Carpie's Pond

Karpiev Pond is located in the St. Petersburg Summer Garden. In 1704, according to the plan for the improvement of the city's space, work began on laying out the Summer Garden, one of Peter the Great's favorite places, which he decided to arrange a well-groomed little Europe here. In the early years, Peter the Great drew and made changes to the drawings of the Summer Garden. Starting in 1709, the tsar entrusted A.D. Menshikov with overseeing the work. First, the swamps were drained, then they began to prepare solid ground. The second stage of the development is the creation of cascade ponds, one of which was the Karpiev Pond. It is where visitors get to first when they enter the Garden from the side of the Sink.

Swans and their charm

Ever since the time of Peter the Great, Karpiev Pond has attracted the attention of swans. It is known that swans will never settle in dirty places. Crows and swans are birds of different flight: swans always avoid close communication with crows. The presence of swans is a sure sign of cleanliness and well-grooming of both the artificial Carp pond and the surrounding area. You can admire their grace only in the warm summer season for about five months - in winter they are sent to spend the winter at the Moscow Zoo, which, curiously, has to pay dearly for the rental of noble birds.

Animate and inanimate sights

Now Karpiev Pond has been chosen as a place of constant pilgrimage by a pair of inseparable swans, Ruslan and Lyudmila, named after the names that Alexander Pushkin glorified in his poem. People say that black swans used to swim in the pond. Carp pond began to bear this name because of its inhabitants - carp. Previously, the reservoir was decorated with fountains, in 1839 it acquired a vase, made by order of the Swedish monarch Charles XIV especially for the Russian Emperor Nicholas I. The Elfdalena vase is an act of reconciliation and at the same time a sign of recognition of the valor of the Russian army.