Moskva Pool

Moscow, Russia

Demolished 1994

The Disappointed Tourist: Moskva Pool, Ellen Harvey, 2021. Oil and acrylic on Gessoboard, 18 x 24″ (46 x 61 cm). Photograph: Etienne Frossard.

The Moskva Pool (Moscow Pool) was designed by Dimitry Chechulin and built in 1958 on the abandoned foundation of the Palace of the Soviets. Construction on the Palace, which had been intended by Stalin to replace the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour which he had had dynamited, had been abandoned due to a steel shortage resulting from World War II. The heated swimming pool was the largest in the world. It was demolished in 1994 as part of the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which was completed in 2000.

Requested by Susan K.