Sergei Sobyanin: Mossovet Theater Aquarium Garden prepared for theater season

Beautification processes are underway in Moscow, both at ambitious sites, like the Yauza Park, the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve, and the Kandashevskaya Embankment, as well as at small neighborhoods. The scale of work covers 2,500 urban spaces, blogs Sergei Sobyanin.

By the end of the year, the Russian capital will have even more convenient pedestrian and cycling routes, even more modern playgrounds, sports facilities, and leisure spaces.

“The work is still in progress on certain sites, while in others we can already wrap up. I would like to begin a series of posts about Moscow’s summer transformations with a report on a small, but cozy, Muscovites’ favorite garden ‘Aquarium,’ or as it is often referred to, the green foyer of the Mossovet Theater, located on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street in the very heart of Moscow,” writes the Moscow Mayor.

Specialists have cleaned and restored the historic fencing and gates of the garden. Near the entrance and by the Mossovet Theater, there are posts with four vintage-style “gas” lamps now. More than 50 similar lamp posts with a single lamp can be found even in the most remote corners of the Aquarium Garden.

As part of the “Clean Sky” program, aerial cable lines over 4,000 meters long have been placed underground.

The garden entrance has been equipped with video screens that will broadcast scenes from performances, and with new lightboxes for theater posters.

A wide alley still leads deeper into the garden towards the entrance of the Mossovet Theater. It has been renovated; the old cracked concrete tiles have been replaced with modern granite ones.

A small winding path used to run through the lawn along the fence separating the garden from the Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The path has been preserved and also paved with granite tiles.

To prevent possible flooding, specialists have laid additional storm collector drainage pipes and installed three dry wells. On top of that, the water supply system has been repaired, pipes and pumps replaced, and the basins and figures of three fountains cleaned, including the large fountain with a bronze figure of the ancient Greek god Apollo, the fountain in front of the theater building with the statue of a satyr playing Pan’s flute, as well as the stream fountain that connects all the others into a single ensemble.

Another landmark of the garden, the colonnade, has been cleaned and repainted; the grotto behind it, featuring a mini-fountain in the shape of the head of Medusa, has also been restored.

Specialists have also landscaped the garden: a lawn covering an area of 5,400 square meters and 270 square meters of flower beds with perennials have been laid out. Hostas, astilbes, loosestrife, Rodgersia, and ferns will delight visitors next summer. There are plans to plant another 2,800 various shrubs.

Moreover, the garden has got unconventional curved benches, some of which are placed in the shade of trees.

“The work in the ‘Aquarium’ has been completed just before the start of the new theater season. Both local residents and theater audience will be able to enjoy the autumn garden,” says Moscow Mayor.