Fountain in Garden Square near House of Books

A tragic event of the times of the Great Patriotic War is related to this garden square and the fountain. Before the war, there used to be a main department store of Rostov there, popularly called the Black Store, as it was painted black inside. Under the store, there were large cellars with dancing classes. During the war, they were used as air-raid shelters. From July 8 through 22, 1942, the city was blanket-bombed for two to four hours every day, and people hid in these cellars. On July 17, 1942, a bomber hit the corner of Bolshaya Sadovaya Street and Budennovsky Avenue, the present-day department store took fire, and the building was completely ruined. People who hid in the cellars were buried under the ruins. Nobody knows how many hundreds of people perished there, as the ruins were cleared on the top only.