In the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century, Yuri Luzhkov, Mayor of Moscow from 1992 through 2010, commissioned several well-known Moscow sculptors, including Zurab Tsereteli
Zurab Tsereteli
Zurab Konstantines dze Tsereteli is a Georgian-Russian painter, sculptor and architect who holds the office of President of the Russian Academy of Arts.- Life :...

 and Alexander Bourganov
Alexander Bourganov
Alexander Bourganov is a Russian sculptor, a National Artist of Russia, and a member of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts. His recent works include a monument to Alexander Pushkin located at George Washington University in Washington DC ; a statue of John Quincy Adams, the first U.S...

, to build fountains in the city's squares.

Tsereteli built a complex of twelve fountains in Manezhnaya Square, next to the Alexandrovskiy Garden. The main fountain is called The Geyser. Other fountains are the Four Seasons, symbolized by bronze horses; The Curtain (Ru: Zavesa), and Heroes of Fairy Tales, an array of canals with statues illustrating the fairy tales of Ivan Krylov
Ivan Krylov
Ivan Andreyevich Krylov is Russia's best known fabulist. While many of his earlier fables were loosely based on Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine, later fables were original work, often satirizing the incompetent bureaucracy that was stifling social progress in his time.-Life:Ivan Krylov was born in...

.

Bourganov built the Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...

 Fountain next to the Vakhtangov Theater on the Old Arbat. It represents the heroine of the play which was the signature work of the Vakhtangov Theater in Soviet times. He also built a series of fountains and sculptures in the park of Ukrainisky Boulevard between the Ukraina Hotel and the Kiev Train Station, representing youth and other themes.

Another very large fountain around a modern abstract steel sculpture by Belgian sculptor Olivier Strebelle
Olivier Strebelle
Olivier Strebelle is a Belgian sculptor born in Brussels on 20 January 1927.His monumental sculptures adorn many public places in Brussels as well as in Germany, Israel, Italy, Russia, singapore, Switzerland, and the United States....

 was constructed on Europe Square, between the Kiev Train Station and the Moscow River.

In 2007, the ruined palace of Catherine the Great in Tsaritsino Park was "completed" as it might have been intended to look, with many imaginative additions, and a large musical fountain, with music coordinated with the rise of fall of the fountain, was built in the lake in the center of the park near the palace.
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