Patriarch Ponds

The Ponds area is accessible via the Moscow Metro Mayakovskaya (eastern exit) and Pushkinskaya stations.

People considered the swamp as an anomalous zone; apparently this caused a proverb "Фома поспешил, да людей насмешил – увяз на Патриарших" ("Thomas has hastened, but made people laugh - he got stuck in Patriarshy").

The pond acquired its present shape and was cleaned up in 1830–31, a part of a plan to rebuild Moscow after the Fire of 1812.

The buildings around the pond were wooden; stone construction proceeded slowly through the second half of the nineteenth century.

The two most important Soviet-era buildings constructed were The House of Lions, a luxurious residence for Red Army Marshals (1945, designed by Zholtovsky workshop) and the 1935 Aviazhilstroy Apartments, a yellow postconstructivist high-rise by Vladimir Vladimirov (the building, conceived by Panteleimon Golosov, was completed in part.

In 2000–2002, the controversial Patriarch Apartments were built (design by Sergei Tkachenko); this 13-story building, crowned with a 1/50 scale model of Tatlin's Tower is also known as Alla Pugacheva's home.