If you missed the story of the creation of the Summer Garden in Peter’s time, you can read it under the heading #PETROVSKIE_STORIES.

We have already managed to talk about the favorite flowers of Peter I, bizarre shrubs, bending roads (berso) and arbors. But today we will tell about FOUNTAINS.

Fountains gave the garden a special luxury and liveliness. It is known that Peter I had a great fondness for fountains and could not imagine a real garden without them, capable of competing in beauty with the famous parks of Versailles. Therefore, outlining the plan for the “garden”, one of the primary places he assigned to the construction of a system of water cannons.

In the spring of 1706, these works were completed and the installation of the first fountains began. But, apparently, their jets did not differ in great height and power, and Peter began to look for ways to increase the power of the water takeoff. During a trip abroad in 1716-1717, he bought a steam pump invented by the Englishman Thomas Sovereign. It was decided to use it to supply water to the fountains of the Summer Garden.

Thus, here, for the first time in the world, the Sauverne steam pump found practical application – one of the significant technological achievements of the early 18th century.

By 1725, there were 23 fountains in the Summer Garden, and a little later there were already about fifty.