Main entrance to the Alexander Gardens.

Alexander Garden (Russian: Александровский сад) was one of the first public parks in Moscow. It occupies all the length of the western Kremlin wall in front of the Moscow Manege.

After the Neglinnaya River was encapsulated in an underground pipe, they decided to turn the former riverbed into a public park. It was laid out in 1819-1823 to a design by Osip Bove and named after the reigning emperor. The park comprises three separate gardens, which stretch along the western Kremlin wall for 865 meters.

The park's most prominent feature is the outlying Kutafya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin. A ruined grotto was constructed to Bove's design underneath the Middle Arsenal Tower in 1841. The garden's cast iron gate and grille were designed to commemorate the Russian victories over Napoleon.

In 1914, a year after the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty was being celebrated, they erected an obelisk in the Upper Garden. Four years later, it was reconstructed by the Bolsheviks into a monument to the socialist and communist thinkers. In 1967, they constructed the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with eternal flame brought from the Field of Mars in Leningrad.

The Post Number One, where the sentinels stand on guard, used to be located in front of the Lenin's Mausoleum, but was moved to the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier in the 1990s.

Coordinates: 55°45′09″N 37°36′50″E / 55.7525°N 37.61389°E / 55.7525; 37.61389

[edit] See also

• Media related to Alexander Garden at Wikimedia Commons