Alexander Garden

This article is about a park in Moscow. For other uses, see Alexander Garden (disambiguation).

Alexander Gardens Александровский сад

Type	Urban park
Coordinates	55°45′09″N 37°36′50″E / 55.75250°N 37.61389°E / 55.75250; 37.61389Coordinates: 55°45′09″N 37°36′50″E / 55.75250°N 37.61389°E / 55.75250; 37.61389
Created	1823
Status	Open all year

Alexander Gardens (Russian: Александровский сад) was one of the first urban public parks in Moscow, Russia. The park comprises three separate gardens, which stretch along all the length of the western Kremlin wall for 865 metres (2,838 ft) between the building of the Moscow Manege and the Kremlin.

History

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

After the Napoleonic Wars, Tsar Alexander I ordered architect Osip Bove to reconstruct parts of the city which had been destroyed by French troops. Bove laid out a new garden from 1819-1823, on the site of the riverbed of the Neglinnaya River, which was channeled underground.

Layout

Upper Garden

Towards the main entrance to the park is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame brought from the Field of Mars in Leningrad. Created in 1967, it contains the body of a soldier who fell during the Great Patriotic War at the kilometer 41 marker of Leningradskoe Shosse, the nearest point the forces of Nazi Germany penetrated towards Moscow. Post Number One, where the honor sentinels stand on guard, used to be located in front of Lenin's Mausoleum, but was moved to the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier in the 1990s. The middle section of the upper garden contains a faux ruined grotto built underneath the Middle Arsenal Tower. Although not constructed until 1841, this was part of Bove's original design. The garden's cast iron gate and grille were designed to commemorate the Russian victories over Napoleon, and its rocks are rubble from buildings destroyed during the French occupation of Moscow.

In front of the grotto is an obelisk erected on July 10 1914, a year after the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty was celebrated. The monument made of granite from Finland listed all of the Romanov Tsars and had the coats of arms of the (Russian) provinces. Four years later, the dynasty was gone, and the Bolsheviks (per Lenin’s directive on Monumental propaganda) removed the imperial eagle, and re-carved the monument with a list of 19 socialist and communist philosophers and political leaders, personally approved by Lenin. Originally in the Lower Garden, it was relocated to its present location in 1966. There is discussion to remove Lenin's and reinstall an obelisk duplicating the original.

The wrought iron grille, enclosing this part of the garden, has a design of fasces, which are intended to commemorate the military victory over Napoleon.

The northern part of the garden is adjacent to the large underground shopping complex at Manege Square.

Middle Garden

The most prominent feature of the Middle Garden is the outlying Kutafya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin. There is an entrance to the park opposite the tower directly to the Moscow Metro system.

Lower Garden

Laid out in 1823, the Lower Garden stretches to the road leading to the Borovitskaya Tower, one of two vehicular and pedestrian entrances to the Kremlin.

References

External links

Media related to Alexandrovsky Garden, Moscow at Wikimedia Commons

Moscow Kremlin and Red Square

Kremlin Wall and Towers	Borovitskaya Vodovzvodnaya Blagoveshenskaya Tainitskaya Pervaya Bezymyannaya Vtoraya Bezymyannaya Petrovskaya Beklemishevskaya Konstantino-Eleninskaya Nabatnaya Tsarskaya Spasskaya Senatskaya Nikolskaya Uglovaya Arsenalnaya Srednyaya Arsenalnaya Troitskaya Kutafya Komendantskaya Oruzheynaya

Administrative buildings	Kremlin Senate Kremlin Presidium (Building 14) Kremlin Arsenal Amusement Palace State Kremlin Palace Grand Kremlin Palace Terem Palace The Armory Palace of Facets Tsarina Golden Palace State Historical Museum

Churches	Cathedral of the Assumption Cathedral of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Archangel Church of Saint Ioann Lestvichnik and Ivan the Great Bell Tower Church of the Deposition of the Virgin's Robe in Vlachernon Patriarch's Palace and the Church of the Twelve Apostles Verkhospassky Cathedral and the Terem Churches Cathedral of the Intercession (of Saint Basil the Blessed) Kazan Cathedral

Squares and gardens	Red Square Ivanovskaya Square Cathedral Square Taynitsky Garden Grand Kremlin Public Garden Alexander Garden Manezhnaya Square

Monuments	Kremlin Wall Necropolis Monument to Minin and Pozharsky Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Lobnoye Mesto Tsar Cannon Tsar Bell

Other	Iberian Gate and Chapel

Former	Ascension Convent Chudov Monastery Armorial Gate Robespierre Monument

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