St. Petersburg | Travel stories and photos - Part 7

St. Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject located in Northwestern Federal District of Russia on the delta of the Neva River at the east end of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. Founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 27, 1703 as a “window to Europe”, it served as the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years. To really feel all the beauty and harmony of St. Petersburg’s architecture one must stroll along the banks of the Neva, listen to the ripple of its waves, contemplate the city’s buildings, the vistas of its quays and canals.Only then will the city on the Neva reveal itself in all its charm – the charm of the wonderful and inimitable City of Bridges.

Bridges over the Neva

Bridges over the Neva

11 февраля 2007

“And bridges spanned the waters’ width…” When Pushkin wrote his immortal poem, The Bronze Horseman, those bridges in masonry, wrought-iron and cast-iron spanned as yet only the creeks and canals of the southern section of the Neva delta.

Anichkov bridge

Anichkov bridge

11 февраля 2007

The old stone bridge built over the Fontanka in 1780 became, in time, too narrow to handle the increasing volume of traffic along Nevsky Prospekt.

St. Petersburg’s suspension bridges

St. Petersburg’s suspension bridges

11 февраля 2007

It may sound odd to speak of lions in the role of bridge supports, yet such a structure actually exists in St. Petersburg. We are speaking of the Lions’ Bridge that spans the Griboyedov Canal where it loops picturesquely in the vicinity of Theatre Square.

Bridges between Engneers’ castle and Palace square

Bridges between Engneers’ castle and Palace square

11 февраля 2007

The disastrous flood of 1824, vividly described in Alexander Pushkin’s The Bronze Horseman, carried away or damaged a great many of the city’s timber bridges. This necessitated the construction of several new cast-iron and masonry spans in the late 1820s and the 1830s.

First cast-iron bridges

First cast-iron bridges

11 февраля 2007 — 2 responses

With the introduction of iron as a building material, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, bridge construction in St. Petersburg entered a new phase. The first cast-iron city-type bridge appeared in 1806, at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and the Moika. In those days it was called the Green or Police Bridge.

Fontanka granite bridges

Fontanka granite bridges

11 февраля 2007

In the 1780s work was begun on the granite facing of the embankments of the Fontanka, the widest , and longest southern branch of the Neva delta. In view of the heavy volume of shipping on the Fontanka a number of inclined ramps were constructed on its banks to facilitate the handling of freight.

Old Kolomna bridges

Old Kolomna bridges

11 февраля 2007

West of the Kriukov Canal, between the Moika and Fontanka, lay an extensive area known in Old St. Petersburg since the middle of the eighteenth century as Kolomna.

Bridges over the Griboyedov canal

Bridges over the Griboyedov canal

11 февраля 2007

The Griboyedov Canal, formerly known as Yekate-rininsky (Catherine) Canal, runs practically from beginning to end in the channel of what was once the river Krivusha. Its construction was begun in 1764 and completed in 1790.

Bridges over the Winter canal

Bridges over the Winter canal

11 февраля 2007

One of the most charming spots of Old St. Petersburg is the Winter Canal (Zimniaya Kanavka), a miniature canal linking the Neva and Moika.

Bridges near the Summer gardens

Bridges near the Summer gardens

11 февраля 2007

Down to the middle of the eighteenth century only timber was used in St. Petersburg for bridges and embankments. In the 1720s, it is true, Peter I did have a masonry embankment-the city’s first-built around a small boat basin in the Summer Gardens, next to the Summer Palace and the Fontanka.