Moyka

Moyka
Moyka
	View of the Moyka from the Pevchesky Bridge
Native name	Мойка Error {{native name checker}}: parameter value is malformed (help)
Standort
Land	Russland
Federal city	Saint Petersburg
Physical characteristics
Source	Fontanka
Mouth	Neva
Basin features
River system	Neva basin

source

mouth

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Moyka River on the map of central Saint Petersburg

The Moyka (Russian: Мо́йка /MOY-ka/, also latinised as Moika) is a secondary, in comparison with the Neva, river in Russia that encircles the central portion of Saint Petersburg, effectively making it an island or a group of islands together with the Neva, Fontanka, Griboyedov Canal and shorter canals like Kryukov. The river, originally known as Mya, derives its name from the Ingrian word Muya^[1] for "slush" or "mire", having its original source in former swamp. It is 5 kilometres (3 mi) long and 40 metres (130 ft) wide.

The river flows from the Fontanka river, which is itself a distributary of the Neva, near the Summer Garden past the Field of Mars, crosses Nevsky Prospect and the Kryukov Canal before entering the Neva river. It is also connected with the Neva by the Swan Canal and the Winter Canal.

In 1711 Peter the Great ordered the consolidation of the banks of the river. After the Kryukov Canal linked it with the Fontanka River four years later, the Moyka became so much clearer that its name was changed^{[by whom?]} from Mya to Moyka, associated with the Russian verb "to wash". With the spread of cars and services for them in post-Soviet Russia, the Russian word Мойка has become a common sight unconnected to the river as it very often means (car)wash, which may confuse foreign tourists.

In 1736 the first Moyka quay was constructed in wood. Four bridges originally spanned the river: the Blue, the Green, the Yellow, and the Red. The 99-metre (325 ft)-wide Blue Bridge, now hardly visible underneath Saint Isaac's Square, remains the widest bridge in the whole city.^{[citation needed]}

Magnificent 18th-century edifices lining the Moyka quay include the Stroganov Palace, Razumovsky Palace, Yusupov Palace, New Holland Arch, Circular Market, St. Michael's Castle, and the last accommodation and museum of Alexander Pushkin.^[2]

In 1798 work started to construct a stately embankment faced with red granite and adorned with ornate railings. After the completion of construction works in 1811, it was discovered that the water of the river became so muddy that its use for cooking has been officially forbidden ever since.

Bridges

As of 2016^[update] 15 bridges cross the Moyka. Most of these have historical and artistic interest:

Green Bridge (Zelyony most, 1806–08, by William Heste)
Red Bridge (Krasny most, 1808–14, by William Heste)
Potseluyev Bridge (Potseluyev most, 1808–16, by William Heste)
Blue Bridge (Siny most, 1818, 1842–43, by William Heste and George Andreevich Adam [ru])
Postoffice Bridge (Pochtamtsky most, 1823–24, by Wilhelm von Traitteur)
Big Stables Bridge (Bolshoy Konyushenny most, 1828, by George Adam)
Tripartite Bridge (Malo-Konyushenny most, 1829–31, by George Adam and Wilhelm von Traitteur)
First Engineer Bridge (Pervy Inzhenerny most, 1824–25, by George Adam and Wilhelm von Traitteur)
First Sadovy Bridge (Pervy Sadovy most, 1835–36, by Pierre Dominique Bazaine)
Yellow Bridge (Pevchesky most, 1839–40, by George Adam)

Water system of Ligovsky Canal

Legend

	Dudergofskoye lake

	Dudergofka River
		1718-1721
To Moskovskoye s.
Three highways interchange	Ring Road To Bronka
Three highways interchange	Dachnaya street
Three highways interchange	Diameter To sea port terminal


To Predportovaya	To Ulyanka, Ligovo
To Predportovaya	To Leninsky Prospekt
To Predportovaya	To Leninsky Prospekt
To Konstitutsii square	Leninsky Pr. To Leninsky Metro


	Krasnenkaya River
To Konstitutsii square	Krasnoputilovskaya To Avtovo
Moscow Gate Square	Moskovsky Avenue
Tsarskoselskaya Railway	Kubinskaya Street
Obvodny Y. V. Aqueduct	Aviatorov Pound
Znamenskya Square	Nevsky Prospect
Ponds	Fontanka
	Panteleymonovsky Aqueduct
	Fountains of the Summer Garden
Ponds in Tauride Garden	Steam pump
	Water inlet	1720s
Neva	Moyka

Riverside architectural objects

Flowing through the 18 and 19 century capital of the Russian Empire, the Moyka, similarly to other downtown rivers and streets got its sides decorated with Russian nobles' city palaces, mansions and gardens, historical churches, monuments, apartment buildings and hotels, public squares etc.

Source. Summer Garden, St Michael's Castle, Michael's Garden and the Field of Mars

Source of Moyka with surrounding landmarks

The Moyka is a right-hand distributary of the Fontanka and starts its course immediately to the south of the Summer Garden, making the southern border of the garden Island and separating it from the reddish St Michael's Castle.

The Summer Garden

The Summer Garden, which during the Swedish possession of these lands until they were taken by Russia in 1703 in the Great Northern War, was part of a Swedish army major. After the foundation and planning of the new Russian capital in the lands of Saint Petersburg, the victorious Peter I of Russia made this land plot into a gridlined garden where he placed for the first time in Russian history multiple imported statues of Greek and Roman mythology characters and had his Summer Palace built here following Dutch examples he had seen and liked on his grand tour of Europe. The Summer Garden and Palace, as well as the nearby St Michael's Castle and Garden, in post-Soviet Russia became branches of the national treasury of domestic art the Russian Museum and can be visited. The Summer Garden was mentioned by Alexander Pushkin both as his frequent place for pleasant walks, and as destination for childhood walks with a French governor of his classical for Russian literature novel in verse protagonist Eugene Onegin.

The garden's Moyka fence was designed by Ludwig Charlemagne [ru].

Behind the fence there is a pond on which swans are released in warm season.

Saint Michael's

Across the Moyka from the Summer Garden stands Saint Michael's Castle commissioned in late 18 century for himself by Emperor Paul I of Russia who had been born on this site when it was occupied by another Summer Palace - of his officially childless unmarried aunt Elisabeth I of Russia. Inspired by Western Europe models, the Castle was symbolic both of the Emperor's romantic chivalrous inclinations and his fear for his life. Interested in the high spirit of European knights, he gave shelter in Russia to the Order of Malta when its members lost their island to the troops of Napoleon. Paul's decision was unusual, given known rivalry between their Roman Catholic and his Russian Orthodox Church. He temporarily served as their Grand Master, and the Castle served as a residence connected with this together with his other ones including Gatchina Priory Palace. (See Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller).

His arbitrary domestic and international politics caused dissatisfaction among some of his courtiers who plotted against him, and he was assassinated in his Castle bedroom despite all his precautions: the Castle was surrounded by water on all four sides, drawbridges raised every night, yet the guard let conspirators pass as the latter included senior supervising officers.

After him the Castle was virtually neglected by the royal family of his eldest son and heir Alexander I of Russia and was used as a shared living space by some of the Imperial household until it was converted into a Military Engineering School whose cadets included the future writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. The cadets studied and lived in the building under Paul's third son, Alexander's successor Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and the edifice became also known as Engineers' Castle.

Occupied then by various Soviet institutions like the Central Naval Library, now the Castle is part of Russian Museum^[3], has been repaired and holds national exhibitions of art connected with history of Russia.

Michael's Garden and the Field of Mars

On the right bank of Moyka across the Swan Canal from Summer Garden lies a large open square named the Field of Mars after the Roman mythology god of war because in late 18 and in 19 century it was used for Emperors' military parades of the regiments quartered in the city as the capital of the country. Before that, the once marshy ground had been drained with canals and turned into a public meadow with amusements. When turned to military use, the ground was decorated with two monuments to victorious Russian Field Marshals of the second half of 18 century. One of the memorials - an obelisk to Count Pyotr Rumyantsev - was later moved to a dedicated smaller Rumyantsev Garden in Vassiliyevskiy Island, while the other one stands now at the other end of the field, facing Trinity Bridge. The sculpted figure of the Roman warrior deity stands to commemorate Count Alexander Suvorov.

After the February 1917 democratic revolution that destroyed Russian monarchy part of the field was used to bury the commoners - casualties of the revolutionary events, and in the Soviet times this part was made into a memorial of granite slabs inscribed with dedications to the heroes by the Bolshevik Government Secretary for Education Anatoly Lunacharskiy, and a gas burner Eternal Fire was placed in the middle. Many cultivars of lilac were planted in the square. In post-Soviet Russia the rest of the field has seen a number of public political rallies.

Palace Square and the State Choir Capella

Stroganov Palace

Alexander Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University main campus

The 18 century estate of Count Razumovsky with its palace and outbuildings was converted towards the end of the century into a royal charity - an orphanage that for the first time in national history gave shelter to children born out of wedlock, whose mothers could anonymously leave them in a basket supervised by the gatekeeper. They were nurtured and given general and vocational training and, if born to serfs, were set free from submission to landlords of their parents. Its mascot was the pelican, once believed to sacrifice itself nursing its young.

The bird is now on the crest of the city's large teacher-training university located in the former estate. Giving multilevel higher education at its colleges (faculties and institutes) grouped by school subjects and administrative spheres, in 1990ies it was recognised as having national importance. Named in the Soviet times after the 19 century Russian liberal thinker and writer Alexander Herzen. The main campus has about 20/buildings occupying a large city block, while some colleges of the University are scattered around the city.