Akvarium Garden, Patriarch's Ponds and lunch by the zoo

⏱ 50 min🚶 1.5 km🍽 1📍 3 stops

🐢 A little — under 3 km

A small quiet garden by the Mossovet Theatre, a flat loop around Patriarch's Ponds where a baby falls asleep, and lunch at a restaurant with a big play area.

👶 With kids🌳 Parks and nature⏱ An hour or so

👶 under 3, 3–6 years · ✓ stroller-friendly

Mayakovskaya, Chekhovskaya and Tsvetnoy Bulvar have no lifts — come by taxi or bus “B”. Don't cross Tverskaya between the gardens by the underpass: ride bus “B” or take a taxi.

🗺 Open in Yandex Maps

1
🌳 Aquarium Garden by the Mossovet Theatre
Б. Садовая ул., 16
A cosy historic garden of the late 19th century where summer plays and concerts were once staged.
A small enclosed garden by the Mossovet Theatre: a fountain, flat paths and a playground by Staropimenovsky Lane that is rarely crowded.
📖 More about the placeCollapse
© Табуретка · CC BY-SA 3.0
- In 1892 the First Moscow Electrical Exhibition, opened by Savva Mamontov, was held on the site; about 100,000 people visited it.
- The garden, opened by the impresario Mikhail Lentovsky on 1 July 1893, was first called “Chicago”, after the World's Fair then under way.
- The garden got the name “Aquarium” in 1898 under the Frenchman Charles Aumont, apparently modelled on the garden of the same name in St Petersburg.
- Zimin's private opera began here, and Vera Komissarzhevskaya performed here in 1903.
- In 1903 an athletics championship took place in the garden, where in the final, a nearly 25-minute bout, Ivan Poddubny beat Petrov.
- In 1910–1912 the winter theatre building housed a skating rink, and at one time an aquarium stood in one of the pavilions.
🚶 on foot
2
🌳 Patriarch's Ponds (Patriarshiye Prudy)
A square pond surrounded by old lime trees and benches, a calm park amid quiet lanes and the setting of The Master and Margarita.
Nap time: a loop around the pond is 900 metres of flat asphalt, and a baby falls asleep in a couple of laps. Once awake, the playground by Maly Patriarshy Lane has nest swings and a sandbox; feed the ducks oatmeal, not bread.
📖 More about the placeCollapse
© Dimа · CC BY-SA 3.0
© Shuvaev · CC BY-SA 4.0
© Gennady Grachev from Moscow, Russia · CC BY 2.0
- In 1683 Patriarch Joachim ordered the local Goat Marsh drained and three fish ponds dug.
- After the fire of 1812 two ponds were filled in and one remained; Trekhprudny Lane recalls the three.
- From 1932 to 1992 the pond was officially called Pionersky ("Pioneer").
- The 1976 Krylov monument (sculptors Andrei Drevin and Daniel Mitlyansky) is surrounded by scenes from 12 fables.
- The stone pavilion by the water was built in 1986 on the site of a wooden one from 1938.
- The Master and Margarita begins here; the sign banning talking to strangers refers to the novel's first chapter.
- A skating rink has been flooded on the pond since 1900, with an area of about 12,000 m².
🚶 on foot
3
🍽 Korchma restaurant by the zoo · 🧸 play area
Садовая-Кудринская ул., 3А
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200 m from Kudrinskaya Square: a big play area, a children's menu, and on Sundays around 16:00 a children's cooking class. With a stroller, use the entrance with a lift around the corner
🍴 A Belarusian tavern at the edge of the zoo with a big kids' play room, a kids' menu and free cooking workshops for children on Sundays. Try: borscht with pampushki, smetannik cake, homemade kvass; for kids, dishes from the kids' menu.