🌳 Catherine Park (Ekaterininsky Park)

Б. Екатерининская ул. (у Суворовской площади)

The former garden of the Catherine Institute for Noble Maidens, with a big pond and old alleys. Closed for a full renovation since 13 December 2025; works are due to finish by the end of 2026.

The garden was laid out around 1758 at Count V. S. Saltykov's country estate, built to a design by Dmitry Ukhtomsky.
In 1777 the treasury bought the estate for an invalid home for officers, and in 1807 the Catherine Institute for Noble Maidens moved in.
The big pond is what remains of a chain of ponds on the Naprudnaya River, which was put into a pipe in 1914.
In Soviet times the park was called the TsDKA (Central House of the Red Army) park, then TsDSA (Central House of the Soviet Army); its historic name returned in the late 1990s.
In 1936 a tennis stadium with stands for 5,000 spectators was built here, the second in the country after Dynamo.
The park covers 16 ha, the pond 1.9 ha; a 300-year-old willow grows in the park.
In 2020 carp were released into the pond, including orange koi.