The question was: WHAT ARE THESE STRUCTURES AND WHAT ARE THEY USED FOR?

The question, in our opinion, was simple, but there was only one answer. Perhaps this was influenced by the warm weather in August, and everyone decided to enjoy the last days of summer. Our active participant Yulia Belavina answered the question correctly. Thank you very much for your desire to find the correct answer.

Yes, these are observation wells made on the bends of an underground collector that connects the western pond of the Mikhailovsky Garden with the Moika River. Such a decision to supply running water to the garden’s ponds is made by Carl Rossi, who creates the landscape ponds of the English garden from Rastrelli’s baroque ponds. All these works took place in 1824-1826 during the reconstruction of the regular Third Summer Garden into an urban landscape garden for the grand ducal family.

To supply water to the eastern pond of the Mikhailovsky Garden, Rossi connects it with the Resurrection Canal of the Mikhailovsky Castle. Thus, the ponds of the Mikhailovsky Garden were fed with water from the Fontanka River. For uninterrupted power supply of the ponds during the construction of Sadovaya Street along the Mikhailovsky Garden, a bridge was built over the canal.
For the flowing of the ponds of the garden, Karl Rossi decides to connect the western pond of the Mikhailovsky Garden with the Moika River. This cannot be done with an open canal, so Rossi does it with the help of an underground collector. Since the collector was laid among the existing planting of trees, it turned out to be not straight. Inspection wells were made at the bends of the underground structure, which are shown in the photographs.

This system of water supply to the ponds of the Mikhailovsky Garden existed until the end of the 19th century. Then it was disturbed, which led to the shallowing of one of the ponds, but this is a completely different story. If you are interested in the further fate of the ponds of the Mikhailovsky Garden, then write in the comments, and we will continue the history of the ponds.

Enjoy your walks in the gardens of the Russian Museum. You can find out about the opening hours of the gardens on our website. Link below.

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