The Neglinnaya ( rus, Неглинная, p=nʲɪˈɡlʲinːəjə), also known as Neglinka, Neglinna, Neglimna (Неглинка, Неглинна, Неглимна), is a 7.5 km

underground river A subterranean river (also known as an underground river) is a river or watercourse that runs wholly or partly beneath the ground, one where the riverbed does not represent the surface of the Earth. It is distinct from an aquifer, which may flow ...

in the central part of

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the river

Moskva Moscow is the capital and largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents within the city limits, over 19.1 million residents in the urban area, and over ...

. It flows in the tunnels under Samotechnaya Street,

Tsvetnoy Boulevard Tsvetnoy Boulevard (), called Trubny Boulevard before 1851, is a boulevard in the Meschansky District, central Moscow, Russia. Not a part of the Boulevard Ring, the street runs north/south from Petrovsky Boulevard and Rozhdestvensky Boulevard in ...

Neglinnaya Street Neglinnaya Street (Russian: Неглинная улица) is a street inside the Garden Ring of Moscow, Russia. It runs from the Bolshoi Theatre to the Trubnaya Square. The street was paved over the underground Neglinnaya River The Neglinna ...

and

Alexander Garden Alexander Gardens () 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 between the building of the Moscow Manege and the Kr ...

and Zaryadye. The Neglinnaya discharges into the Moskva through two separate tunnels near

Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge (, ''Greater Stone Bridge'') is a steel arch bridge spanning Moskva River at the western end of the Moscow Kremlin. Its predecessor was the first permanent stone bridge in Moscow, Russia. The existing bridge was completed ...

and

Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge The Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge () is a concrete arch bridge that spans the Moskva River in Moscow, Russia, immediately east of the Moscow Kremlin, Kremlin. The bridge connects Red Square with Bolshaya Ordynka Street in Zamoskvorechye. Built in 1 ...

History

The river in its natural state used to flow openly from the northern parts of

to the south across the very centre of the city. The

Kremlin The Moscow Kremlin (also the Kremlin) is a fortified complex in Moscow, Russia. Located in the centre of the country's capital city, the Moscow Kremlin (fortification), Kremlin comprises five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Mosco ...

was built on a hill east of the Neglinnaya, using the river as a moat. The moat did not stop foreign invasions but slowed development of territories west of the Kremlin; initially, the city grew eastward, into

Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', p=ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ) is one of the oldest and largest town square, squares in Moscow, Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, along the eastern walls of ...

and

Kitay-gorod Kitay-gorod (, ), also referred to as the Great Possad () in the 16th and 17th centuries, is a cultural and historical area within the central part of Moscow in Russia, defined by the remnants of now almost entirely razed fortifications, narro ...

. When Muscovites began settling on the western side, territories around the Neglinnaya remained vacant due to frequent flooding. Muscovites constructed a number of

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

s, creating a chain of six interconnected

pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

s, used for firefighting, with

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

forge A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace (smithy) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging, or to the ...

workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the only ...

s and

public bath Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...

s (Moscow's two best-known public baths, Central and Sandunоvskie, built in 1890s, are still located on

). There were four

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

s across the Neglinnaya River: Voskresensky Bridge (its fragments unearthed during a 1994 excavation), three-span Kuznetsky Bridge, Trinity Bridge and

Petrovsky Bridge Petrovsky (feminine: Petrovskaya) is a Russian-language surname. Notable people with the surname include: People *Adolf Petrovsky (1887–1937), Soviet diplomat * (born 1981), Russian singer *Boris Petrovsky (1908–2004), Soviet surgeon and pol ...

(the remains of the last were discovered during the reconstruction of the Maly Theatre). The first plans to rebuild the Neglinnaya River, presented in 1775, materialized in 1792. A new

masonry Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

, one

sazhen Historical Russian units of measurement were standardized and used in the Russian Empire and after the Russian Revolution, but were abandoned after 21 July 1925, when the Soviet Union adopted the metric system. The Tatar system is very similar t ...

(2.13 m) wide, was laid parallel to the Neglinnaya; after diverting water into the channel, builders filled the old river bed with earth. After the

Fire of Moscow (1812) During the French occupation of Moscow, a fire persisted from 14 to 18 September 1812 and all but destroyed the city. The Russian Empire, Russian troops and most of the remaining civilians had abandoned the city on 14 September 1812 just ahe ...

, the canal was so polluted that the city cleared it and covered with a masonry vault, creating the first

Neglinnaya Tunnel Neglinnaya, in Moscow, Russia, refers to: * Neglinnaya River, currently locked into a tunnel * Neglinnaya Street, built in 1820s over this tunnel; the boundary between Tverskoy District and Meshchansky District * toponym for Central Bank of Russia ...

(1817-1819), which also formed present-day

and Theatre Square. Before centralised city sewage (1887), the tunnel doubled as a sewer, dumping the refuse into the Moskva River. The first reconstruction (1910—1914) replaced part of the tunnel with a larger pipe, but was terminated by

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. This new pipe, designed by engineer Schekotov (''Schekotov Tunnel''), was adequate by any standard, and could suffice, if completed in full length. Narrow cross-section of old pipe, however, could not accommodate the volume of water, especially during

high water High Water or Highwater may refer to: * High water, the state of tide when the water rises to its highest level. Film and television * Highwater (film), ''Highwater'' (film), a 2008 documentary * ''Step Up: High Water'', a web television series * ...

and

freshet The term ''freshet'' is most commonly used to describe a snowmelt, an annual high water event on rivers resulting from snow and river ice melting. Description A spring freshet can sometimes last several weeks on large river systems, resulting ...

s, flooding central streets; the most recent catastrophic floods occurred in 1965 (twice) and 1973 (also twice). In 1966, the city built a second arm for the Neglinnaya River (length: 1 km,

width Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Intern ...

: 4 m), cutting the path under Zaryadye. In 1974–1989, after the 1973 flood, the city built a completely-new 4 km tunnel, 3.47 m high and 4.90 m wide, from Durova Street to Metropol Hotel (where the tunnel forks into two branches). The old tunnel was reused as a pipe and cable conduit. Present-day ponds on Manezhnaya Square (1996) are not the Neglinnaya River but an imitation. The real river runs too deep to be properly displayed. The area is dotted with diminutive statues on subjects taken from Russian

fable Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a parti ...

s designed by

Zurab Tsereteli Zurab Konstantinovich Tsereteli ( ka, ზურაბ კონსტანტინეს ძე წერეთელი, tr'';'' 4 January 1934 – 22 April 2025) was a Georgian painter, sculptor and architect known for large-scale and at ti ...

Gallery

File:Vasnetsov Lubyanoy torg na Trube.jpg, "Truba" ("Tube") in wall of

Bely Gorod Bely Gorod (, , ) is the central core area of Moscow, Russia beyond the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod. The name comes from the color of its defensive wall, which was erected in 1585–1593 at the behest of tsar Feodor I and Boris Godunov by architect ...

. By

Apollinary Vasnetsov Apollinary Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov (; – 23 January 1933) was a Russian painter and graphic artist. He specialised in scenes from the medieval history of Moscow. Vasnetsov did not receive a formal artistic education. He had studied under his ...

File:Vasnetsov Pushechno-Liteyny dvor.jpg, Kuznetsky Bridge. By

File:Vasnetsov Na rassvete u Voskresenskogo mosta.jpg, Voskresensky Bridge. By

. Away see Troitsky Bridge File:Vasnetsov Staroye ustye Neglinnoy 17 vek-1924.jpg, Mouth of Neglinnaya. By

image:Neglinka001.jpg, Neglinnaya River approximately under the

Animal Theatre Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Biology, biological Kingdom (biology), kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, ...

image:Neglinka002.jpg, Numerous small connecting pipes to the underground river image:Neglinka003.jpg, Connecting tunnels image:Neglinka004.jpg, Modern section of the tunnel image:Neglinka005.jpg, Modern section connecting a historical length of the tunnel image:Neglinka006.jpg, Historical length of the tunnel image:Neglinka007.jpg, Junction of tunnels image:Neglinka008.jpg, Surface exit

External links

* {{in lang, ru Contractors report with photographs of the 1965 floo
www.mosinzhproekt.ru
Rivers of Moscow History of Moscow Rivers of Moscow Oblast Subterranean rivers