Neglinnaya River

The Neglinnaya River (Russian: Неглинная), also known as Neglinka, Neglinna, Neglimna (Неглинка, Неглинна, Неглимна), is a 7.5-km long underground river in the central part of Moscow and a tributary of the Moskva River. It flows in the tunnels under Samotechnaya Street, Tsvetnoy Boulevard, Neglinnaya Street and Alexander Garden and Zaryadye. The Neglinnaya discharges into the Moskva River through two separate tunnels near Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge and Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge.

The river in its natural state used to flow openly from the northern parts of Moscow to the south across the very centre of the city. The Kremlin was built on a hill east of the Neglinnaya, using the river as a moat. The moat did not stop foreign invasions, but slowed down development of territories west of the Kremlin; initially, the city grew eastward, into Red Square and Kitai-gorod. When Muscovites began settling on the western side, territories around the Neglinnaya remained vacant due to frequent flooding.

Muscovites constructed a number of dams, creating a chain of six interconnected ponds, used for firefighting, with watermills, forges, workshops and public baths (Moscow's two best-known public baths, Central and Sandunovsky, built in 1890s, are still located on Neglinnaya Street). There were four bridges across the Neglinnaya River: Voskresensky Bridge (its fragments unearthed during a 1994 excavation), three-span Kuznetsky Bridge, Troitsky Bridge and Petrovsky Bridge (the remains of the latter discovered during the reconstruction of the Maly Theatre).

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