The Italian Pond is an artificial harbor where ships could enter for unloading goods or for wintering. It has a rectangular shape and in the 18th century was part of the Merchant Harbor of Kronstadt. It got the name Italian Pond from the Italian Palace, which was erected on the bank of the pond in 1720.
The Italian Pond, as and other berths of the Merchant Harbor, was built in 1717-1727. The first building in Kronstadt was the military fort Kronshlot, built in 1704. It defended the fairway in the Gulf of Finland, where ships could pass to St. Petersburg. When the Northern War was nearing its end, the creation of infrastructure for merchant ships began in Kronstadt and the Italian Pond became one of its elements.
Under Catherine II, a Bypass Canal began to be dug from the Italian Pond. Goods could be delivered inside Kronstadt by boat to Shopping Mall, near the St. Andrew Garden, and then to warehouses in the Dock Admiralty.
An Italian Palace was erected on the bank of the Italian Pond almost simultaneously with the creation of the harbor. This palace was built by German architects in 1720-1724. However, it seemed to contemporaries like an Italian palazzo, so it was called the Italian Palace. The pond at its foot was also called Italian.
In 1805, the Italian Pond acquired its current rectangular shape. This year, a dam was built that separated the reservoir from the Gulf of Finland. A Dutch kitchen building with 8 stone stoves for cooking hot food for the crews of ships was erected on this dam. In ports, it was forbidden to light a fire on ships for cooking because of the danger of fires. Nowadays, this building houses the Museum of Dutch Cuisine, as well as the Museum of models of the Kronstadt Forts.
In the middle of the 19th century, the shores of the Italian Pond were lined with granite. A crane has been preserved on one of the shores. This crane was used to remove the masts of ships for their wintering at the pier. Cannons of the 18th and 19th centuries are installed in front of the Italian Palace on the bank of the pond.
A Blue Bridge has been built over the Bypass Canal near the Italian Palace. In this place there is a Kronstadt sea gauge - a level gauge mounted on the support of the Blue Bridge. Since the beginning of the 18th century, measurements of the Baltic Sea level have been carried out here. Subsequently, from the zero of the Kronstadt sea gauge, within the Baltic Elevation System, experts began to measure the water level throughout Russia. In 1840, a pavilion with a tide gauge (a device for measuring and recording sea level fluctuations) was built next to the Kronstadt sea gauge.
