Sergei Sobyanin unveils comprehensive landscaping project in Yekaterininsky Park

The comprehensive landscaping project in Yekaterininsky Park will wrap up this year, as shared by Sergei Sobyanin on his Max channel.

“Founded in the 18 th century, the park’s centerpiece is a big pond; we will landscape it, too. In fact, the works span 16.6 hectares in all. During the design stage, it was crucial for us to preserve the historical and cultural heritage and meticulously integrate it with modernity. And we are giving a lot of attention to creating a comfortable environment for people with reduced mobility, by adding ramps, support, and elevated benches,” the Moscow Mayor writes.

Source: Moscow Mayor’s Max channel

Kicked off in December 2025, the extensive landscaping project is to make the park an all-season, multifunctional public space designed to meet the wishes and needs of various generations.

Once the reconstruction of Olympiysky Sports Complex is over, the park gates will serve as a main entrance to be connected to an aerial arch that will provide a view of the reservoir. Furthermore, it will have pavilions for a restaurant (café) with an open terrace and a boat station, which will be integrated with a new waterfront amphitheater.

In addition, the park will feature an all-season stage pavilion with dressing rooms and an auditorium, a covered stage with heated dressing rooms, and an opposite canopy for relaxation with a cameraman room.

Workers will build a new dance veranda instead of the lost one, which will look like a round pavilion resembling the former structure. The veranda will have rotating glass doors to be used during the cold season. They will also set a nearby sports pavilion with changing rooms and a heated football field along with restored high-end tennis courts with changing rooms — six tennis courts and four padel courts in all. On top of that, the park will have panna football and table tennis courts, along with workout grounds, including those with equipment suitable for people with disabilities.

The park is favorite among families with children, so the landscaping project includes the construction of a year-round pavilion for a family-oriented leisure center, to offer various events such as lectures, film screenings, and master classes. New playgrounds will be set up with completely safe world-class play complexes for children of all ages.

Landscapers will renovate three existing pavilions, namely, a rotunda pavilion, public restrooms, and an administration building, create a scenic garden for strolls and quiet moments in front of Catherine’s Institute, restore the rose garden, and build a recreation area with chess tables and an arched structure with hanging swings. There will be two rotundas, a green labyrinth to be established near one of them, and a remarkable pergola with swings next to the other.

In addition, Yekaterininsky Pond will undergo environmental rehabilitation, its banks to be strengthened and upgraded with waterfront observation platforms and recreation areas. The main staircase in front of the pond will be repaired and equipped with a ramp, with a pond overlook observation desk over the water surface to be created at the top.

To ensure comfort and safety for visitors, the park will be lit with more than 430 lanterns and will feature approximately 1,200 small-sized pieces of hardscape in addition to vast softscape, including over 20,000 trees and shrubs and over 6,700 square meters of flower beds.

At the moment, the project involves more than 700 people and 80 machines.

The main phase of comprehensive landscaping in Yekaterininsky Park will wrap up in Q4 2026.

A park with a 300-year history

A piece of landscape architecture, Yekaterininsky Park is located in the Meshchansky District between Sovetskoy Armii Street, Olympiysky Prospekt, and Suvorovskaya Square.

The park was laid out on this site next to the mansion of Count Vladimir Saltykov and the Church of John the Warrior, back in the 18 th century. In those years, its centerpiece was a big pond along the Naprudnaya River. In the early 19 th century, the mansion was rebuilt to accommodate Catherine’s Institute for Noble Maidens and the park became known as Yekaterininsky (Catherine’s) Park, accordingly.

In the 20 th century, the park changed significantly as in the 1920s and 1930s, the Naprudnaya River, with the exception of the big pond, was enclosed in a pipe and the Church of St. John the Warrior was demolished.

Catherine’s (now Suvorovskaya) Square was expanded partially at the expense of the park. In February 1928, Catherine’s Institute was conversed into the Central House of the Red (later Soviet) Army (now, the Frunze Central House of the Russian Army). The park was renamed accordingly.

In 1965, builders erected a new building for the Soviet Army Museum in the northwest of the park on the side of Soviet Army Street. In 1979, the park’s eastern part was cut off to build Olympiysky Prospekt.

The park was given back its historical name in 1999.

In 2013, it came under the management of the Social Rehabilitation Center for Veterans of Wars and the Armed Forces (now, the Mikhailov Social Rehabilitation Center for Veterans).

Reconstruction of the Mikhailov Social Rehabilitation Center for Veterans

Since January 2026, authorities have been running comprehensive reconstruction of the Mikhailov Social Rehabilitation Center for Veterans in Yekaterininsky Park, including two three-story buildings with a total floor area of 22,000 square meters at 7 Olympiysky Prospekt.

Established in 2000, initially it provided rehabilitation services for veterans, primarily seniors.

Today, participants in the special military operation, middle-aged people who work and raise children, build a career and strive to remain involved in active life, are welcomed there, too.

The renovation will transform the center into a multifunctional rehabilitation facility to meet the wishes and needs of today’s veterans. It will provide high-quality services in five areas, such as social rehabilitation, psychological support, vocational rehabilitation, adaptive and therapeutic physical activities along with cultural and leisure events.

The center will feature the latest high-tech equipment, including machines for physiotherapy and rehabilitation (e. g., magnetic therapy, laser therapy, and shock wave therapy systems), biofeedback training devices for restoring motor functions, diagnostic equipment for assessing mental and physiological status, sensory, mental, and emotional relaxation tools, and adaptive exercise equipment.

It will also provide an accessible and comfortable space, including individual treatment areas and a user-friendly navigation system. As a result, it will offer a perfect environment for recovery. The area used for rehabilitation will more than double, with automated systems and digital solutions making patient experience even better and more pleasant with a less staff workload.

The comprehensive reconstruction at the Mikhailov Social Rehabilitation Center for Veterans will wrap up by the end of 2027.