# Chistye Prudy (Clean Ponds), Moscow > A pond on Chistoprudny Boulevard, part of Moscow’s Boulevard Ring, right outside Chistye Prudy metro station. It’s free and open 24/7. A stroll along the water takes 30 minutes; add the baroque Menshikov Tower and the side streets and it’s 1–1.5 hours. Think of it as a leafy city boulevard rather than a sight: old apartment houses, a famous theatre, ducks, and in frosty winters, ice. Web page: https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/chistye-prudy - City: [Moscow](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow), Russia - YesGo score: 43/100 (Yes, if nearby) - Time on site: 30 min - Opening hours: Boulevard and pond open 24/7; Menshikov Tower is a working church — service times vary - With kids: Fine with kids - Entry: Free — it’s an open public boulevard - Open: 24/7 - Metro: Chistye Prudy (line 1, red), Turgenevskaya (line 6, orange), Sretensky Bulvar (line 10, light green) — one interchange; ≈ 5 min walk to the water - Menshikov Tower: Arkhangelsky Lane 15a, bldg 9 — 5 min from the pond; working church - Theatre: Sovremennik — Chistoprudny Boulevard 19a, by the water - Ice and boats: Skating on the frozen pond in cold winters, rowing boats in summer — both seasonal - Coordinates: 55.76083, 37.64472 - Facts checked: 29.10.2026 ## Key facts - **“Foul Pond”** — its name until 1703, when Prince Menshikov had it cleaned out (source: English Wikipedia, “Clean Ponds”; Russian Wikipedia, “Chistye Prudy” and “Chistoprudny Boulevard”) - **1 pond** — of the three drawn on a 1775 city plan — the plural name stuck (source: Russian Wikipedia, “Chistoprudny Boulevard”; Sputnik8 guide) - **1707** — Menshikov Tower (Church of the Archangel Gabriel) completed, architect Ivan Zarudny (source: English and Russian Wikipedia, “Menshikov Tower”; Tonkosti travel guide; mos.ru) - **81 m** — the tower’s height with its spire — taller than the Kremlin’s Ivan the Great Bell Tower until lightning struck in 1723 (source: mos.ru; Tripster article on the Chistye Prudy area; English Wikipedia, “Menshikov Tower”) - **822 m** — length of Chistoprudny Boulevard, the second-longest on the Boulevard Ring after Tverskoy (source: Russian Wikipedia, “Chistoprudny Boulevard”; Tripster article on the Chistye Prudy area) - **1914** — the Kolizei cinema by Roman Klein built; home of the Sovremennik Theatre since 1974 (source: Russian Wikipedia, “Chistye Prudy” and “Chistoprudny Boulevard”; Tripster article on the Chistye Prudy area) - **1959** — the Griboyedov monument by the metro unveiled, sculptor A. A. Manuilov (source: Russian Wikipedia, “Chistoprudny Boulevard”; Tonkosti travel guide) - **1990** — the metro station was renamed from Kirovskaya to Chistye Prudy (source: Russian Wikipedia, “Chistye Prudy”; Tripster article on the Chistye Prudy area) - **Rachka** — the stream once dammed here below the White City walls, now underground (source: English Wikipedia, “Clean Ponds”; Sputnik8 guide) - **1965** — the Soviet film “Clean Ponds” by Aleksei Sakharov, based on Yuri Nagibin’s stories (source: English Wikipedia, “Clean Ponds (film)”; Russian Wikipedia, “Chistye Prudy”) ## Is Chistye Prudy worth visiting? **Yes, as a stop on a walk — not as a destination on its own.** Chistye Prudy is a pond on a tree-lined boulevard, with benches, a famous theatre on the bank and handsome turn-of-the-century apartment houses all around. It’s where Muscovites meet up, sit with a coffee and people-watch. There’s no gate and no ticket. What makes the detour worthwhile is what’s around it. Five minutes away stands Menshikov Tower, the most striking baroque church in central Moscow. The streets between here, Lubyanka and [Kitay-Gorod](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/kitay-gorod) are full of merchants’ mansions and quiet courtyards. If you’re walking from Red Square towards Pokrovka, this is the natural place to pause. If you only have a day in Moscow, skip a special trip here and spend the time in the Kremlin instead. If you have two or three days, it’s one of the nicest free walks in the centre. ## How to get to Chistye Prudy 1. The nearest station is **Chistye Prudy** (line 1, red, Sokolnicheskaya). The exit brings you out by the Griboyedov monument at the start of the boulevard; the pond is about 5 minutes straight ahead. 2. **Turgenevskaya** (line 6, orange) and **Sretensky Bulvar** (line 10, light green) are part of the same interchange — get off at whichever is on your line and you surface in the same spot, at Myasnitskiye Gates. 3. From [Red Square](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/red-square): ride line 1 from Okhotny Ryad two stops to Chistye Prudy, about 15 minutes door to door. Or walk 25 minutes along Nikolskaya and Myasnitskaya Street, past the Chinese-style Perlov Tea House and the Main Post Office. 4. From Kitay-Gorod metro, walk up Maroseyka and Pokrovka to Pokrovskiye Gates — about 15 minutes. You’ll reach the far end of the pond, by the Abai monument. 5. Metro signs show names in Cyrillic and Latin letters; one fare covers any distance and transfers. **Foreign Visa and Mastercard cards don’t work in Russia** (since March 2022) — bring roubles in cash or buy a Troika card with cash at the ticket office. ## What is Chistye Prudy? The name means “Clean Ponds”, and it covers three things at once: the pond, the boulevard around it and the neighbourhood, plus the metro station. The pond sits on the north-eastern stretch of the Boulevard Ring — the horseshoe of tree-lined avenues that follows the line of the old White City walls. Chistoprudny Boulevard is the widest of them by area and runs 822 m from Myasnitskiye Gates to Pokrovskiye Gates. It’s a real neighbourhood space rather than a tourist attraction. On a summer evening every bench is taken, there are usually rowing boats on the water and ducks along the banks. In a properly cold winter the pond freezes and people skate on it — but there isn’t always an organised rink, so check before you bring skates. ## What to see at Chistye Prudy - **Menshikov Tower** (Church of the Archangel Gabriel, 1704–1707) on Arkhangelsky Lane — Ivan Zarudny’s baroque tower, built for Peter the Great’s favourite, Prince Menshikov. With its spire it stood 81 m tall, higher than the Kremlin’s Ivan the Great Bell Tower, until lightning burned the top in 1723. Today it’s a working church of the Antiochian Orthodox Church. - **The Griboyedov monument** (1959) by the metro, with a relief of characters from his comedy “Woe from Wit” — the neighbourhood’s classic meeting point. - **The Sovremennik Theatre** — one of Moscow’s best-known drama companies, in the colonnaded Kolizei cinema built by Roman Klein in 1914. Performances are in Russian. - **The “House with Beasts”** at Chistoprudny Boulevard 14 — a 1909 apartment house covered in griffins, owls and deer. - **The Egg House** at Mashkova Street 1 — a Fabergé-egg-shaped residential building from the early 2000s by architect Sergei Tkachenko, an 8-minute walk away. - **The Abai monument** (2006) and fountains at Pokrovskiye Gates, at the far end of the boulevard. - **The metro pavilion** — a 1930s modernist entrance by Nikolai Kolli, who worked with Le Corbusier on the Tsentrosoyuz building just down the street. > **Visiting Menshikov Tower: dress code** It’s a functioning Orthodox church, not a museum. Women should cover their hair and wear a skirt or long trousers; men take off hats. Don’t photograph inside during a service. The tower is best seen from outside anyway — from Arkhangelsky and Krivokolenny lanes, free and at any hour. ## Why is it called Clean Ponds? Until 1703 it was the **Foul Pond** (Poganye Prudy). The usual explanation is the butchers and slaughterhouses of Myasnitskaya — literally “Butchers’ Street” — who dumped their waste in the water. In 1703 Prince Alexander Menshikov bought the land, had the pond cleaned and banned rubbish, and the new name followed. The pond you see is younger. It was dug in the ditch left when the White City wall was demolished; a 1775 plan shows three ponds here, and only one survived the laying-out of the boulevard in the 1820s. Beneath it the Rachka stream, once dammed to create the ponds, still runs underground. ## The Annushka tram Older guidebooks recommend the **Annushka café tram** that circled Chistye Prudy. It stopped running in 2020 and was scrapped in 2023 — it no longer exists. Regular city tram **route A**, also nicknamed Annushka, and routes 3 and 39 still run along the boulevard. They’re a cheap way to see the Boulevard Ring from a window, but routes change: in 2025 route A was extended to Kalitniki. Check the current map in the Moscow Transport app. ## Before you go: checklist - [ ] Get off at Chistye Prudy metro and start at the Griboyedov monument - [ ] Detour into Arkhangelsky Lane for Menshikov Tower - [ ] Headscarf and covered legs if you want to go inside the church - [ ] Roubles in cash — foreign Visa and Mastercard don’t work in Russia - [ ] Winter: check the pond is open for skating before carrying skates - [ ] Eat on Pokrovka or in the side streets — waterside cafés cost more ## Chistye Prudy vs Patriarch’s Ponds vs Kitay-Gorod | | Chistye Prudy | Patriarch’s Ponds | Kitay-Gorod | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | Boulevard with a pond and theatre | Quiet square with one pond | Old merchant quarter | | Known for | Menshikov Tower, Sovremennik | The Master and Margarita | Nikolskaya, Varvarka, churches | | Nearest metro | Chistye Prudy, Turgenevskaya | Mayakovskaya | Kitay-Gorod, Lubyanka | | Entry | Free | Free | Free | | Time needed | 30 min – 1.5 h | 30 min – 1.5 h | 1–2 h | People often mix up the two ponds. [Patriarch’s Ponds](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/patriarch-ponds) is about 3.5 km west — an hour’s stroll along the Boulevard Ring — and is quieter and more literary. Chistye Prudy is livelier and sits right on the walk from Red Square. Kitay-Gorod is 15 minutes away down Maroseyka. ## Moscow by the water compared Every waterside place in Moscow rated by YesGo. - [Patriarch's Ponds](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/patriarch-ponds) — YesGo score 53/100 (Yes, go) · 30 min · Free - [Gorky Park](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/gorky-park) — YesGo score 51/100 (Yes, go) · 1 h 30 min · Free - [Chistye Prudy](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/chistye-prudy) — YesGo score 43/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 30 min · Free - [GES-2 House of Culture](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/ges-2) — YesGo score 42/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · Free entry with registration, exhibitions 400–1,000 ₽ - [Sokolniki Park](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/sokolniki-park) — YesGo score 36/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · Free - [Tsaritsyno](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/tsaritsyno) — YesGo score 26/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 2 h · Park free, palace 900 ₽ ## Red Square to the Boulevard Ring in a day Start on Red Square, walk Nikolskaya and Maroseyka through Kitay-Gorod to Chistye Prudy, then follow the Boulevard Ring west to Patriarch’s Ponds. 1. [Red Square](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/red-square) — YesGo score 79/100 (Yes, go) · 30 min · Free 2. [Kitay-gorod](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/kitay-gorod) — YesGo score 58/100 (Yes, go) · 1 h · Free 3. [Chistye Prudy](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/chistye-prudy) — YesGo score 43/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 30 min · Free 4. [Patriarch's Ponds](https://yesgo.io/russia/moscow/patriarch-ponds) — YesGo score 53/100 (Yes, go) · 30 min · Free ## Good to know You’ll see the name spelled Chistye Prudy, Chistyye Prudy or translated as Clean Ponds — it’s all the same place, Чистые пруды in Russian. Locals shorten it to “Chistye”. There’s no fenced park here: the “park” in some listings is simply the boulevard. ## Tips - In 30 minutes: Griboyedov monument → along the pond to the Sovremennik Theatre → back along the other bank. - In 1–1.5 hours: add Menshikov Tower on Arkhangelsky Lane, the House with Beasts and the Egg House on Mashkova Street. - Best photo: from the bank by the Sovremennik looking back towards Myasnitskiye Gates as the street lamps come on. - With kids: the wide car-free paths are good for running about, and the ducks are always there (skip the bread). - Keep walking: down Pokrovka and Maroseyka to Kitay-Gorod, or along Myasnitskaya back to Lubyanka and Red Square. - The stories of Menshikov, the merchant houses and the old city wall are hidden in courtyards and lanes — a guided walk makes sense of them. ## Questions ### Is Chistye Prudy free? Yes. It’s an open public boulevard with no gate or ticket, open 24/7. Only boat rental in summer costs money. ### What is the nearest metro station to Chistye Prudy? Chistye Prudy on line 1 (red). Turgenevskaya (line 6) and Sretensky Bulvar (line 10) form one interchange with it. The pond is about a 5-minute walk from the exit. ### What does Chistye Prudy mean? “Clean Ponds”. Until 1703 it was the “Foul Pond”, polluted by butchers from Myasnitskaya Street, until Prince Menshikov had it cleaned. ### How many ponds are there at Chistye Prudy? Just one. An 18th-century plan shows three, but only one survived when the boulevard was laid out in the 1820s. ### How far is Chistye Prudy from Red Square? About 2 km. Two stops on line 1 from Okhotny Ryad (about 15 minutes in all), or a 25-minute walk along Nikolskaya and Myasnitskaya. ### Is Chistye Prudy the same as Patriarch’s Ponds? No. They’re two different ponds about 3.5 km apart: Chistye Prudy is on the Boulevard Ring in the east of the centre, Patriarch’s Ponds is near Mayakovskaya in the west. ### Can you ice skate at Chistye Prudy? In cold winters the pond freezes and people skate, but an organised rink isn’t set up every season. Check before you go. ### What is Menshikov Tower? The Church of the Archangel Gabriel, a baroque tower completed in 1707 for Prince Menshikov. At 81 m with its spire it once outstripped the Kremlin’s tallest bell tower. It’s a 5-minute walk from the pond. ### Does the Annushka tram still run? The Annushka café tram closed in 2020 and was scrapped. Regular tram route A, nicknamed Annushka, still runs along the boulevard. ## How we checked The pond and boulevard have no official website with opening hours; “open 24/7” comes from travel guides and is marked “verifying”. Sources disagree on skating: English Wikipedia and Lonely Planet say the pond becomes a rink in winter, Russian Wikipedia calls it an informal one, and we didn’t find Chistye Prudy in recent lists of Moscow city rinks — so we give no dates, hours or prices. Russian Wikipedia says the boat station reopened in 1999; we couldn’t confirm it is running in 2026. Menshikov Tower’s height is given as 81 m with the spire (mos.ru, Tripster) and “over 80 m” elsewhere; an 84 m figure also circulates and we don’t use it. Only Russian Wikipedia gives the pond’s area and depth, so we leave them out. Tram routes change; ours are as of July 2025. Walking times from the metro are our estimate from the map. ## Sources - English Wikipedia: “Clean Ponds”, “Menshikov Tower”, “Clean Ponds (film)”; Russian Wikipedia: “Chistye Prudy”, “Chistoprudny Boulevard”, “Menshikov Tower”; Wikidata Q2458029 - mos.ru: article on Menshikov Tower - Tripster: “What to see around Chistye Prudy” - Tonkosti travel guide (Menshikov Tower, Griboyedov monument) and Sputnik8 guide (Chistye Prudy) - Lonely Planet: Chistye Prudy - Life.ru on the tram route A change, July 2025; Snob and Moskvich Mag on the Annushka café tram - Visa and Mastercard statements on suspending operations in Russia, March 2022 --- This is the Markdown version of a YesGo page for AI assistants. Quote the web page link above, not this file.