Few of the residents and guests of Moscow know that they are separated from the underground river in the center of the capital by only a sewer manhole and a couple of meters of land. Neglinka originates from the Pashensky swamp near Maryina Roshcha and, crossing the central blocks of the city from north to south, flows under the streets that owe their names to it: Samotechnye Square, Boulevard and Lane, Neglinnaya Street and Trubnaya Square.
Neglinka is a legendary river of its kind. Not particularly long and full of water, it played a significant role in the life of Moscow: Neglinnaya contributed to the emergence of the valley on the banks of which the Kremlin stands. How the Neglinnaya River turned from a completely ordinary river into underground sewers, and what its fate is in modern Moscow, we will tell in this material.
The Neglinnaya (marked with an arrow), Yauza (right) and Moskva River rivers in the figure A. Vasnetsova "Bird's eye view of Moscow in the 12th century." The Neglinnaya River, before flowing into the Moscow River, skirted Borovitsky Hill, on which the first Slavic settlement arose 1000 years ago in a dense pine forest. In pagan times, Borovitsky Hill was called Witch Mountain and the temple of the ancient gods stood on it.
Change of river names in history
The Neglinka River was first mentioned in chronicles of the early 15th century under the name Neglimny. By the way, over the past years this river has changed many names, including Neglinnaya, Neglinnaya and Samoteka. According to one version, the latter name appeared due to the fact that the middle course of the river in the area of the current Trubnaya Square flowed from flowing ponds, that is, it flowed by gravity.
The role of Neglinka in the life of Moscow residents
It's hard to imagine, but Neglinnaya was once a deep river with clean water, and in its lower reaches it was even navigable. At the beginning of the 16th century, water for the ditch around the Kremlin wall came from Neglinnaya. Dams were built on the river, creating six interconnected ponds used for fish farming. Water was also taken from the ponds to extinguish fires that were frequent at that time.
Pollution problems
However, already in the middle of the 18th century, the waters of Neglinnaya were heavily polluted, as they were used as a waste drain for the needs of the rapidly growing population of Moscow and developing industry. It was decided to drain some of the ponds. It should be added that Neglinnaya flooded and flooded neighboring streets. Therefore, by 1775, Catherine II drew up a project in which Neglinnaya was ordered to be “turned into an open canal, with boulevards for walking along the banks.”
Pipe construction
However, the open canal, which smelled of sewage along its entire length, did not contribute to improving the atmosphere in the capital, so it was decided to fill it up, having previously covered it with arches. Military engineer E. Cheliev took up the construction of the underground bed, and under his leadership, by 1819, part of Neglinnaya from Samotechnaya Street to the mouth was enclosed in a pipe, which was a three-kilometer brick vault. And the banks of the former canal turned into Neglinnaya Street.
First major overhaul
Half a century later, the Neglinnaya collector stopped coping with the flow of water. During heavy floods and heavy rains, the river made its way to the surface. The situation was complicated by home owners who set up makeshift taps through which they dumped sewage into the river. And 1886-87. under the leadership of engineer N. Levachev, a major overhaul of the underground canal was carried out. The tunnel was divided into three sections.
Shchekotovsky tunnel
In 1910-1914. According to the design of engineer M. Shchekotov, a section of the Neglinka collector, located under Teatralnaya Square, was built. This tunnel, exactly 117 meters long, runs next to the Metropol Hotel and the Maly Theater. Now it is called in honor of its creator - “Shchekotovsky Tunnel”, and illegal excursions along the Neglinka are usually held here.
Flood problem
Despite the construction of more and more new collectors, the flooding did not stop - in the mid-60s of the last century, Neglinka again broke out to the surface and flooded some streets so much that they had to move along them by boats. When the sewer from Trubnaya Square to the Metropol Hotel was updated and significantly expanded in the early 70s, the flooding finally stopped.
Neglinka at the end of the twentieth century
By 1997, the studio of the artist and sculptor Zurab Tsereteli completed a project that included the reconstruction of the Neglinka riverbed from the Alexander Garden to Manezhnaya Square. This closed-circuit reservoir, in which the flow is artificially maintained, is not actually an attempt to bring a section of the river out of the ground, as many Muscovites believe. At the moment, the imitation of Neglinka in this place is equipped with fountains and sculptures.
The Pashenskoe swamp could occupy the territory up to modern Polkovaya Street, although this is only one of the versions.
Left tributary of the Moscow River. Length 7.5 km. enclosed in a pipe. Starting from the Pashensky swamp near Maryina Grove and crossing the central part of the city from north to south (flowed along the modern streets of Streletskaya, Novosuschevskaya, Dostoevsky, 3rd Samotyochny Lane, Samotyochny Square, Samotyochnaya Square, Tsvetnoy Boulevard, Trubnaya Square, Neglinnaya Street, Teatralnaya Square , Manezhnaya Square, Alexander Garden, along Kremlin wall before flowing into the Moscow River), the river had great importance for city life.
In the beginning. XVI century On Neglinka, six ponds were built (Neglinensky ponds), some of which (Samoteka) were lowered into the middle. XVIII century In con. XVIII century Neglinka was put through the canal, and in 1817–1819. enclosed in a pipe for 3 km. By 1966, the second mouth of the Neglinka had been formed, and a collector with a length of approx. 1 km from Teatralnaya Square. under Nikolskaya and Varvarka streets, in the 1970s. a new channel was laid from Trubnaya Square. to st. Okhotny Ryad (over 900 m long).
Mentioned in sources from 1401 as the Neglimna river, in the Book of the Great Drawing, 1627 Neglinn, in a source from the mid-17th century. Neglimna, but later Neglinnaya, Neglinka. The traditional explanation of the name comes from the Neglinn form and sees the Russian as the basis of the name. clay, that is, “a river with a non-clay bottom and banks.” However, the existence of a name with a similar meaning is unlikely due to its lack of information; while denying the clayey nature of the bottom, it does not say anything about its actual nature (sandy, rocky, muddy or some other). One can assume a connection between the name and the dialect word neglinko - swamp, swampy place with springs. Old literature has repeatedly noted the formation of creeks, swamps, swamps on this river, its shallowness, and slow flow.
At the beginning of the 16th century. The waters of Neglinnaya filled the ditch along the Kremlin wall. Stone dams were built on the river, forming a chain of six interconnected ponds, which were used for breeding fish and for putting out fires. Along the banks of the Neglinka there were mills, forges, baths and workshops. There were 4 bridges: Voskresensky (its fragments were discovered during archaeological excavations on Manezhnaya Square in 1994), the 3-span Kuznetsky, the ancient Troitsky and Petrovsky (discovered during the reconstruction of the stage of the Maly Theater).
Neglinnaya received on the right a stream from the Butyrsky Pond, a stream from the Antropov Pits, the Belaya River and the Uspensky Vrazhek, on the left - the Naprudnaya River and a stream from the Daev Pond. In the middle of the 18th century. due to population growth and industrial development, the water in Neglinnaya, already heavily polluted, smelled foul; It was decided to drain part of the ponds, which were called Samoteka.
During the war with the Swedes in 1707-1708. Excavation work was carried out to strengthen the walls of the Kremlin and Kitay-Gorod. During construction, Neglinnaya was transferred to a ditch located approximately where the Alexander Garden railing is now, and its bed was covered with earth, after which bastions were erected there, which were demolished only in 1819-1823.
In 1817-19 Neglinnaya was enclosed in a pipe for 3 km (hence the name Trubnaya Square). However, the collectors often became polluted, not containing the entire volume of water, especially during high waters and floods, which led to flooding of adjacent streets. By 1966, a second estuary was created: a collector was built (about 1 km long, up to 4 m in diameter), stretching from Teatralnaya Square under Nikolskaya and Varvarka streets, which drains the Neglinka waters into the Moscow River (almost 1 km below the old estuary), in the area of the Rossiya Hotel. In the 1970s a new channel (over 900 m long) was laid from Trubnaya Square to Okhotny Ryad Street.
Neglinka is a unique phenomenon. In the sense that everyone knows about this river, but no one has seen it, since it was enclosed in a pipe back in 1819. But, being hidden from human eyes, how many traces Neglinka left in Moscow names! This is Neglinnaya Street, which completely follows the riverbed, and 1-3 Neglinnaya Lanes, and Kuznetsky Bridge, dismantled as a bridge in the already mentioned 1819. But Neglinka’s traces are not limited to them alone. Trubnaya Square is perhaps not the most euphonious name. But it all comes from the same pipe in which Neglinka was imprisoned. Moreover, here it was hidden in a pipe even much earlier than the beginning of the 19th century. Even at the time when the walls of the White City arose, a pipe had to be built in the tower for the flow of water. The area that formed nearby began to be called very simply - the Pipe.
The name Neglinka attracted researchers due to the presence in sources (from the beginning of the 15th century) of variants Neglinna/Neglimna and the names of the area Neglimenye, Zaneglimenye. On this basis, V.N. Toporov (1972) classifies the hydronym as a Baltic substratum, elevating it to the stem *Ne-glim-in-, presumably from the root gilm (cf. Prussian Gilmen, lit. Gelmynas and others (lit. gilme “depth”) This etymology was supported by E.M. Pospelov (1999) as the most realistic: the hydronym Neglimna is interpreted as “a shallow, shallow river.” The opposite point of view: the name Neglinka is associated with the Russian appellative clay and means “a river with a non-clay bottom, shores" (in particular, it was expressed by G.P. Smolitskaya and M.V. Gorbanevsky, 1982). In Russian dialects, for example, in Ryazan, there is a transition from nn to plural: glymyanyy instead of clayey. In addition, in the Oka basin more than once there is a juxtaposition of hydronyms like Glinskaya/Neglinnaya, which provides an additional argument for the possible motivation for the name Neglinka as “a river with a non-clay bottom and banks,” i.e., by the nature of the soil (unlike other places in Moscow, for example, the Glinishchi area in the -not modern Slavyanskaya Square). Another name for the river - Samoteka - refers to a number of names of rivers that flowed from ponds with running water: the water from them flowed “by gravity”.
Few of the residents and guests of Moscow know that they are separated from the underground river in the center of the capital by only a sewer manhole and a couple of meters of land. Neglinka originates from the Pashensky swamp near Maryina Roshcha and, crossing the central blocks of the city from north to south, flows under the streets that owe their names to it: Samotechnye Square, Boulevard and Lane, Neglinnaya Street and Trubnaya Square.
Neglinka is a legendary river of its kind. Not particularly long and full of water, it played a significant role in the life of Moscow: Neglinnaya contributed to the emergence of the valley on the banks of which the Kremlin stands. How the Neglinnaya River turned from a completely ordinary river into underground sewers, and what its fate is in modern Moscow, we will tell in this material.
Change of river names in history
The Neglinka River was first mentioned in chronicles of the early 15th century under the name Neglimny. By the way, over the past years this river has changed many names, including Neglinnaya, Neglinnaya and Samoteka. According to one version, the latter name appeared due to the fact that the middle course of the river in the area of the current Trubnaya Square flowed from flowing ponds, that is, it flowed by gravity.
The role of Neglinka in the life of Moscow residents
It’s hard to imagine, but once upon a time the Neglinnaya was a full-flowing river with clean water, and in its lower reaches it was even navigable. At the beginning of the 16th century, water for the ditch around the Kremlin wall came from Neglinnaya. Dams were built on the river, creating six interconnected ponds used for fish farming. Water was also taken from the ponds to extinguish fires that were frequent at that time.
Pollution problems
However, already in the middle of the 18th century, the waters of Neglinnaya were heavily polluted, as they were used as a waste drain for the needs of the rapidly growing population of Moscow and developing industry. It was decided to drain some of the ponds. It should be added that Neglinnaya flooded and flooded neighboring streets. Therefore, by 1775, Catherine II drew up a project in which Neglinnaya was ordered to be “turned into an open canal, with boulevards for walking along the banks.”
Pipe construction
However, the open canal, which smelled of sewage along its entire length, did not contribute to improving the atmosphere in the capital, so it was decided to fill it up, having previously covered it with arches. Military engineer E. Cheliev took up the construction of the underground bed, and under his leadership, by 1819, part of Neglinnaya from Samotechnaya Street to the mouth was enclosed in a pipe, which was a three-kilometer brick vault. And the banks of the former canal turned into Neglinnaya Street.
First major overhaul
Half a century later, the Neglinnaya collector stopped coping with the flow of water. During heavy floods and heavy rains, the river made its way to the surface. The situation was complicated by home owners who set up makeshift taps through which they dumped sewage into the river. And 1886-87. under the leadership of engineer N. Levachev, a major overhaul of the underground canal was carried out. The tunnel was divided into three sections.
Shchekotovsky tunnel
In 1910-1914. According to the design of engineer M. Shchekotov, a section of the Neglinka collector, located under Teatralnaya Square, was built. This tunnel, exactly 117 meters long, runs next to the Metropol Hotel and the Maly Theater. Now it is called in honor of its creator - “Shchekotovsky Tunnel”, and illegal excursions along the Neglinka are usually held here.
Flood problem
Despite the construction of more and more new collectors, the flooding did not stop - in the mid-60s of the last century, Neglinka again broke out to the surface and flooded some streets so much that they had to move along them by boats. When the sewer from Trubnaya Square to the Metropol Hotel was updated and significantly expanded in the early 70s, the flooding finally stopped.
Neglinka at the end of the twentieth century
By 1997, the studio of the artist and sculptor Zurab Tsereteli completed a project that included the reconstruction of the Neglinka riverbed from the Alexander Garden to Manezhnaya Square. This closed-circuit reservoir, in which the flow is artificially maintained, is not actually an attempt to bring a section of the river out of the ground, as many Muscovites believe. At the moment, the imitation of Neglinka in this place is equipped with fountains and sculptures.
Three centuries ago, it was impossible to imagine Moscow without the Neglinnaya River. But the city developed rapidly, and by the end of the 18th century the river turned into a sewer. They even tried to improve it: ponds appeared in place of Tsvetnoy Boulevard, and along the entire length of present-day Neglinnaya Street the riverbed was straightened and stone embankments were built. But this did not help from the smell of sewage, and they decided to enclose the stinking river in a pipe. This was done in 1819, just during the massive reconstruction of Moscow during the restoration after the fire of 1812.
Underground Moscow is a whole world, and Neglinnaya is the most famous and most well-trodden underground river in the capital.
Let's take a walk along the old underground river and see what it looks like now —>
It would seem that Neglinka remained only in names - Neglinnaya Street, Kuznetsky Most. You can also go down to the Archeology Museum and admire the Resurrection Bridge. Or approach the Trinity Bridge from the Kutafya Tower, and imagine that instead of the flow of people through the Alexander Garden, Neglinnaya carries its waters under the arch of the bridge. And few people think about the fate of the river after it is imprisoned in a sewer.
Let's turn to the Neglinnaya collector diagram:
Pre-revolutionary collectors are marked in red, Soviet ones in black.
So, we go down and find ourselves in a 1906 sewer, with stunning brickwork.
We are under the park on Samotechnaya Street. View upstream to the north: the Neglinnaya collector goes to the left, the Naprudnaya river, the left tributary of the Neglinnaya, goes straight ahead.
All elements of the collector are very beautiful, despite the fact that this is an absolutely utilitarian structure.
We look up one more time before heading down the river. The hatch is very close, the surface of the earth is only a meter from the roof of the tunnel.
In front of us is a straight section of 1906, we are under Samotechny Boulevard, heading towards the Garden Ring.
Along the way we meet various interesting things. For example, storm drain collectors. This is also 1906. All these tunnels were built using open-pit construction. The egg-shaped shape was achieved thanks to wooden formwork, which was covered with bricks and then moved further.
Smaller streams were released through ceramic pipes. These pipes were made at the beginning of the twentieth century at a ceramic factory in the city of Borovichi. Note the graceful cross-section with four stripes. When laying new concrete pipes, the old ceramic ones were filled in. Here, a tree root comes out of the pipe. Moreover, it was much larger; part of it had already been chopped off.
A little closer to the Garden Ring, the brick collector is plastered. In some places it is crossed by other communications. The river seems very muddy and dirty. But it is worth noting that in Moscow the sewerage and storm drainage systems are separate. There are no bad odors in the Neglinnaya sewer, it smells like rainy dampness! Although, for example, in St. Petersburg, Paris, London, Kyiv and many other cities, sewerage and storm drainage systems are common.
And here we are at the Garden Ring. There is a whole crossroads of underground roads. On the left is Neglinka’s understudy. Even further to the left is a small tributary.
There was a snow removal chamber here. Instead of a concrete slab, there was a grate on top, through which snow was thrown into the collector from above back in the early 2000s.
A small tributary on the right side. A ladder to the top and a well leading to the hatch are visible.
We cross the Garden Ring. This is a collector from the 1880s. The base, water tray and lower parts of the walls are made of white stone. Above is plastered brick. Attention! There is a sharp left turn ahead.
Until 1974, the collector continued straight ahead, and then a new tunnel was built parallel to it on the left, and now the river turns 90 degrees to the left, in its direction. The old sewer has been preserved, but the passage into it has been blocked. Now it can only be reached from Trubnaya Square. What's there, around the bend?
Around the bend is a waterfall, albeit a small one. It is not difficult to overcome it.
You can get to this place if you turn left after the waterfall, against the flow of the river. This is part of the 1974 tunnel under the Garden Ring, so there is no current here.
From the bridge with the waterfall, we turn sharply to the right along with the waters of Neglinnaya and find ourselves in a long reinforced concrete collector under Tsvetnoy Boulevard. And yet, why was a new collector laid here parallel to the old one? The reason is floods. And we're not just talking about the 19th century. Imagine, in the 1960s and early 1970s, Tsvetnoy Boulevard and Trubnaya Square several times turned into a surface of water.
Flood of 1960. Neglinnaya street
The old collector from 1819 could not always cope with the volume of water during heavy summer rainfalls. Minor floods occurred almost every year; Muscovites especially remember the floods of 1949, 1960, 1965 and 1973.
Flood of 1960. Garden Ring, Samotechnaya Square. Ahead is Tsvetnoy Boulevard.
The patience of the city authorities ran out, and in 1974 they laid a new concrete collector, much wider than the original one. The difference is obvious: the old collector passed only 13.7 m3/s of water, and the new one - 66.5 m3/s. Neglinka was tamed, and since then she has not come out anymore.
The collector was built using an open method, using prefabricated reinforced concrete elements. The new tunnel ran from the Garden Ring to Teatralny Proezd: under Tsvetnoy Boulevard and Neglinnaya Street.
The hatch and the light from it are very close.
We walk along the concrete collector of 1974 along the entire Tsvetnoy Boulevard, and under Trubnaya Square we turn right. This is what we were looking for - the legendary “Gilyarovsky Trail”, a fragment of the original collector of 1819. Water has not flowed here for more than 40 years.
Vladimir Gilyarovsky:
“And so, on a hot July day, we raised an iron drain well in front of Malyushin’s house, near Samoteka, and lowered a ladder there. Nobody paid attention to our operation - everything was done very quickly: they raised the bars, lowered the stairs. Foul-smelling steam was pouring out of the hole.”
Malyushin’s house is house 19. It was located on the site of the current exit from the Tsvetnoy Boulevard metro station. From there Gilyarovsky walked along Neglinka to Trubnaya Square. And he climbed to the surface approximately where we enter this area:
Gilyarovsky trail. This original collector is wider and lower in cross-section than the one that runs under Samotechnaya Street. The photo was taken from point 1 (look at the map).
Gilyarovsky:
“I was left alone in this walled crypt and walked about ten steps in knee-deep water. Has stopped. There was darkness all around me. The darkness is impenetrable, a complete absence of light. I turned my head in all directions, but my eye could not discern anything.
I hit my head on something, raised my hand and felt the wet, cold, warty, mucus-covered stone vault and nervously pulled my hand away... I even became scared. It was quiet, only the water was gurgling below. Every second of waiting for a worker with fire seemed like an eternity.”
Gilyarovsky:
“With the help of a light bulb, I examined the walls of the dungeon, damp, covered with thick mucus. We walked for a long time, in places plunging into deep mud or unclimbable, fetid liquid mud, in places bending over, since the drifts of mud were so high that it was impossible to walk straight - I had to bend down, and yet at the same time I reached the arch with my head and shoulders. My feet sank into the mud, sometimes bumping into something solid. It was all covered in liquid mud, it was impossible to see, and who knows.”
We have reached point 2. Now this collector is a dead end. The water here is stagnant, and since there is no current, what follows is impassable mud. Somewhere there, in the distance, is the same hatch into which Gilyarovsky descended.
Gilyarovsky:
“Again above us is a quadrangle of clear sky. A few minutes later we came across a rise under our feet. There was a pile of mud here that was especially thick, and apparently there was something piled up underneath the dirt... We climbed through the pile, lighting it with a light bulb. I poked my foot, and something springed under my boot... We stepped over the pile and moved on. In one of these drifts, I was able to see the half-covered corpse of a huge Great Dane. It was especially difficult to get over the last drift before exiting to Trubnaya Square, where the stairs awaited us. Here the mud was especially thick, and something kept slipping under our feet. It was scary to think about it.
But Fedya still burst out:
“What I say is true: we go after people.”
And this could well be true, because the places around are gangster - the slum Grachevka with taverns, brothels and flophouses. Just look at the Hell tavern, a breeding ground for crime. In the mid-19th century, Governor General Zakrevsky even ordered the trees on Trubnoy Boulevard to be cut down so that bandits would not hide in the thickets. And on the boulevard itself, to cultivate it, they set up flower shops and renamed the most criminal boulevard in Moscow Tsvetnoy.
The vault is brick and plastered, the base is white stone. There are marks on the bricks of the vault:
Brick stamp with the abbreviation KAZ. These marks date back to the 1810s - 1830s, which corresponds to the construction of the Neglinnaya collector.
We return along the Gilyarovsky path back to Trubnaya Square.
By the way, Trubnaya Square is called that not because Neglinka is leaking in the pipe. The name is much older. In this place, from the end of the 16th century, Neglinnaya crossed the fortress wall of the White City. For some reason, the arch in the wall for the river was called a pipe:
Trubnaya Square at the beginning of the 18th century. Reconstruction of Apollinary Vasnetsov
The name spread to the surrounding area and then justified itself when the river was actually chained into a “pipe”. In the first half of the 19th century, Tsvetnoy Boulevard was called Trubnoy.
And now a little about the inhabitants of Neglinnaya.
Where would we be without cockroaches? Here they are of a noble color, the color of mahogany. 3-4 centimeters long. In 2010, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov came down to Neglinka and spoke about others, white and 10 cm tall:
“Large cockroaches live and thrive there, which we could not even imagine in our everyday life - about ten centimeters. They are white because it is dark there, and they do not want people to touch them with their hands. I tried this, but they jump straight into the water. They are good swimmers".
Suddenly the concrete collector breaks off and beauty awaits us ahead:
In the frame, the so-called Shchekotovsky tunnel is a section built by engineer M.P. Shchekotov in 1914 under Teatralnaya Square. This section is only 117 meters long, 3.6 meters high and 5.8 meters wide. Not just a monument of engineering art, but also crazy a nice place. The brickwork is mesmerizing! There is not a single corner here, the entire section line is smooth, as if the influence of the Art Nouveau style is felt. Everything was built using wooden formwork. And this is the only one of the pre-revolutionary Neglinnaya tunnels that has sidewalks on the sides of the man-made river bed. There is information that they wanted to make the entire Neglinnaya collector from Tsvetnoy Boulevard the same, but the outbreak of the First World War prevented it.
In the previous frame, traces of the exits of the old sewer from the early 19th century, which is now inactive, are visible on the sides.
The turn of the Shchekotovsky tunnel is the most beautiful place in Neglinnaya. It was here that Yuri Luzhkov descended.
This tunnel runs from the corner of the Maly Theater diagonally under Teatralny Proezd, and makes a turn under Teatralnaya Square. Before its construction, a narrow old sewer reached from Neglinnaya Street almost to the wall of the Metropol Hotel and turned at a right angle to the right. For this reason, large blockages constantly occurred here, and because of them, floods. The construction of the Shchekotovsky tunnel solved the problem in the Teatralnaya Square area.
Meanwhile, we approached the finishing point - the gate chamber under the square on Teatralnaya Square.
Fork. The sewer underneath the Kitay-Gorod quarters runs straight out, flowing into the Moscow River at Zaryadye. It was built in 1966 using a closed method (boring shield). And to the right there is an old collector from 1819, passing under the Alexander Garden. It was reconstructed and is now used as a reserve watercourse in case of severe filling of the collector. Just three years ago, through this tunnel it was possible to reach the confluence with the Moscow River at the Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge. But then gratings were installed here and any movement in this tunnel is subject to complex approvals from the FSO.
We are standing at point 4 - at the fork. Point 3 - the beginning of the Shchekotovsky tunnel.
The beauty of Moscow is even underground!
Text: Alexander Ivanov
Photo: found on the Internet
I have wanted to visit this river for a very long time. Of course, he lived next to her almost all his life, but never saw her alive. But the fact is that for almost 200 years the Neglinka River has been flowing underground, and only the names of the streets along which it passes remind of its existence: Samotechnaya, Trubnaya, Neglinnaya, Kuznetsky Most..
But we know that there IS a river! Thanks to the community mosblog
I finally had the chance to see her with my own eyes. 
1. The Neglinka River begins in the Maryina Roshcha area, flows to Suvorovskaya Square, and then under Samotyochny Square, Tsvetnoy Boulevard, Neglinnaya Street, Teatralny Proezd, Revolution Square. Further, it is very interesting: one branch flows under the Alexander Garden (it served as a “ditch” that defended the Moscow Kremlin), and the second - under Red Square.
2. The Neglinka River flowed freely until the beginning of the 19th century, after which they decided to drive it underground - it became too smelly then due to the fact that conscious citizens dumped their waste there en masse. And so, in 1817-19, a collector was built, and from then on it was hidden from human eyes. 
3. You can get to Neglinka through an ordinary sewer hatch. 
4. We started in the Dostoevskaya metro area. The historicity of the building is immediately apparent. Nowadays no one would build such a collector lined with bricks. I wonder if it is an architectural monument? 
5. You have to walk slowly because you are walking straight on the water. It's good that there are shoe covers. 
6. We begin to look at familiar hatches from an unusual side :) 
7. Some kind of piles. As with the metro, the collector was broken a couple of times by builders who did not calculate the load when driving piles. However, it is not very clear what the builders could have built there in the park. 
9. There are a lot of interesting things in the collector. Here, for example, is a heating main 
10. Closer to the Garden Ring, another river flows into the Neglinka from the left - Naprudnaya. This river begins in the area of the Rizhsky Station, flows under the Catherine Park, where it forms a pond. 
11. However, quite a lot of sewers with all sorts of streams flow into the river 
12.
13. Closer to Samotyochnaya Square there is a place where the floor of the collector is decorated with marble! 
14. There are different people here. There are also pigs 
15. 
16. There is some kind of white coating on the ceiling of the collector. 
17. And the bricks are so old and authentic... Oh, what is this? Is it really a flower? 
18. And so, on Samotyochnaya Square, the route along the old collector is interrupted and the river flows into a new one. 
19. The new collector is located a couple of meters lower than the old one; in order to go down there, you need to use elements of climbing equipment. 
20. 
21. The new collector was built in 1962. It was needed because during the rains the old one was constantly overflowing during the rains and there were constant floods on Tsvetnoy Boulevard and Neglinnaya. 
22. This collector is wider and much more spacious than the old one. Here you can walk along the "embankments" 
23. But you should walk more carefully. You might get run over by some stream or drain. 
24. We are already walking under the left side of Tsvetnoy Boulevard (the one that is not next to the metro and the circus). In some places there are ladders to hatches. 
25. For some reason all sorts of crap is wound on parts of them 
26. The storm drains of Tsvetnoy Boulevard all lead here. And through them we see sunlight! 
27. Some hatches are periodically found along the river bed. Is there really something under Neglinka? No, these are hatches from the surface that fell here. 
28. Streams again 
29. Traces of previous visitors 
30. On the approach to Trubnaya Square, the river makes a turn. Well, like the boulevard, actually. You know this bend. 
31.
32. Even further, a passage to the old collector will open. Nothing much has flowed through it for a long time. 
33. But you can walk along it to the “well”. This well is located directly under Trubnaya Square and was dug during the construction of the Trubnaya metro station. So that all groundwater flows there. But something didn’t work out for them and the well was filled with water before they completed it. 
34. Now there are a bunch of all sorts of pieces of iron floating around here... Although what am I saying, pieces of iron can’t float. 
35. And we move on. Getting closer and closer to the center. All kinds of art are becoming more and more common 
36. The eternal philosophical question. 
37. Happens with enviable regularity. 
38. Apparently someone really wanted to ask those climbing in Neglinka: why do you come here? 
39. According to the story of our guide - Enigma - a digger who climbed into some cool place, burned himself shamefully there, after which the passage to this place was closed. Now many in the digger crowd hate him 
40. However, wall showdowns between diggers are not uncommon here. 
41. There are small stalactites 
42. Sign again. Reminds me of Syana, where such goodness is more than enough. 
43. And now the new collector ends, the historical collector begins again 
44. Much wider and more beautiful this time! Still, Neglinka is already much fuller here than in the Dostoevskaya area. 
45. This tunnel was built at the beginning of the 20th century. 
46. Still the very center - Teatralny Proezd! There should be no remake here, either on the ground or underground! 
47. Both the side paths and the riverbed are all brick! 
48. And at the top there is some kind of white coating 
49. And here is the final point of our route - somewhere under Revolution Square. Until recently, it was possible to go further: under the Alexander Garden, Red Square, and go all the way to the mouth of the Moscow River! 
50. It is here that the Neglinka divides into two branches. But just recently (in April) the FSO put gratings on both channels here, as a result of which it is now impossible to go further. It is also dangerous to come close to the bars - there is a motion sensor there. The special services can light up and “wait” at the exit.
54. And finally... Sunlight!! We climb out through the same hatch that we climbed in. 
55. And so, after almost four hours, our excursion ended. It’s funny that I took a trolleybus from home to the starting point, but during the walk we walked twice as far there and the same distance back! Approximately from Dostoevskaya to approximately Red Square.
Having put down all the equipment, we walked through Samotyochny Park, looking with new eyes at the places under which we had just roamed. 
56. This is how it came out interesting walk. It’s interesting, of course, that I’ve walked along all these streets hundreds of times, walked around each of them, well, just up and down, I probably know every centimeter :) And I only had the chance to find out what the area UNDER them looks like now. Although, of course, there have been attempts to climb there for a long time. Once a friend from Latvia suggested doing this, but it was a little scary, not knowing what and how, where to climb, where to go, what to do if something suddenly happened. In the end we didn't go. 
Once again, I sincerely thank the community for this walk. mosblog . By the way, I advise everyone to sign up for it: they often invite you to various interesting events: excursions to unusual places, trips to the theater, all sorts of master classes. If you write something like this on your blog, you definitely need to go there!
