Neglinnaya River

The Neglinnaya River (Неглинная in Russian), also known as Neglimna, Neglinna, Neglinka (Неглимна, Неглинна, Неглинка), is a 7.5-km long underground river in the central part of Moscow and a tributary of the Moscow River. The Alexander Garden was laid out above the river in 1819-21.

The Neglinnaya River in its natural state used to flow openly from the northern parts of Moscow to the south across the very center of the city. It played a significant role in the life of the citizens. In the early 16th century, the waters of the Neglinnaya used to fill the moat along the Kremlin Wall. The Muscovites constructed a number of dams, creating a chain of six interconnected ponds, which would be used for breeding fish and extinguishing fires. They built mills, smithies, banyas and workshops. There were four bridges across the Neglinnaya River: Voskresensky Bridge (its fragments unearthed during a 1994 excavation), three-span Kuznetsky Bridge, Troitsky Bridge and Petrovsky Bridge (the remains of the latter discovered during the reconstruction of the Maly Theatre).

In the mid-18th century, the Neglinnaya River became polluted due to the population and industry growth. They decided to drain a few of the ponds because of the awful smell.

In 1817�"1819, a 3-kilometer section of the river was encapsulated in a pipe. However, the sewers got clogged on a regular basis, because they couldn't accommodate the volume of water, especially during high waters and freshets, causing the streets of Moscow to flood. In 1966, the Soviets built a second arm for the Neglinnaya River (length - 1 km, width - 4 m), which drained the waters into the Moskva River. In the 1970s, they constructed another riverbed more than 900 meters long.

In 1996, when the Manezhnaya Square was reconstructed, they created an artificial watercourse, imitating a section of the Neglinnaya River. The area is dotted with diminutive statues on subjects taken from the Russian fables. The architect of this project is Zurab Tsereteli.