The city garden has an area of 12 hectares, is a monument of landscape art of local importance and is located between three parks: Mariinsky, Kreshchatym and Askold’s grave. Old names of the park: Tsarsky Garden, City Park, Pervomaisky Park. The city garden, since it has no clear boundaries, is often mistaken for the Mariinsky Park.
The city garden was founded in 1743 according to the project of architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli (St. Andrew’s Church and Mariinsky Palace) based on the old Regular Garden founded by Peter the Great. In 1763, fruit trees were planted in the park with the participation of garden masters Fok and Chamberlain and a greenhouse was built. In the late 1870s, most of the current park passed to the Specific Department (a state institution of the Russian Empire that managed the property of the imperial family from 1797 to 1917) and became closed to ordinary people for many years. In 1900, one of the Theremin fountains was installed in the park.
The area where the Valery Lobanovsky Dynamo Stadium is now located was called the Valley of Roses. Here, since 1863, there was a theater (cafe-chantan) “Chateau de Fleur”. In 1902-1912, Petrovskaya Alley was laid next to the City Garden, through which in 1910 an openwork metal Parkovy Bridge (popular name “bridge of lovers”) designed by Evgeny Paton. At the end of the bridge of lovers is another iconic place for couples – the monument “Love Story”. In 1919, the park was renamed the May Day Garden or May Day Park.
In 1955, the monument to Mikhail Glinka was moved here (before the Great Patriotic War it was located in front of the music school in Muzykalny Lane). In 1965 and 1974, park sculptures-monuments to Lesya Ukrainka and Maria Zankovetska were installed in the part of the park between the Mariinsky Palace and the Dynamo Stadium. In 1981-1982, a summer musical stage was built in the City Garden, which, due to its shape, was called “Shell”. On February 2, 1993, the park was given its current name. In 2014, in front of the entrance to the City Garden, near the observation deck, a sculptural composition “Director. Observer” was installed. On June 26, 2017, a monument to Anna Akhmatova was unveiled here.