The open-air swimming pool "Moscow" existed in the capital from 1960 to 1994. It was located in the center of Moscow, on the banks of the Moscow River.
Open swimming pool"Moscow" in 1971. Photo: V. Shiyanovsky/RIA Novosti
Now in its place is the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
The huge swimming pool was accessible to all segments of the population. The tragic fate that befell him is a black spot in the history of the capital.
Amazing innovation
Construction of the Moscow swimming pool began in 1958 and two years later the first guests visited it.
There was no shortage of people wanting to swim in the new pool.
Even when driving past the pool in a trolleybus, you could see swimmers at any time of the year.
"Moscow" was the largest swimming pool in the USSR and one of the most large swimming pools all over the world at that time. But this was not the only thing that attracted people.
The fundamentally new concept of water recreation was appreciated. The paths in the pool were located in small areas, and the entire remaining space was covered with water.
Advantages of the Moscow pool
The Moscow pool had plenty of advantages that sometimes delighted residents:
- The pool was created in a round shape and divided into several sectors, where there were separate men's and women's changing rooms.
- There was also a sports sector here, with its own entrance and no access to other sectors. It contained a steam room, a sauna and a diving tower with different heights.
- You did not need a doctor's certificate to swim in the pool. Perhaps this is not such a virtue. But for people who were tired of running in lines at hospitals, this was a significant plus.
- Tickets were sold at the box office near the exit from the Kropotkinskaya metro station. At the pool, hats, swimming trunks, slippers, swimsuits, snorkels, masks and fins were available for rent.
- The sanitary condition of the water was strictly monitored and samples were constantly taken. The water was passed through special filters and chlorinated. The sanitary and epidemiological station, for all 33 years of the pool’s existence, did not make any claims.
- The pool was open all year round, even in winter.
Disadvantages of the Moscow pool
Alas, the Moscow pool had only one, but significant drawback - it caused corrosion of neighboring buildings.
This happened due to the steam that enveloped the pool, especially in winter. Steam appeared due to the fact that:
1) the water temperature was maintained thanks to artificial heating;
2) the pool had a gigantic area of evaporation of the water surface.
In addition, “Moscow” was located opposite the Pushkin Museum. There were often complaints from the leaders of this institution, since steam could ruin museum exhibits.
Closing the pool
The Moscow central swimming pool ceased operations four years before its demolition. In 1991, water and electricity prices rose significantly. The cost of maintenance has become unprofitable.
The pool bowl stood without water for more than 3 years, which led to deformation of the expansion joints. The pipeline network was severely corroded. Restoring it to its original appearance was too expensive.
At the beginning of September on the territory sports complex Luzhniki opened a renovated stadium, Luzhnetskaya embankment and workout grounds. Construction of all sports facilities at Luzhniki is scheduled to be completed in 2019. What else will appear on the territory, read the material of the Moscow 24 portal.
Photo: portal Moscow 24/Mikhail Kolobaev
Historic swimming pool and water park
Swimming pool "Luzhniki", 2014. Photo: Moscow 24 portal
The all-season swimming pool "Luzhniki" was opened in 1956. But over decades of intensive use, reinforced concrete baths, stands, brick walls of the pool and engineering systems fell into disrepair.
In 2014, a nationwide competition was held for the best pool reconstruction project. The winner of the competition proposed to recreate the pool as a modern multifunctional center.
The concept of the new Luzhniki swimming pool. Photo: UNK project/TASS
The new pool building will retain the main features of the old one and, accordingly, stylistic unity with the others sports facilities"Luzhniki". During the work, the colonnade will be recreated, and historical high reliefs removed from the old building will be placed inside the new building on the wall of the main entrance to the pool area.
The Luzhniki swimming pool will have a professional sports swimming pool with 10 lanes and two pools with 3 lanes, a water park for the whole family, sports training rooms, a fitness center and spa, a boxing club, and a center under one roof. children's sports. Up to 10 thousand people will be able to relax and play sports in the renovated Luzhniki swimming pool every day. Also, children under 16 years old will be able to use the pool - previously young athletes were not allowed to participate in classes.
Photo: portal Moscow 24/Lidiya Shironina
Now on the territory of Luzhniki there is already an open summer aqua complex designed to accommodate more than a thousand people per day. The aqua complex includes two outdoor pools - sports and beach, as well as gym with a sandy training area. In addition, here you can visit the sauna, beach volleyball court, relax on sun loungers or in the children's playground and have a snack in the cafe.
Building or gymnastics ribbon
Photo: portal Moscow 24/Lidiya Shironina
Construction of the Center rhythmic gymnastics Irina Viner-Usmanova began in 2016. Architecturally, the center will be a rectangular building with a wave-shaped roof, symbolizing a gymnastics ribbon.
The building will house an arena for competitions with stands for spectators with 4 thousand seats, halls for training, choreography and a gym. The center will also open a medical rehabilitation center and doping control rooms, a hotel for athletes, a spa area, premises for the media and VIP visitors, as well as public catering areas.
Photo: portal Moscow 24/Lidiya Shironina
New sports facility Luzhniki will be able to host competitions of the highest international level and will become a training place for future stars of Russian and world rhythmic gymnastics. Construction of the center is planned to be completed in 2018.
On the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the unbuilt Palace of Soviets, a colossal outdoor swimming pool opened. On a sacred place a symbol of a new era arose - young, athletic, technically daring
The largest Orthodox cathedral was blown up in 1931 in order to build the largest state office in its place - the design of a hundred-story Palace of Soviets with a statue of Lenin instead of a spire won the competition. Before the war, they managed to dig a pit and lay the foundation, and then the work was stopped. When high-rise buildings were designed, the Palace was still considered the main one. Having condemned architectural excesses, construction gigantism was abandoned. Only Khrushchev could make the political decision to fill a bathing pond a stone's throw from the Kremlin.
Of course, “Moscow” is the largest outdoor pool in the world: 13 thousand m 2 of water surface, up to 2 thousand people can swim at the same time. Apart from the sports sector with a tower and tracks, the rest of the space is open. This is not olympic stadium, and the grandiose center of the new water recreation. There are benches and sun loungers at the edges, and apple orchards are planted around. The main attraction: the pool is year-round, in winter the water is also heated to 28-30 degrees. People floating in the cold in clouds of steam look especially fantastic when it snows.
Some people are afraid or disdainful to climb into the collective font, but the majority greeted the new attraction with enthusiasm: in the 1960s, 24 million visits were counted. Sessions are one and a half hours long: an hour in the water and 15 minutes in the shower before and after changing clothes. The ticket price is one and a half rubles “new”, if the subscription costs 50 kopecks. There is no need for a doctor’s certificate: the water is reliably disinfected. There is a rental of swimming trunks, swimsuits and the obligatory hats. Protests from believers are not heard - and who will give them the floor, but they say that diagonally across Volkhonka they are supposedly dampening the canvases in the Pushkin Museum. “Moskva” will operate until 1991, when soaring prices for water and electricity will make the facility unprofitable. The bowl will be empty for four years, and then the pool will be demolished to “recreate” the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
Phenomena mentioned in the text
Stalin's skyscrapers 1952
The first high-rise buildings were built in Moscow. Although there are no others and there won’t be any, the skyscrapers will be called Stalinist. They are the main monument of the era
Architectural excesses 1955
Having declared the previous architectural style “decorative”, the authorities intend to continue to carry out almost only standard economy-class construction. However, the population, including the elite, will prefer apartments in “Stalinist” houses
New money 1961
Since January 1, 1961, monetary reform has been carried out in the USSR. This is a denomination: old-style rubles are exchanged for new ones in a ratio of ten to one with the same reduction in the price scale
Peter I. ХХС 1997
In the very center of the capital, by to different parties Moscow River, two super-dominants were erected. The largest monument to Peter the Great in Russia was erected and the largest Orthodox cathedral in the world, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, was “recreated”. The new President of the Russian Academy of Arts, Zurab Tsereteli, is fruitfully collaborating with the mayor’s office on both priority projects.
It began in 1958, and in 1960 the pool received its first visitors. The new sports facility quickly became a favorite place for Muscovites where they could relax and play sports. The pool was open all year round, even in winter you could see people swimming in it. It was the most large swimming pool in the USSR and one of the largest swimming pools in the world at that time. He implemented a fundamentally new concept of recreation on the water, when the pool had lanes only in a small segment, and the rest of the space was available for swimming up and down.
Beginning of construction of the Palace of the Soviets. Photo from the 1930s...
The palace was never built... 
It's time for an exciting story. You all probably know that there is a sea near Moscow (http://www.bibliotekar.ru/evrika/2-14.h tm). It is located at depths of 1000 – 1400 m). So, when the famous Moscow swimming pool was built, there was an idea to fill the pool with this sea water, but for some reason this did not happen.
Moscow has experience in drilling wells to the sea. Wells for the extraction of ancient sea water were drilled by workers of the Promburvod trust of the Ministry of Installation and Special Construction Works of the USSR. One of the wells is at the Moscow Meat Processing Plant on Talalikhin Street. There is another well on Talalikhin Street - at the balneological hospital. Wells have also been drilled in a number of sanatoriums near Moscow - Dorokhovo, Monino, Arkhangelskoye and others. In wartime, salt was extracted from these waters when the route to the original salt-mining areas was cut off by the enemy.
An eyewitness account: “Having heard about this, the director of the Moscow basin, I.S. Stopani, at his own peril and risk, began drilling work in the place where the monument to the Tsar now stands. The slotting machine covered 70 meters. And no matter how you pass by, behind the fence of the drilling rig there is a solid mat. I'm wondering - what's the matter? Drillers say that the lid of the drill is constantly clogged with something and does not allow work; they have to lift the tool to the surface. I took this “something” in my hands and it turned out to be an irregularly shaped piece of metal with a characteristic shine on the cut. Most likely, it was an alloy of lead and tin, poured into the wells during the construction of the Temple in 1839. Wow, the foundation, the elements of which went 70 meters.
But let's return to the drilling operations of our time. The day came when the slotting machine had to be replaced on the drilling rig to cover approximately 1650 more meters. For the work done, the drillers presented the Moscow Sports Committee with a bill almost equal to its annual budget. And the case is stuck in proceedings. It ended with the well being plugged in accordance with the required standards.” 
The first time after its opening, rumors circulated in Moscow that people often drowned in it. Especially in winter. Allegedly, a certain sect of “drowers” was operating, taking revenge for the construction of a “giant puddle” on the church site. How true this was is not known. Most likely, another urban legend.
The Moscow pool had a round shape and was divided into several sectors, with changing rooms for men and women. There was also a sports sector with a separate entrance and no access from the general sectors. In the sports sector there was a tower with at different levels diving heights, sauna and steam room.
In order to swim in the Moscow pool, a doctor’s certificate was not required. Tickets were sold at the box office near the exit from the Kropotkinskaya metro station. Swimsuits, swimming trunks, slippers, hats, fins, masks and snorkels were available for rent at the pool. Various disinfectants were used to disinfect water. The medical staff of the Moscow pool strictly monitored the sanitary condition of the water, swimming pools and shower areas.
For all 33 years of the existence of the Moscow Pool, the sanitary and epidemiological station has never made any complaints about the quality of the water. The pool water was not only passed through sand filters, but also chlorinated. The pool had its own laboratory constantly working, water samples were taken every three hours (and samples were taken weekly by the sanitary and epidemiological department). 
In the first ten years, bactericidal installations that irradiated water with ultraviolet light (mercury-quartz lamps PRK-7 at 1.0 kW) were included in the water treatment cycle. Studies have shown that the water treatment cycle can be carried out without them, without affecting the water quality.
An eyewitness account: “I worked part-time in the pool as a “watchman” (kept order on the water). Every day we took a water sample for analysis. There was bleach and copper sulfate in the water. I swam for 5 years and did not catch the infection; when the water began to bloom, they lowered the water and cleaned the bottom. There is a greater chance of catching an infection in a bathhouse. By the way, there are a lot of children whom we taught swimming there. Coaches from the children’s school came and selected the most promising ones.”
Without water 
Student joke - Archimedes' law for the Moscow pool: A body immersed in the water of the Moscow pool displaces another body from the water.
Memoirs of an eyewitness: “I remember that it was not always cleaned on time, and once I had to swim with algae (the green kind that covered the bottom and walls of the pool). There were benches along the pool, and starting in April, many people could not only shop, but also sunbathe while sitting on these benches. I also remember that in the last years of operation of this pool, something like “discos” was held there, either at night or just in the evening, with loud music and multi-colored lighting.
" 
1968. Please note: most of the Moscow pool area was closed to swimming in those years (pictured on the left). This was due to the fact that at a depth of 2.40 meters the bottom was very poorly visible. Especially in winter, when there was already strong steam above the water, and the bottom was also overgrown with green algae. Visibility was poor, and it was difficult to see the person who had sunk to the bottom. Several years will pass - the depth will be filled with concrete, the bowl will rise to a level of 1.85 m, and the entire area of the pool will again be available for swimming. 
The pool was open all year round, even in winter. The water temperature was maintained by artificial heating... Memories of dedushkin1: “In winter, I remember, it was scary to look from land at the “crazy people” splashing in the 20-degree frost in clouds of steam. But I myself went there more than once in winter. The water was warm, it was not cold at all. I just had to dive often, otherwise my hair would start to become covered with ice.” 
The pool had such a huge area of evaporation of the water surface that it caused corrosion of neighboring buildings. This was especially evident in winter, when a wall of steam constantly stood over the entire structure. The pool was located opposite the Pushkin Museum, and there were complaints from the latter that such proximity spoiled the exhibits in it. 
This is a children's bathtub (“splash basin”) on the side of the fourth (male) pavilion of the Moscow swimming pool. The temperature here was maintained at 32-34 degrees. 
Recent years... 
The Moscow central swimming pool ceased operations four years before its demolition. In 1991, prices for hot cold water and electricity skyrocketed, the cost of maintenance became unprofitable. The pool bowl stood without water for more than 3 years, which led to deformation of the expansion joints. The pipeline network was severely corroded.
Just on September 16, 1994, I was sitting in the office of the pool director when the chief accountant brought an order from the Sports Committee to liquidate the pool.
The condition of the expansion joints of the pool after it stood without water for several years 
Having removed the concrete pad of the pool, the builders discovered huge pits (clogged with garbage and filled with groundwater, remaining from the supports of the Palace of the Soviets. 
An eyewitness account: “When the concrete base of the Palace of the Soviets was cleared, they brought in a small brown machine to study the underlying soil. And when they took out the drilling tool, a fountain of water shot out of the hole to a height of 10-15 cm. When I arrived at the construction site that day, the hole was plugged with a wooden plug. And so on in several places. Even before construction began, we predicted a strong backing up of the foundation by groundwater, this is not only the under-channel flow of the Chertory stream driven into the pipe (precisely under-channel, i.e., not included in the collector). But one more direction was registered - from the Museum of Fine Arts on Volkhonka. /---/ Previously, I thought that it would be very difficult to pass concrete, because DS grade cement was developed for it. But the drilling tool easily penetrated the base mass. To my surprise, the chief engineer of the construction replied that the concrete may be good, but the quality of the sand left much to be desired..."
Share your pool memories in the comments. I don't remember him at all. What about you? Did you go? Did you swim? Was it good?
The Cathedral of Christ the Savior was invented in honor of the victory over Napoleon. History had not yet known world wars, and it seemed that nothing would be more terrible and bloodier than the Patriotic War. The competition was won by the project of Karl Witberg: a gigantic temple with a colonnade of captured cannons and 240 meters in height. It was supposed to be the tallest building in the world. Witberg, a Freemason and Lutheran, converted to Orthodoxy and led the construction on the Sparrow Hills. But in seven years, 20 thousand serfs did not even have time to build the foundation. Money - billions of dollars in terms of modern prices - has disappeared somewhere. Vitberg was exiled to Vyatka, and the project was frozen until better times
Alexander was replaced by Nikolai, who was replaced by Alexander, and the dream of the temple lived on. 71 years later, it was still built in our usual place, on the banks of the Moscow River. The temple turned out to be three times lower than they wanted, but still one and a half meters higher than St. Isaac's Cathedral - the main one in the empire. He outlived his architect, the German Konstantin Thon, the creator of the pseudo-Russian style, by two years. The artist Vasily Vereshchagin called Ton mediocrity, and the temple - a copy of the Taj Mahal. In general, contemporaries did not really like the temple, but they came to terms with it, just as the residents of Yeltsin’s Moscow came to terms with Luzhkov’s turrets
For a quarter of a century, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior became a symbol of Russian statehood. Nicholas II was crowned here, and the three-hundredth anniversary of the Romanov dynasty was celebrated with pomp. However, in 1918 the Romanovs died, and the state stopped funding the church. The temple somehow stood for another 15 years, and in 1931 it was demolished: not to fight religion, but simply to clear the place. Built reliably - it took two explosions
And again in Russia they decided to erect the tallest building in the world: the Palace of the Soviets, 495 meters from the base to the spire. “The emblem of the coming triumph of communism not only here, but also there, in the West,” as Kirov called it. And again the project outlived the author of the idea: Kirov was killed in 1934, and construction of the Palace began in 1937. They laid a very powerful foundation, and the first meters have already risen above the ground. But the war got in the way. Anti-tank hedgehogs were cut from the metal for the defense of Moscow; some of the materials were used for the now destroyed Kerch Bridge. This was the most ambitious project of Stalinist architects, but the only thing that was brought to life was the Kremlin gas station on Volkhonka
In 1960, the Moscow swimming pool was dug on the site of the temple - the largest in the USSR and one of the largest in the world. It had a sauna, diving tower, closed sports section and an open entertainment area, where anyone could swim, even without medical certificate: 50 kopecks for adults, 15 for children. The pool was open all year round, and eyewitnesses recall a surreal picture: December, a column of steam over Moscow and crowds of half-naked people. Until now, there is nothing like this in any European capital; the closest analogue is the hot baths in Budapest
The pool died when the USSR died. In 1991, prices for electricity and water soared, it became expensive to maintain, and the pool was empty for three years. In 1994, they began to build a new temple in its place, a copy of the old one. No one knows exactly how much money was collected and how much of it was missing. Muscovites did not like the new temple just as they did not like the old one, especially the changes that Zurab Tsereteli made. In some places they used bronze instead of marble and titanium instead of gold, they added a parking lot for 300 spaces with a car wash, but overall it looked like the 19th century. On New Year's Day 2000, the temple was opened to the public, and on the first Christmas of the 21st century, the first liturgy was served there.
And again, like a century ago, the temple became the most important, state one. The new government fell in love with him, they installed a new patriarch on the throne and buried the old president. All the scandals were forgotten, and people started talking about the temple again only in 2012, when the punk group Pussy Riot tried to serve a parody liturgy in the pulpit. “Patriarch Gundyai believes in Putin. It would be better if you believed in God, bitch” - the lines of the song “Mother of God, drive Putin away” have been translated into dozens of languages around the world. The Pussy Riot musicians received two years in prison, served time and were released, but the temple still stands. Until new policy changes
Still from Pussy Riot video
