My personal photo blog. Anniversary from a lantern or back to the future The place where everyone takes pictures in the Hermitage Park

In Anniversary from a lantern or back to the future.

A little investigation.

A few days ago a topic appeared in the news: “100th anniversary of the Moscow lantern.”
The event itself took place on July 18. (see videos: Vesti-Moscow, Vesti-Russia)
And since, in fact, I am not uninterested in everything that happens in the Hermitage garden, and besides, this object of external lighting itself has long raised certain questions, making some clarifications becomes an urgent necessity.

We will talk here about this very anniversary lantern. And, perhaps, the most interesting thing in all this is the entertaining story of this “celebrator of the day.”

Usually journalists write so superficially that this lantern turns out to be “the most remarkable and almost the only one, the very first”, etc. But there are even texts where every sentence, in fact, does not correspond to reality. Here is, for example, a quote:
“This was the first lantern cast at the Ekaterininsky plant. It has been in the garden for more than 130 years, but it was not in use for some time, and since 2004 it has been lighting up the garden again, just like in the last century.”

It's funny, isn't it? And this despite the fact that the garden itself is just about to celebrate its 120th anniversary.

Well, let's try to figure it out.

Like a lantern, I fell into “history”.
So, what is this lantern that appeared so suddenly and out of nowhere? What is known for sure about the “celebrator of the day”?

Tatiana Vl. | fotki.yandex.ru

Firstly, this lantern appeared in the Hermitage garden quite recently, less than 10 years ago, in 2004. I will especially emphasize this: since before this “it wasn’t there,” as they say.
From the information published at that time, it follows that this lantern was discovered in the area where the old Hermitage garden was previously located, in a trench, during work on relaying pipes. (see note in "MK" dated 2004.07.25) Let us note that even then it was known that the lantern was stamped with the date "1913". Consequently, by the time this lantern appeared, the old Hermitage garden had already been closed for 20 years, and its territory at that time had long been built up with residential buildings.
Thus, it becomes obvious that our anniversary lantern has no relation either to the current Hermitage Garden, or to the previously existing garden in the Bozhedomka area. Which, in fact, is not surprising, since this lantern is an ordinary representative of Moscow city street lighting of that time. This is why it is valuable for history, since quite a few such street lamps have survived from pre-revolutionary times (It is well known that in Moscow in 1913 there were just over 4,000 city electric street lamps).
This lantern was made at the Ekaterininsky plant, in a large industrial center, the city of Sosnovitsy, (present-day Poland). A kind of bonus in the history of this particular lantern is that it was found in an area where an old garden was previously located. And the most logical thing would be to install this lantern in the place where it originally stood, i.e. to one of the streets where he was found.

The fact is that in the same year 2004, the 110th anniversary of the opening of the famous Hermitage garden by Y.V. was celebrated. Shchukin.
And here something very strange begins...
This, hitherto unknown to anyone, street lamp suddenly appears on the central flowerbed in the Hermitage Garden, where the celebration of the 110th anniversary of the garden was then taking place, in order to play the “first role” there. In general, ceremonies, ovations, and all that jazz. At the same time, it was officially announced that this is... a little, a lot:
"The first Moscow electric lantern, manufactured at the Ekaterininsky plant in 1880..."- the official sign also reported this. Well, then there’s more. Here a host of journalists have already made their mark, adding their variations to the story of how this flashlight “illuminated the alleys of the old garden in 1880.” All this, as is already easy to see, was the apotheosis in the difficult biography of the hero of the day. As a result, this lantern, which once modestly illuminated one of the Moscow streets, began to be mentioned as perhaps the only valuable object in the historical theater garden. In general, probably even H.G. Wells with his “Time Machine” would have been surprised by such plot twists!
During these less than ten years, this lantern and the sign with it caused only ironic smiles or slight cognitive dissonance among visitors to the garden who were at all inclined to logical thinking.

Time puts everything in its place
Well, time does not stand still. And it’s nice when such misunderstandings and absurdities are corrected. And it’s very good that now, thanks to the museum’s recent campaign

In July 1894, Moscow entrepreneur and philanthropist Yakov Shchukin acquired a site of a former mechanical plant, a vacant lot and carriage shops in Karetny Ryad, establishing the Hermitage Garden on this site. Previously, a pleasure garden with this name was marked on maps of the city in the Bozhedomka area. But its owner, entrepreneur M. Lentovsky, went bankrupt and the park - although it was a popular vacation spot for Muscovites - had to be closed. The fate of the garden with the borrowed name turned out to be happier. The official opening of the new Hermitage took place on June 18, 1895.

Yakov Shchukin in the Hermitage Garden. 1910: https://pastvu.com/p/35648

Yakov Shchukin tried to surprise Muscovites with unusual spectacles and he succeeded. On May 26, 1896, the first film show in the city took place in the garden, showing a ten-minute film by the Lumière brothers, “The Arrival of a Train.” New entertainment appeared in Russia five months after the very first film screening in Paris.

Through the efforts of Shchukin, an unprepossessing corner of Moscow was transformed into a blooming garden with shady alleys, flower beds, sculptures, gazebos and electric lighting. The proletarian revolution, although it brought dissonance into the measured life of the townspeople, did not get rid of the habit of walking in the garden. Even during the Great Patriotic War, the Hermitage was closed for only a short time.

During the Soviet period, new lanterns and small architectural forms were installed on the alleys, some of them can still be seen, but the sculptures remain only in old photographs. However, some things have been preserved even from Shchukin times.

Electric lantern for a lamp with an incandescent lamp (manufactured in 1913 at the Ekaterininsky plant in the Polish city of Sosnowitz). This lantern was restored in 2004.

State Autonomous Institution of Moscow MGS "Hermitage": Moscow, Karetny Ryad str., no. 3

Garden opening hours: 24 hours a day

The garden has always been famous for its theaters, on the stages of which Fyodor Chaliapin, Leonid Sobinov, Antonina Nezhdanova, Maria Ermolova, Vera Komissarzhevskaya, ballerina Anna Pavlova, European stars Sarah Bernhardt, Ernesto Rossi appeared. And now there are three theaters in the garden: “Hermitage”, “New Opera” and “Sphere”.

Scenes of the cult TV movie “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed” were filmed in the garden. 1978: https://pastvu.com/p/467080 It’s a pity that Vladimir Vysotsky, for whom these places were native, was not included in the frame along with Vladimir Konkin. The future poet and artist spent his youth here. Where are my seventeen years? - On Bolshoi Karetny...

In the first years of Soviet power, the building of the Hermitage Theater housed the MGSPS (Moscow City Council of Trade Unions) theater, which was later renamed the Mossovet Theater. In 1959, the Moscow Theater of Miniatures, founded by the playwright and satirist Viktor Polyakov, moved into the building, and in 1987, artistic director Mikhail Levitin found a new name that was more consistent with its essence - “Hermitage”.

The theater’s credo is amusingly formulated on the official website http://ermitazh.theatre.ru/history/: “Today the garden - with its restaurants, attractions and other public events - is the center of the “culture and recreation” industry.” Unscrupulous people also include theaters among it. We don't like this approach; art, put on stream, dulls and corrupts. That is why the theater-house, formed by Levitin, does not forget the original meaning of the word “ermitage”: a hermit’s corner, a place of solitude. The inhabitants of our house (corner) are still closer to hermits than to mass entertainers. We do not “serve” idle spies, but we collect our viewers in order to retire with them in another reality.”

Alas, it is impossible to get into the Hermitage Theater in the Hermitage Garden due to the protracted reconstruction of the historical building. But theatrical life continues and performances are staged on other Moscow stages, in the 2016 season this is Novy Arbat, 11.

"King Lear" directed by Mikhail Levitin. Starring Mikhail Filippov. Filmed in 2014 on the stage of the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop.

In 1909, according to the design of the architect A. Novikov, the building of the summer theater was built, which later received the name “Mirror”. Opera performances of the Russian Private Opera by Savva Mamontov were staged here, where Sergei Rachmaninov made his debut as a conductor.

The first game of intellectuals of the club “What? Where? When?". Well, then there was a period when nightclubs appeared in the Hermitage garden (there was a Penthouse in the Mirror), but over time opera parts were heard here again. On the site of the pre-revolutionary Mirror, a building was built for Yevgeny Kolobov’s New Opera, a theater founded in 1991. Among his productions, awarded with theater awards, are “Eugene Onegin”, “Rigoletto”, “Gianni Schicchi”, “Cat House”. In total, the New Opera repertoire includes more than seventy works of opera and concert genres.

How the housewarming party was prepared is described by the New Opera website http://www.novayaopera.ru/?page=history: “In 1991, by order of the Moscow Government, the building of the Mirror Theater came under the jurisdiction of the NEW OPERA, and from that time the second life of the famous theater in the Hermitage garden. The general contractor of the construction, the Austrian company Lennex, and Moscow builders quickly erected a modern opera house on the site of a dilapidated building. The chief architect of the project, V. Kotelnikov, found an opportunity to preserve the style of the original building and use individual elements of the Mirror Theater decoration in the design of the facade of the new building. The chandeliers and curtain are made according to the sketches of the People's Artist of Russia E. Kochergin. The project organizers did not limit themselves to the reconstruction of the architectural monument. The new theater building is a hall with 660 seats, equipped with modern lighting equipment and stage mechanics, which make it possible to stage performances with complex stage effects. It also has a cozy foyer and hall, rooms for artists, a modern recording studio, rehearsal rooms, a library, and administrative services.” The opening took place in 1997.

Larisa Dolina, Ekaterina Guseva, Lika Rulla and other artists at the “Musical Heart of the Theatre” award ceremony at the Novaya Opera

Irina Trubetskaya

Continuing the conversation about the Main Exhibition, let's look around and take a closer look at... the lanterns. After all, they differ here from their other city counterparts, which catches your eye already on the approach to the All-Russian Exhibition Center-VDNKh. Let’s immediately make a reservation that we will consider lantern columns more, since their tops - brackets and lamps - were changed often, but many columns still stand to this day.

Most of the lantern supports on the territory of VDNKh are from the 1950s, since not only the pavilions, but also small architectural forms, which include lanterns, were reconstructed for the grand post-war opening in 1954. And yet columns from the period 1939-1941 can be found.

For example, a dozen rather tall lanterns for four lamps stand on the approaches to VDNKh on Sergei Eisenstein Street, and once upon a time the same ones stood on the alley leading to the “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”. Another type of lantern poles of this period is the “cast iron column type 343”, developed by Mosgorsvet in the 1930s to illuminate the streets of Moscow. In the workshops of the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition, they designed a special series of brackets and lamps for it, the latter were supposed to be oblong in shape, made of cut glass. But, as the inscription on the drawing says: “due to the impossibility of obtaining faceted cylindrical glass, a transition to spherical balls has been agreed upon.” The brackets and light fixtures were replaced in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as more recently, but the graceful columns of the 1930s stood safe until recently. Unfortunately, this year they were declared unsafe and began to be dismantled.

The dismantling appears to be a mistake, given that this type of lantern columns, once common in the city, remains almost nowhere today. Only a few semi-abandoned columns of the same type are known. At VDNKh there will be about 20 of them, lined up on the alley of the Small Northern Ring. The need for an expert discussion of the future of the All-Russian Exhibition Center and the development of a special approach to this unusual territory, which contains various layers of the twentieth century, was mentioned. Preservation of small architectural forms could be part of such a holistic approach. It would be instructive to go further and restore the 1930s brackets and light fixtures to give visitors a feel for the city at that time.

What about other old lanterns in Moscow? According to experts, there are about four hundred thousand lanterns in the city, of which about two thousand are old. The boundary separating the old from the new is the 1950s, when the fight against “excesses” in architecture began.

A search in the register of cultural heritage shows that not a single free-standing lantern has yet been recognized as a monument subject to state protection. Although several are listed as “declared” and “identified” objects, that is, at different stages of historical and cultural examination that determines the value of potential monuments. The oldest from this list are two lanterns of the Usachev-Naydenov estate on Zemlyanoy Val. These are former oil lamps from the first half of the 19th century, which are now adapted for electric ones and are in working condition. But their brothers from the era - the former oil lanterns at the New Catherine Hospital were not lucky - they disappeared after the recent start of reconstruction of the building; there was no time to report them to the guards.

A real preserve of old lanterns is the Hermitage Garden, where you can see three different types of them. The oldest are about fifty columns, on the plinths of which the initials of the park’s founder, Yakov Shchukin, “YASCH” are cast. He purchased generators for lighting the theater and illumination in the garden in 1895, at which time these columns were installed. Their lower part now looks somewhat massive and contrasts with the thin upper part, but the fact is that initially they carried taller columns, unlike those of today. To understand what they once looked like, you need to go to the Kremlin and look at the lanterns on Ivanovskaya Square, where this type has been preserved. Another type of historical lanterns in the Hermitage garden has reached us in its entirety - this is the only lantern from 1912-13. The design of this elegant lantern was developed by the Lighting Department of the Moscow City Duma, and it was cast in the Polish city of Sosnowitz (the manufacturer's mark has been preserved). Probably, the preservation of this rarity was facilitated by the fact that it is an identified monument and is included in the register of cultural heritage sites. The third type is low park floor lamps, designed in the 1950s specifically for this garden by the Mosgazproekt Institute.

As it became known, the Department of Fuel and Energy of Moscow, with the participation of the Moscow Lights Museum, is currently developing technical specifications for the restoration of all the listed lanterns of the Hermitage Garden. The implementation of the project may take a year, since the process is labor-intensive - it is necessary to manually clean the cast iron parts from numerous layers of paint and rust.

An example of restoration that has already been carried out is work in Luzhniki on the alley leading to the embankment. About fifty lanterns created in 1947, for the 800th anniversary of Moscow, according to the design of the architect M. Minkus, were recently restored here. There are several hundred of these in the city, but in recent years they have begun to disappear in the process of “improvement.” The latest case is Pushkinsky Square, where landscaping work is now being hastily carried out, and the original lanterns from 1947 have been removed. Will they, and not pale copies, be returned to their place?

The difficulty of preserving old lanterns lies in the fact that they all belong to different departments and are entirely dependent on the goodwill and orders of the heads of organizations. For example, the mentioned lights in Luzhniki are on the balance sheet of the city Department of Energy. And the lanterns at the All-Russian Exhibition Center are on the balance sheet of JSC All-Russian Exhibition Center. Will the Exhibition administration want to undertake the restoration of lantern columns from the 1930s? Wanting to take it on means both wanting to find funds and wanting to attract specialists. But it's worth a try. Moreover, experts and the public have already made a corresponding request to the administration to preserve these columns in situ for the city’s history - it’s so nice to wander along the alley and look at all sorts of “little things”!

The Hermitage Garden (see photo below) is a monument of landscape gardening art. It is located in the very center of Moscow. Residents of the capital highly value this island of green nature, located among noisy courtyards and polluted streets. Here young mothers walk with strollers, lovers meet and married couples take a promenade.

Have you chosen Hermitage Park as your holiday destination? How to get there? It is worth keeping in mind that it is located near Karetny Ryad Street and the Chekhovskaya and Pushkinskaya metro stations.

History of appearance

Hermitage Park was the first pleasure garden in Moscow. It opened in 1830. In those ancient times, the garden was located not in its current location, but on Bozhedomka. Hermitage Park offered coffee shops and gazebos, pavilions and a theater to its visitors. It reached the peak of its popularity in those years when it was owned by the famous entrepreneur M.V. Lentovsky.

In the past he was an actor at the Maly Theater. Boat rides on the pond, water fireworks, processions of military bands and other entertainment events were held in the garden. Not only all Moscow residents came to the Hermitage Park to relax, but also foreigners visiting the capital.

After Lentovsky went bankrupt, this place gradually fell into disrepair. Somewhat later, the garden area was built up with houses.

The Hermitage Park received its rebirth in 1894, when the Moscow merchant Y.V. Shchukin bought the estate located in Karetny Ryad. In just a year, the neglected area turned into a blooming garden. Flowerbeds were laid out in the vacant lot, paths were laid and shrubs and trees were planted. A theater building also appeared in the garden.

Cultural events

On May 26, 1896, a significant event took place in Hermitage Park. On this day, a public cinema session took place here. Two years later, a theater was opened in the park, the directors of which were V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko and K.S. Stanislavsky. On October 26, 1898, the premiere of the play they staged called “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” took place. On the same stage, the Moscow Public Art Theater performed such plays as “Uncle Vanya” and “The Seagull” by A.P. Chekhov.

Many celebrities have performed at the Hermitage Park Theater. Among them F.I. Shalyapin and S.V. Rachmaninov, Anna Pavlova and Ernesto Rossi and others.

“Hermitage” is the garden in which Shchukin built a summer structure, the Mirror Theater. In the future, it was planned to erect a new building. It was supposed to be a winter theater designed for a thousand spectators. However, the implementation of the plans was prevented by the First World War.

After the revolution of 1917, the Hermitage Park was nationalized. Somewhat later, during the NEP period, it was rented out privately.

In 1924, the building located in the Hermitage Park was given to the theater of the Moscow City Council of Trade Unions. Later it was renamed the Mossovet Theater.

War period

During the years of Soviet power, Hermitage Park was also one of the most popular places where residents of the capital could relax. In the fall of 1941 it was closed. The park resumed operations in April of the following year. In 1943, performances were staged here. For this purpose, the artists returned from evacuation to Moscow. The theater premises were not heated. However, this did not stop either the audience or the artists.

Post-war period

In the summer of 1945, the Hermitage Garden was reconstructed. In 1948, a summer concert hall was built on the territory of the park. Performances by K.I. took place on its stage. Shulzhenko, A.I. Raikina, L.I. Ruslanova. Here you could listen to the orchestra of L.O. Utesova.

In the fifties and sixties of the last century, Muscovites came to the Hermitage Garden to play chess, read, just take a walk and listen to performances by their favorite artists. A summer cinema was opened in the park in 1953. It immediately became a popular place among Muscovites and guests of the capital. A large number of people came to see the paintings displayed in the open air.

The popularity of the Hermitage Park Garden is demonstrated by statistics. So, in 1957, 1.5 million people visited this green corner in the capital. R. Kartsev and V.S. performed on the park stage. Vysotsky, foreign theater and musical groups. The mirror theater of the Hermitage garden was chosen as the place where the shooting of the first game “What? Where? When?". In 1980, the cinema was transferred to the Miniature Theater, whose director was A.I. Raikin.

Modern garden life

In the 1980s - 1990s, the Hermitage Park experienced a time of desolation. Fortunately, it has already passed. In 1991, the New Opera Theater opened for park guests. The Hermitage and Sphere theaters operate here. K was reconstructed. Restoration work affected many historical buildings.

The Hermitage Garden is currently a wonderful place to relax. During the day, young mothers with their babies love to walk here. Schoolchildren sometimes come running from neighboring yards. On warm summer days, non-professional dancers studying the art of classical dance perform directly on the garden paths or on the open stage.

As evening falls, Hermitage Park becomes the venue for various events. In the summer there are presentations and exhibitions, concerts of stars from abroad, as well as the International Jazz Festival. In winter, the park has a large ice skating rink.

There is a nightclub and a Tea Culture Club on the territory of the garden, as well as several restaurants.

New Opera Theater

In the 21st century, Hermitage Park experienced a great shock. There was a fire on its territory. As a result, part of the historical building, which was rented out to the Diaghilev club, was destroyed by fire. Otherwise, prosperous life continues in the garden; it remains, as before, one of the most favorite places of Muscovites. You can happily spend your entire free day here. First, just take a walk, admire the flower exhibition or dance with non-professional dancers on the summer outdoor area, and a little later have lunch in a restaurant and go watch a performance.

Today there are three theaters operating in the Hermitage Garden. One of them, the New Opera, is open in a rebuilt building. Previously, the Mirror Theater was located here. In 1997, a new building was built for the New Opera.

The theater gained popularity immediately after its opening. Thousands of spectators sought to get into it to listen to classical works in innovative productions. The most famous of them are “Eugene Onegin”, “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, “La Traviata” and others. The productions, carried out by the first artistic director of the theater Evgeniy Kolobov, are still sold out.

The theater is known and loved far beyond the Russian capital. In recent years he has been awarded several very prestigious prizes. Their list includes the “Star of the Week” diploma, established by the German newspaper “Abendzeitung”, the Russian opera award “Casta Diva” and others. In addition, the theater became a member of the European opera community “Opera Europa”.

"Hermitage Museum"

This is another garden theater. It has been founded for decades. The Hermitage is valuable for theatergoers because plays created by writers of the 1920s are staged on its stage.

Among them are Nikolai Oleinikov and Yuri Olesha, Isaac Babel and Alexander Vvedensky.
Recently, performances by Latin American authors have been shown on the stage of this theater.

"Sphere"

This small, but at the same time unusual and very interesting theater in Hermitage Park is intended for mass audiences. It was created in 1981. Its openness is attractive to the public, because spectators in a small room, in the middle of which there is a stage, often become participants in ongoing performances.

Tea club

Moscow's Hermitage Park offers its visitors an unusual pastime. In the garden there is a unique club, which displays a whole collection of elite Chinese teas, as well as exquisite utensils for tea ceremonies.

You can also get acquainted with specialized literature in this club. Visitors to the establishment take off their shoes and outerwear, sitting directly on soft carpets in small, cozy rooms. Only after this does the tea ceremony begin, which takes place under the guidance of specialists who provide new knowledge about the usual drink.

Walking in the garden

A green corner in the very center of Moscow - Hermitage Park - welcomes its visitors with a cozy and well-groomed area. In summer there are fountains here. Poplars and oaks, maples and lindens grow throughout the park. Between the trees there are paths with benches installed along them. The planted bushes of roses, lilacs and honeysuckle are pleasing to the eye.

In 2000, two sculptures appeared on the alleys of the park. One of them was donated by the Paris City Hall. This is a bust of Victor Hugo. Its author is L. Marquest. The second sculpture is a gift from the Italian government. This is a figure of Dante Alighieri. Author - R. Piras. In 2004, after restoration, the first electric one, which was manufactured in 1880 at the Ekaterininsky plant, was re-lit in the garden.

Hermitage Garden - a small and quiet green corner on Karetny Ryad Street, which is a monument of landscape gardening art.

The Hermitage occupies a special place among Moscow gardens: the fact is that it grew out of a kind of garden and theater quarter, developed at the end of the 19th century. During its existence, the garden was reconstructed more than once and has survived to this day in the form of a landscaped green park with beautiful lanterns and fountains - and, of course, theaters on its territory.

History of the Hermitage Garden

The Hermitage Garden (first the New Hermitage) was officially opened in 1895 on the initiative of a famous theater entrepreneur and philanthropist Yakov Shchukin. Initially, it was conceived as a summer pleasure garden with a theatrical function, and Shchukin thoroughly took up its arrangement: the top layer of soil up to one meter deep throughout the entire garden was dug up and replaced with fresh black soil, and specially selected trees and shrubs from outskirts of Moscow. The garden layout was carried out according to the architect's design Alexey Belevich, he also developed the designs for the first summer pavilions: stages and a buffet.

In a sense, the Shchukin Garden became one of the cradles of Moscow’s theatrical life: in 1896, the first public cinema screening took place here Lumiere brothers, in 1898 - the Moscow Public Art Theater (future Moscow Art Theater) opened with the premiere of the play “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich”; performed on the garden stage Fyodor Chaliapin, Antonina Nezhdanova, Mikhail Vavich, ballerina Anna Pavlova and other famous theater and ballet artists and singers of the past. Premieres of plays took place at the Hermitage Theater Anton Chekhov"The Seagull" and "Uncle Vanya".

Shchukin was actively involved in attracting talented artists and developing the garden. In 1907, according to the design of the architect Bogdan Nilus, a number of stone buildings were erected in the garden, later the “Mirror Theater” appeared, electric lighting was installed and various technical innovations were introduced, “seen” by the owner in Europe. Under the leadership of Shchukin, the garden operated until 1917, when it was nationalized.

During the Soviet years, major buildings were reconstructed and rebuilt, new lanterns, stands and fountains appeared in the garden, and gradually it turned from a pleasure garden into a “regular” park in the city center.

Today, on the territory of the garden there are theater "Hermitage" Moscow Drama Theater "Sphere" and theater "New Opera".

Interesting objects and attractions

In addition to theaters, the Hermitage Garden contains a number of smaller objects and attractions that are worthy of the attention of visitors.

Cast iron pavilions "Garden Cottage" - two amazingly elegant garden structures made of cast iron, decorated with lacy cast-iron trellises. They make an unusual impression and practically force visitors to the garden to take photographs inside and outside.

- art object developed in Artemy Lebedev studio and installed in the Hermitage garden in 2013. A small sign that harmoniously fits into the landscape of the garden has become its unusual attraction, but, unfortunately, not everyone wants to be photographed next to it, contrary to its name.

Shchukin stage - a unique structure erected in 1910. Conceived by Shchukin as an innovative winter theater with various technical innovations for 4 thousand seats. Unfortunately, everything stopped at the brick box stage: due to the outbreak of the First World War, the gradual ruin of the owner and the subsequent Revolution, the project could not be implemented.

Busts Dante Alighieri and Victor Hugo appeared on the garden alleys in 2000. The bust of Dante Alighieri (sculptor Rinaldo Piras) was donated to Moscow by the Italian government, the bust of Victor Hugo (sculptor Laurent Marquest) was a gift from the Paris mayor's office. Also near the garden stage there are busts of Russian composers. Pyotr Tchaikovsky And Mikhail Glinka.

Also in the garden you can find a dovecote and a squirrel colony.

Today the Hermitage Garden is a modern and well-maintained park, loved by ordinary Muscovites and theatergoers. The alleys of the garden regularly host exhibitions, city festivals and fairs, and the stage becomes a venue for various concerts, performances and shows. For visitors with children there is an excellent large playground.

On weekends and festivals, the garden is bustling with life, but on weekdays it is usually sparsely populated and ideal for a quiet rest in the shade of the trees.

Hermitage Garden located on Karetny Ryad street in the Tverskoy district of Moscow. You can get to it on foot from metro stations "Pushkinskaya" Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya line, "Tverskaya" Zamoskvoretskaya, as well as "Chekhovskaya" And "Tsvetnoy Boulevard" Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya line.