Sandunоvskie Baths (russian: Сандуновские бани) or Sandunу (, ) is a cultural and architectural landmark in downtown

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, located at 14

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 in 1819. Throug ...

adjacent to the

Central Bank of Russia The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR; ), doing business as the Bank of Russia (russian: Банк России}), is the central bank of the Russian Federation. The bank was established on July 13, 1990. The predecessor of the bank can ...

. First opened in 1808, the baths were founded by and named after the Georgian businessman Sila Sandunov (Zandukeli) (1756–1820), who was once an actor at the court of

Catherine II , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...

during the 1790s. He bought a land plot on the

Neglinnaya River The Neglinnaya ( rus, Неглинная, p=nʲɪˈɡlʲinːəjə), also known as Neglinka, Neglinna, Neglimna (Неглинка, Неглинна, Неглимна), is a 7.5 km underground river in the central part of Moscow and a tributar ...

in 1800 to construct baths there.

History of ownership

In 1869, owned by merchant and landlord Ivan Grigorievich Firsanov, the baths were willed to Ivan Firsanov's only daughter, Vera Ivanovna, after his death in 1881. After Vera divorced her first husband, she married again to the officer Alexey Nikolayevich Ganetskiy, who was a son of General Nikolai Stepanovich Ganetskiy, participant of the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included t ...

. Alexey proposed the idea of building new baths of the like Moscow had never before seen on the place of the decaying building. In 1894, Ganetskiy hired a well-known architect Boris Viktorovich Freidenberg, but he dropped the project and left Moscow. However, the baths were finished by S.M. Kalugin and opened on February 14, 1896. Not long after completion, Ganetskiy lost ownership of Sanduny playing cards; afterward, Vera Ivanovna paid his debts and divorced again. The baths received water via a specially built

aqueduct Aqueduct may refer to: Structures *Aqueduct (bridge), a bridge to convey water over an obstacle, such as a ravine or valley *Navigable aqueduct, or water bridge, a structure to carry navigable waterway canals over other rivers, valleys, railw ...

from the Babyegorodskaya Dam on the

Moscow River The Moskva (russian: река Москва, Москва-река, ''Moskva-reka'') is a river running through western Russia. It rises about west of Moscow and flows roughly east through the Smolensk and Moscow Oblasts, passing through centr ...

and from 700 feet of

artesian well An artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing groundwater under positive pressure. An artesian aquifer has trapped water, surrounded by layers of impermeable rock or clay, which apply positive pressure to the water contained within th ...

. Electrical illumination was provided by a private electric power station, which was also used on the coronation of

Nikolai II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Polan ...

. Besides the baths, Sanduny also included a hotel, restaurants, and even the ''Zoological shop of F. A. Achilles''. Sanduny was serviced by approximately 400 attendants.

External links

*
Official website
* {{in lang, en}
Official website

Buildings and structures in Moscow 1896 establishments in the Russian Empire Public baths Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Moscow