The garden
A garden still called by the name of a long-vanished community.
The Molokan Garden is one of the most beloved and oldest public gardens in central Baku. Officially it bears the name of the poet Khagani, but in everyday speech another name has long stuck to it — the Molokan Garden.
That name is a memory of the Molokans, a Russian Spiritual Christian community that settled in Baku in the 19th century. The Molokans kept gardens and traded in milk and greens, and the quarter around the garden became the “Molokan” one.
Today a fountain with its famous sculpture splashes in the garden, plane trees rustle, and several generations of Baku people sit on the benches. It is a place of meetings, of dates and of quiet rest.
The Molokan Garden is a small green island in the middle of the city and a living monument to multinational, many-faced Baku.
In brief
The garden in a few traits
Timeline
The garden through time
From a Molokan quarter to a renovated garden — a short timeline of this corner of Baku.
The MolokansThe Molokans
Who gave the garden its name
The Molokans were Russian Spiritual Christians who rejected the official church, icons and rites. Persecuted at home, in the 19th century they resettled by the thousand to the Caucasus, including Baku.
Hard-working market gardeners and dairymen, it was they who gave the garden its folk name.
Alleys and plane treesThe garden itself
Fountain, plane trees, benches
The heart of the garden is a fountain with a sculpture and jets of water. Around it are old plane trees, shady alleys, flower beds and rows of benches that are always occupied.
It is a classic Baku garden: coolness, shade and the murmur of water in the middle of a noisy city.
“The community is long gone, but the name lives on — in a single word the people of Baku keep a whole history.”
The Molokan Garden · Memory
A meeting placeBaku's memory
A garden everyone knows
For the people of Baku the Molokan Garden is childhood and youth: here dates were made, chess was played, pigeons were fed, generations met.
“Let's meet at the Molokan” — a phrase clear to every resident of old Baku.
TodayToday
Renewed, yet the same
After reconstruction the garden has new paths, lighting and greenery, but it has kept its spirit. It is still in the very centre, a couple of steps from Baku's main streets.
It is easy to drop in while walking through the city — to rest in the shade and feel old Baku.
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