Neglinnaya. Neglinka: a journey through time, outside and underground

I wanted to visit this river for a very long time. Still - almost all his life he lived next to her, but he never saw her alive. But the fact is that for almost 200 years now the Neglinka River has been flowing underground, and only the names of the streets along which it passes remind of its existence: Samotechnaya, Trubnaya, Neglinnaya, Kuznetsky Most ..
But we know that the river exists! Thanks to the community mosblog I finally got to see her with my own eyes.

1. The Neglinka River begins in the area of ​​Maryina Roshcha, flows to Suvorovskaya Square, and further under Samotechny Square, Tsvetnoy Boulevard, Neglinnaya Street, Theater Passage, and Revolution Square. Further, it is very interesting: one sleeve flows under the Alexander Garden (it served as a "moat" that defended the Moscow Kremlin), and the second - under Red Square.

2. The Neglinka River flowed freely until the beginning of the 19th century, after which it was decided to drive it underground - it became too smelly then because conscious citizens dumped their waste there en masse. And in 1817-19, a collector was built, and since then it has been hidden from human eyes.

3. You can get into Neglinka through an ordinary sewer hatch.

4. We started in the Dostoevskaya metro area. The historicity of the building immediately catches the eye. Now no one would build such a collector lined with bricks. I wonder if it is an architectural monument?

5. You have to walk slowly because you are walking straight on the water. It's good that there are shoe covers.

6. We begin to look at familiar hatches from an unusual side :)

7. Some piles. As with the metro, the collector was broken through a couple of times by builders who did not calculate the load when driving piles. However, it is not very clear what builders could build in the park.

9. A lot of interesting things in general in the collector. Here is an example of a heating

10. Closer to the Garden Ring, another river flows into the Neglinka on the left - Naprudnaya. This river begins in the area of ​​the Riga Station, flows under the Catherine Park, where it forms a pond.

11. However, there are quite a lot of collectors with all sorts of streams flowing into the river

12.

13. Closer to Samotechnaya Square there is a place where the floor of the collector is finished with marble!

14. Different people come here. Pigs also come across

15.

16. There is some white coating on the ceiling of the collector.

17. And the bricks are so old authentic .. Oh what, is this? Is it a flower?

18. And now, on Samotechnaya Square, the route along the old collector is interrupted and the river flows into the new one.

19. The new collector is located a couple of meters below the level of the old one, in order to go down there, you need to use elements of climbing equipment.

20.

21. A new collector was built in 1962. It was needed due to the fact that during the rains the old stably overflowed during the rains and floods steadily occurred on Tsvetnoy Boulevard and Neglinnaya.

22. This collector is wider and much more spacious than the old one. Here you can walk along the "quays"

23. But it's worth going more carefully. You can get under the stream of some stream or drain

24. We are already walking under the left side of Tsvetnoy Boulevard (the one that is not next to the metro and the circus). In some places there are stairs to hatches.

25. For some reason, some crap is wound on some of them

26. Tsvetnoy Boulevard stormwater all lead here. And we see sunlight through them!

27. Some hatches are periodically found along the riverbed. Is there something under Neglinka? No, these are hatches from the surface that fell here.

28. Brooks again

29. Traces of previous visitors

30. On the way to Trubnaya Square, the river makes a turn. Well, like the boulevard, actually. You know this twist.

31.

32. The passage to the old sewer will open even further. It hasn't flowed much for a long time.

33. But on it you can go to the "well". This well is located directly under Trubnaya Square and was dug during the construction of the Trubnaya metro station. So that all ground water flows there. But something did not work out for them and the well was filled with water before they completed it.

34. Now a bunch of all sorts of pieces of iron are floating here .. Although what I say, pieces of iron cannot swim.

35. And we are moving on. Getting closer and closer to the center. More and more art is found

36. Eternal philosophical question.

37. Comes across with enviable regularity.

38. Apparently someone really wanted to ask those climbing into the Neglinka: why are you here?

39. According to the story of our guide - Enigma - a digger who climbed into some cool place, slept shamefully there, after which the passage to this place was closed. Now many in the Digger party hate him

40. However, wall-mounted disassembly of diggers is not uncommon here.

41. There are small stalactites

42. Another sign. Reminds Syany, where there is more than enough such goodness.

43. And now the new collector ends, the historical collector begins again

44. Much wider and prettier this time! Nevertheless, the Neglinka here is already much more full-flowing than in the Dostoevskaya area.

45. This tunnel was built already at the beginning of the 20th century.

46. ​​Still, the very center is Teatralny Proezd! There should not be a remake either on the ground or under the ground!

47. Both the side paths and the riverbed are all brick!

48. And at the top - some kind of white coating

49. And now - the final point of our route - somewhere under Revolution Square. Until recently, it was possible to go further: under the Alexander Garden, Red Square, and go all the way to the mouth of the Moscow River!

50. It is here that the Neglinka is divided into two branches. But just recently (in April), the FSO put gratings on both channels here, as a result of which it is now impossible to go any further. It is also dangerous to approach close to the gratings - there is a motion sensor there. They can set fire to the special services and "wait" at the exit.

54. And now, finally .. Sunshine!! We get out through the same hatch that we climbed in.

55. So, after almost four hours, our tour ended. It's funny that I took a trolley bus from home to the starting point, but during the walk we covered twice as much distance there and the same amount back! Approximately from Dostoevskaya to approximately Red Square.
Having laid down all the equipment, we walked along the Gravity Park, looking with a new look at the places under which we had just roamed.

56. This is such an interesting walk. It is interesting, of course, that hundreds of times I walked through all these streets, went around each of them, well, just up and down, I probably know every centimeter :) And what the area looks like UNDER them, I happened to find out only now. Although, of course, there were inclinations to climb there for a long time. Once a friend from Latvia suggested doing this, but it was a little scary, not knowing what and how, where to climb, where to go, what to do if something happens. In the end, we didn't go.

Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for this walk community mosblog . By the way, I advise everyone to sign up for it: they often invite them to various interesting events: excursions to unusual places, trips to the theater, all sorts of master classes. If you write something like this on a blog, you definitely need to go there!

"... The past passes before me..." Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky, "Moscow and Muscovites"

About 140 rivers and streams flow through the territory of modern Moscow. 39 of them have completely open channels, and 40 are completely withdrawn into collectors. One of the most famous is Neglinka or Neglinnaya

Neglinka is not the largest, but not the smallest tributary of the Moscow River within the city. It originates in the swamps behind Maryina Grove and flows seven and a half kilometers before its confluence with the Moscow River at the Vodovzvodnaya Tower
The river was first mentioned in city chronicles in 1401. Now it is hard to believe that the Neglinka was then a full-flowing river in which they fished and used it as a transport artery. The course of the river made it possible to arrange mills on its bed. During floods, the width of the river reached one and a half kilometers and a depth of up to 25 meters.

The origin of the name has only versions. Neglinok is a swamp. The Neglinna is a river with a sandy bottom. Or Neglimna from "negla" - larch. A river overgrown with these trees. After the confluence of the Neglinka River with the Naprudnaya River, in the area of ​​​​the present Garden Ring, the channel overflowed with a cascade of natural flowing ponds, from which the river rushed by itself towards the Kremlin. Hence another name for it - Samoteka. The reliability of any of the versions can not already be established. And is this certainty necessary?
Neglinka is a unique phenomenon. In the sense that everyone knows about this river, but no one has seen it, since the first section of the channel was enclosed in a pipe back in 1819. But, being hidden from human eyes, how many traces Neglinka left in Moscow names! This is Neglinnaya Street, which completely repeats the riverbed, and three Neglinny Lane
Kuznetsky bridge, dismantled in the same 1819.
Only drawings-reconstructions of the Soviet artist and enthusiastic historian Lopyalo Karl Karlovich remained.
In total, four bridges were thrown across the Neglinka - Kuznetsky, Petrovsky (on the site of the Maly Theater), Voskresensky (near the former Resurrection Gate of Kitay-Gorod) and Troitsky. The latter is still alive and connects the Trinity Tower with Kutafya
Trubnaya Square is not the most euphonious name, perhaps. But it's all from the very pipe into which they put the unfortunate Neglinka
They began to “mock” the river even under Peter I at the very beginning of the 1700s, erecting fortifications on the banks of the Neglinka - bolters, intended to protect the Kremlin. This construction was associated with a change in the natural course and drainage of one of the channel ponds. At the beginning of the 19th century, the boltworks were dismantled, but the construction of the Earthen City required the conclusion of the channel in the collector. This is how the underground history of the river began.

Back in Catherine's time, it was enclosed in an underground pipe: they piled piles into the river bed, blocked it with a stone vault, laid a wooden floor, arranged street water drains through drain wells and made an underground sewer under the streets. In addition to the "legitimate" sewers laid from the streets for rain and utility water, most wealthy homeowners led secret underground drains to the Neglinka to drain sewage, instead of taking them out in barrels, as was the case everywhere in Moscow before the sewerage was installed. And all these sewage went to the Moscow River. The police knew this, the landlords knew about all this, and everyone must have thought: it wasn’t started by us, it won’t end with us!
The second major intervention in the life of Neglinka occurred 60 years later:

In the eighties, the virgin integrity of the Theater Square had to be violated for a short time, and for this reason. The light-water river Neglinka, enclosed in a pipe, due to poor sewerage, became a cesspool of sewage that flowed into the Moscow River and contaminated the water. Over the years, the pipe became clogged, it was never cleaned, and after each big downpour, the water flooded the streets, squares, and the lower floors of houses along Neglinny Proyezd. Then the water went away, leaving fetid silt on the street and filling the basement floors with sewage. So the years went by until they guessed to find out the reason. It turned out that the turns (and there were two of them: one - at the corner of the Maly Theater, and the other - on the square, under the fountain with the figures of the sculptor Vitali) were clogged with garbage from the city. The underground swamps that surrounded the square, as in ancient times, also had no way out. They began to rebuild Neglinka, opened its vaults
The third reconstruction of underground collectors was started in the 60s of the last century. The reason for the forced work was the same as that described by Gilyarovsky. With every heavy downpour, the area of ​​Trubnaya Square it flooded so that the water cascaded through the doors of shops and into the lower floors of houses in the area. This happened because the uncleaned underground cesspool of the Neglinka, which was carried out from Samoteka under Tsvetnoy Boulevard, Neglinny passage, Theater Square and under Alexander Garden up to the Moskva River, did not contain water that overflowed it in rainy weather. It was positively a disaster
By the beginning of the seventies of the 20th century, new concrete vaults were built, the original collectors were duplicated, which could no longer cope with the passage of floods due to storm wells tripled everywhere in the city.
If earlier part of the storm and melt water went to the Moscow River along the pavements or filtered through the soil, then from asphalt pavements all precipitation could get into it only through storm drains connected to the Neglinka. Of particular concern was the throughput capacity of the collector section in front of the mouth. Therefore, below the Metropol Hotel, the river was divided, and a second underground channel was built with a mouth opposite Balchug
Neglinka could have undergone a fourth reincarnation. During the reconstruction of Manezhnaya Square in the 90s, one of the projects provided for the extraction of the river into the light of day in the area of ​​​​Alexandrovsky Garden. But this would require huge excavation and hydraulic works, since the depth of the river collector in this section is more than 7 meters. Fortunately, we limited ourselves to the “decorative” Neglinka along the Kremlin wall
I somehow walked along Neglinnaya and against the State Bank and saw in the middle of the street a wooden hut surrounded by a fence, entered it, met the engineer who was doing the work - it turned out that he knew me, and agreed to my request to inspect the work. There was a gaping hole in the middle of the barracks, from which the end of the ladder protruded.

We went down to the Neglinka sewer in the park behind the Theater. Durov on the Olympic Avenue. The digger accompanying us first illuminated the slippery and rusty brackets from above, and then dived after us, deftly sliding the cast-iron hatch behind him.
No one paid attention to our operation - everything was done very quickly: they raised the grate, lowered the ladder. Foul steam billowed from the hole. Fedya the plumber climbed first; the hole, damp and dirty, was narrow, the ladder stood vertically, the back shuffled against the wall. There was a splash of water and a voice, as if from a crypt:

- Climb, or something!

Nobody paid any attention to us either. A local resident who walked in the park with a dog, most likely, has long been accustomed to idiots, every evening pulling on OZK boots on an inconspicuous bench in front of the monument and descending into the dungeon
I was left alone in this walled-up crypt and walked knee-deep in the seething water for about ten steps. Has stopped. There was darkness all around me. The darkness is impenetrable, the complete absence of light. I turned my head in all directions, but my eye did not distinguish anything

The collector does not really have any lighting. We were saved by headlamps and a powerful searchlight in the hands of a digger. In a narrow tunnel, this amount of light was quite enough
It was not difficult for me to find two daredevils who decided on this journey. One of them is a licenseless plumber Fedya, who made his living by day work, and the other is a former janitor, solid and thorough. It was his duty to lower the ladder, lower us into the cesspool between Samotyok and Trubnaya Square, and then meet us at the next flight and lower the ladder for our exit. Fedi's duty is to accompany me in the dungeon and shine

We easily found an ad about this excursion to the belly of the city on the Internet. It was harder to sign up. Those who wish are more than enough, and the groups consist of only six people. A large one will simply stretch out and can get lost in the numerous labyrinths of tunnels. And the interesting story of the guide, drowned out by the noise of water and the booming blows of car tires on sewer manholes, can only be heard when you are close to the narrator
We went forward through deep water, sometimes avoiding the waterfalls of street runoff that hummed under our feet. Suddenly, a terrible roar, as if from collapsing buildings, made me shudder. It was a cart passing over us. More and more often carriages thundered over my head

The roar of automobile wheels, with great speed slipping through hatches and gratings, at first really frightened. There was a feeling that something was constantly exploding upstairs. Then you start to get used to it, and after a couple of kilometers the collector goes to a considerable depth, and the noise from above ceases to reach at all
This was a continuation of my constant work on the study of the Moscow slums, with which Neglinka had a connection, as I had to find out in the dens of Grachevka and Tsvetnoy Boulevard

For us, it was a very unusual, but nevertheless quite planned excursion.
I moved further forward and heard a noise like the roar of a waterfall. Indeed, right next to me, a waterfall roared, scattering millions of dirty splashes, barely illuminated by the pale yellowish light from the opening of a street pipe. It turned out to be a sewage drain from a side hole in the wall.

Nothing gets into the modern Neglinka except spring water, which enters the channel through special ceramic pipes. This water, according to the guide, is drinkable. We did not dare to do so. But visually, the purity of the influx of doubts did not cause. However, diggers say that a few years ago, a pipe suddenly descended from a restaurant on Samotechnaya Square, through which sewage began to flow. This went on for a week, after which the diggers plugged the pipe with polyurethane foam. What happened next in this restaurant, one can only guess
A few minutes later we stumbled upon a rise under our feet. There was a particularly thick heap of mud here, and, apparently, something had been piled up under the mud... They climbed over the heap, illuminating it with a lamp. I poked around with my foot, and something bounced under my boot ... We stepped over the pile and went on. In one of these drifts, I managed to see halfway covered with silt the corpse of a huge dog. It was especially difficult to get over the last skid before the exit to Trubnaya Square, where the stairs were waiting for us. Here the mud was especially thick, and something kept slipping underfoot. It was scary to think about it.

In the 1920s, Moscow was a very criminal city. The settlements inhabited by working people were especially famous. Those who lost at cards were indeed sometimes thrown into the Neglinka. Now, of course, there is no such nightmare. But there are still plenty of idiots. True, they are afraid to go beyond the ventilation shafts
We walked for a long time, in some places plunging into deep mud or inaccessible, fetid liquid mud, in some places bending over, since the drifts of mud were so high that it was impossible to go straight - I had to bend down, and still I reached the vault with my head and shoulders. My feet sank into the mud, occasionally bumping into something hard. All this swam with liquid mud, it was impossible to see, and was it before

The bottom of the collector is only slightly washed out with clean sand. There was no stench now, except the musty smell of damp bricks. Spring floods and flash floods, when the water rises under the very arch of the collector, wash away all the pollution that accidentally gets through the storm grates.
I hit my head on something, raised my hand and felt the wet, cold, warty, slime-covered stone vault and nervously jerked my hand away ...

Stalagmites from groundwater filtering through the ancient masonry are still being formed. But they don’t have time to petrify, since their life span is maximum from spring to spring.

I pulled up my hunting boots, buttoned up my leather jacket, and began to descend. It was getting creepy. Finally, the sound of water and squelching was heard. Cold, bone-penetrating dampness gripped me

It's actually quite warm in the collector today. Heating pipes laid under the city involuntarily heat up the collector in winter. In summer, hot air does not penetrate deep into the wells. Thus, the temperature fluctuates around +10°C all year round. What do banal champignons use for their own reproduction
But the humidity in the collector is excessive. I had to take pictures while holding my breath so that the exhaled vapor did not fog the picture

In some places, the collector is pretty spoiled by modern "architects"
It's a pity. The building is unique. Nowhere else in the world are there such pipes, representing in cross section a chicken egg standing on a sharp end. Try to crush it with a simple press of the palm of your hand. Not sure it's going to happen. In the same way, these collectors, without the slightest damage, withstood the foundations of newly erected buildings, and armored parades, and even bombing during the Great Patriotic War

I must say that Neglinka is now being monitored and quite closely. Once every three months, a special commission thoroughly examines the condition of all sections of the underground channel. If necessary, various repairs and cleanings are carried out. Diggers provide official assistance to city services
In this stench they walked to the first well and stumbled upon a lowered ladder. I raised my head, was delighted with the blue sky.

- Well, are you safe? Get out! - a voice boomed from above

It is hard to imagine that this ventilation shaft grating right in the middle of Trubnaya Square is the exit from the underground river
While serving in the editorial office of Evening Moscow, Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky visited all the underground tunnels of the Neglinka several times, despite the fact that the height of some of them does not exceed a meter, and the writer was under two meters tall. In addition to a book about Moscow and its inhabitants, Gilyarovsky wrote a series of essays on the underground life of the capital, thanks to which in 1926 the Moscow Council adopted a resolution to clean up the Neglinka channel clogged with rubbish. The writer himself called this document the epilogue of his articles in the city newspaper

In general, something like this ...

Few of the residents and guests of Moscow know that they are separated from the underground river in the center of the capital only by a sewer manhole and a couple of meters of land. Neglinka originates from the Pashensky swamp near Maryina Roshcha and, crossing the central quarters of the city from north to south, flows under the streets that owe their names to it: Samotechny square, boulevard and lane, Neglinnaya street and Trubnaya square.

The Neglinka is a legendary river of its kind. Not very long and full of water, it played a significant role in the life of Moscow: Neglinnaya contributed to the emergence of a valley on the banks of which the Kremlin stands. How the Neglinnaya River turned from a completely ordinary river into underground collectors, and what is its fate in modern Moscow, we will tell in this material.

Change of river names in history
The Neglinka River was first mentioned in the annals of the early 15th century under the name Neglimny. By the way, over the past years, this river has changed many names, including Neglinaya, Neglinna and Samoteka. According to one version, the last name appeared due to the fact that the middle course of the river in the area of ​​​​the present Trubnaya Square flowed from flowing ponds, that is, it flowed by gravity.

The role of Neglinka in the life of Moscow residents

Pollution problems

Pipe construction

First overhaul

Shchekotovsky tunnel

Flood problem

Neglinka at the end of the 20th century

Few of the residents and guests of Moscow know that they are separated from the underground river in the center of the capital only by a sewer manhole and a couple of meters of land. Neglinka originates from the Pashensky swamp near Maryina Roshcha and, crossing the central quarters of the city from north to south, flows under the streets that owe their names to it: Samotechny square, boulevard and lane, Neglinnaya street and Trubnaya square.

The Neglinka is a legendary river of its kind. Not very long and full of water, it played a significant role in the life of Moscow: Neglinnaya contributed to the emergence of a valley on the banks of which the Kremlin stands. How the Neglinnaya River turned from a completely ordinary river into underground collectors, and what is its fate in modern Moscow, we will tell in this material.

The rivers Neglinnaya (marked with an arrow), Yauza (on the right) and the Moskva River in the figure A. Vasnetsova "View of Moscow from a bird's eye view in the XII century." The Neglinnaya River, before flowing into the Moskva River, went around Borovitsky Hill, on which the first Slavic settlement arose 1000 years ago in a dense pine forest. In pagan times, Borovitsky Hill was called the Witch's Mountain and there was a temple of the ancient gods on it.

Change of river names in history

The Neglinka River was first mentioned in the annals of the early 15th century under the name Neglimny. By the way, over the past years, this river has changed many names, including Neglinaya, Neglinna and Samoteka. According to one version, the last name appeared due to the fact that the middle course of the river in the area of ​​​​the present Trubnaya Square flowed from flowing ponds, that is, it flowed by gravity.

The role of Neglinka in the life of Moscow residents

It's hard to imagine, but once the Neglinnaya was a full-flowing river with clean water, and in its lower reaches it was even navigable. At the beginning of the 16th century, water for the moat around the Kremlin wall came from Neglinnaya. Dams were built on the river, forming six interconnected ponds used for fish farming. Water from the ponds was also taken to extinguish fires that were frequent at that time.

Pollution problems

However, already in the middle of the 18th century, the waters of the Neglinnaya were heavily polluted, as they were used as a waste drain for the needs of the rapidly growing population of Moscow and the developing industry. Part of the ponds, it was decided to lower. It should be added that Neglinnaya flooded in full water and flooded neighboring streets. Therefore, by 1775, Catherine II drew up a project in which Neglinnaya was ordered to "turn into an open canal, with boulevards for walking along the banks."

Pipe construction

However, the open canal, fragrant throughout its length with sewage, did not contribute to improving the atmosphere in the capital, so it was decided to fill it up, having previously blocked it with arches. The military engineer E. Cheliev undertook the construction of the underground bed, and under his leadership, by 1819, a part of Neglinnaya from Samotechnaya Street to the mouth was enclosed in a pipe, which was a three-kilometer brick vault. And the banks of the former canal turned into Neglinnaya Street.

First overhaul

Half a century later, the Neglinnaya collector stopped coping with the flow of water. During strong floods and heavy rains, the river made its way to the surface. The situation was complicated by the owners of the houses, who arranged makeshift tie-ins through which sewage was dumped into the river. And 1886-87. under the leadership of engineer N. Levachov, a major overhaul of the underground channel was carried out. The tunnel was divided into three sections.

Shchekotovsky tunnel

In 1910-1914. According to the project of engineer M. Shchekotov, a section of the Neglinka collector was built, located under Theater Square. This tunnel, exactly 117 meters long, runs next to the Metropol Hotel and the Maly Theatre. Now it is called in honor of its creator - "Shchekotovsky Tunnel", and illegal excursions around the Neglinka are usually held here.

Flood problem

Despite the construction of more and more collectors, the flooding did not stop - in the mid-60s of the last century, Neglinka again broke out to the surface and flooded some streets so much that they had to travel by boat. When in the early 1970s the collector from Trubnaya Square to the Metropol Hotel was renovated and significantly expanded, the flooding finally stopped.

Neglinka at the end of the 20th century

By 1997, the studio of the artist and sculptor Zurab Tsereteli completed a project that included the reconstruction of the Neglinka riverbed from Alexander Garden to Manezhnaya Square. This artificially maintained closed-loop reservoir is not really an attempt to bring a section of the river out of the ground, as many Muscovites believe. At the moment, the imitation of Neglinka in this place is equipped with fountains and sculptures.

The Neglinka River (Neglinaya) was first mentioned in the annals of 1401 as the Neglimna River. Over the years, it has had a number of names, including Neglinna, Neglimna and even Samoteka. There are several versions of the origin of this toponym.

One of them says that the name comes from the many swamps and swamps that were in its channel. "Neglinkok" in ancient times meant a swampy place with springs or just a swamp.

The next assumption, which was made by philologists, in particular, Galina Petrovna Smolitskaya, the name comes from the hydrological component of the river - its sandy and "non-clay" bed.

The toponym "Neglimna" is associated with the northern term, which sounds like "megla" (also - "negla" and "negla") and means "larch". In this case, a definition is given to the river, which is overgrown with larch.

Photo 1. Artificial bed of the Neglinnaya River in the city of Moscow

The well-known philologist Vladimir Nikolaevich Toporov put forward another hypothesis in 1972 and connected the name of the Neglinna/Neglimna river with Baltic roots, breaking it into syllables - Ne-glim-in-. It is the root "gilm" in Lithuanian that means "depth". Thus, in the end we get a "shallow river".

Another name for Neglinnaya (Neglinka) - Samoteka - is associated with rivers that flowed from flowing ponds, i.e. flowed by itself. This toponym was applied to the river in its middle course in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe current and. Based on other sources, this was the name of the part of the river, starting from its upper reaches and up to the confluence with another river - the Naprudnaya.

Photo 2. The former bed of the Neglinka near Manezhnaya Square was dressed in granite

It is hard to believe today, but in ancient times the Neglinnaya (Neglinka) was a full-flowing river, which was used not only for fishing, damming water mills and as a means of communication, but also as an important fortification that protected from the western and northwestern direction.

The total length of the river channel was about 7.5 kilometers. The source was located in the area of ​​​​the current Maryina Grove. During floods, the width of the river reached one and a half kilometers and a depth of up to 25 meters.

In the area of ​​the current Samotechny Boulevard, the Naprudnaya River flowed into Neglinnaya, which originated in the area and Trifonovskaya Street. The toponym is associated with the grand ducal settlement of Naprudnoe, which has been mentioned since the time of Ivan Kalita.

Neglinka in the 15th-17th centuries

The waters of this same Samotyok through a stone pipe once arranged fell straight into the Earthen City and then overflowed again in its course.

The next obstacle in the way of the river was an opening in the fortress wall, which was equipped with a grate. This gap was called the "Pipe" and was located in the area of ​​​​the current Trubnaya Square.

Further, before confluence with the Moscow River, bridges were thrown across the bed of the Neglinnaya (Neglinka): Kuznetsky, Petrovsky (discovered during the reconstruction of the building of the Maly Theater), Voskresensky (near the former Kitai-Gorod) and Troitsky (still located between the Kremlin towers - Troitskaya and Kutafya).

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the waters of the Neglinka filled the moat, which stretched along the Kremlin walls. During this period, there were six ponds along the entire course, some of which were drained in the middle of the 18th century.

In the spring flood, the Neglinnaya flooded the entire low-lying valley. To imagine this, we list the areas that were flooded - these are the neighborhoods around, the area from Rakhmanovsky lane to, the area between and the building of the State Duma.

River in the 18th century

The Northern War, which lasted from 1700 to 1721, made its mark on the history of Neglinnaya (Neglinka). So, by order of Peter the Great, to protect the Kremlin walls, only along the riverbed were erected 5 bolters - defensive structures, which in plan were a triangle. This construction was associated with the diversion of the natural channel a little to the west of the former place, for which even the Swan Pond was lowered, located at.

The Swedes did not reach Moscow and in the period from 1821 to 1823 the bolters were dismantled.

In the 80s of the 18th century, in the area of ​​the then existing Upper Neglinny Pond, an embankment was built, which was decorated using iron bars and wild stone. The project was made by engineer Ivan Kondratievich Gerard. Muscovites liked the place and became "a pleasant amusement park for all hunters to walk around."

It is worth noting that the waters of the Neglinnaya (Neglinka), as well as the Naprudnaya River with Samotechny Ponds, were clean and suitable for fishing. Ecological cleanliness, as they say today, was monitored by a special division of the Police Office: the townsfolk were forbidden to bathe horses and rinse clothes here. The Neglinensky ponds were rented out to merchants for fish breeding. During the winter, local ice was in demand because of its purity and it was harvested for the then "refrigerators" - glaciers.

True, the lower course of the river could not boast of such. Because of the heavy pollution, the dams in these places were called "nasty".