When the Emmanuel English Park was laid out in 1829 (named after its founder, Lieutenant General Georgy Emmanuel), near the Yelizavetinsky and Mikhailovsky springs, the architects Bernardazzi created two romantic grottoes: the large and the small. The large grotto was closely associated with the name of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov—the poet depicted it in his painting “View of Pyatigorsk” in 1837.
On July 20, 1870, retired Lieutenant Ilya Alekseyev installed a marble plaque in the grotto with his poem “To Lermontov’s Grotto,” which began with the lines:
“Under your shade, he often found
Shelter for sweet dreaming,
And you alone were witness
To his heartfelt suffering…”
Unfortunately, the plaque disappeared in 1874, and for this reason, in July 1878, after its restoration, a massive stone arched portal and gate with an iron grille were built at the entrance to the grotto “to avoid the repetition of the previous sad fate.” Above the grotto’s arch, a large metal ribbon with the inscription “Lermontov’s Grotto” was installed, and above it, an emblem featuring a lyre, a book, a quill, and an inverted torch was placed. Later, a bust of Lermontov appeared in the grotto.
The enclosures did not help. In 1917, the emblem with the lyre disappeared, as did the metal ribbon above the arch. Only after the end of World War II were they replaced with a marble slab inscribed “Lermontov’s Grotto,” and in 1961, a memorial plaque was installed on the grotto’s portal.