Patriarshiye Prudy (Patriarch's Ponds)

Patriarshiye Prudy is a small, elegant neighbourhood around a single ornamental pond in the Presnensky district. The area has been associated with Moscow's literary and artistic intelligentsia for two centuries, but it is best known internationally as the setting for the opening pages of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.

Today it is one of Moscow's nicest areas for a stroll — tree-lined streets, good independent restaurants and cafes, and a distinctly neighbourhood feel unusual in the centre of a metropolis. A monument to the novel's characters has been placed near the pond (though Bulgakov purists find it somewhat kitschy), and the Bulgakov Museum in his former apartment on Bolshaya Sadovaya is a short walk away.

things to do neighbourhood sight
A story
The Master and Margarita begins here: "One hot spring evening, just as the sun was going down, two men appeared at Patriarch's Ponds." Bulgakov chose this bourgeois, slightly literary neighbourhood for his Devil's arrival in Moscow because it was the kind of place that thought itself too sophisticated for the supernatural. The opening scene — in which the Devil's predictions about a man's death are swiftly confirmed — takes place on the bench by the pond. Fans of the novel leave flowers and notes on the bench.