Anichkov Bridge. History of creation. Urban legends: Anichkov Bridge, horses, Klodt Anichkov Bridge brief description for children

Anichkov Bridge is one of the famous landmarks of St. Petersburg. It is located between buildings 66 and 68, 39 and 41 on Nevsky Prospekt. The bridge was named in honor of Lieutenant Colonel-engineer Mikhail Anichkov, whose battalion under Peter the Great was stationed beyond the Fontanka in an old Finnish village, nicknamed Anichkova Sloboda.

Wooden bridge

Until 1712-1714, Fontanka was known as Nameless Erik. Nevsky Prospekt, which was being built at that time, was considered one of the important streets of the capital - in the place where the paths intersected, a constant crossing was required.

In 1715, Emperor Peter I issued a decree on the construction of a bridge on the Fontannaya River. Construction work was completed in May 1716. This is how a multi-span wooden beam crossing on pile supports appeared. The bridge blocked not only the channel itself, but also the swampy floodplain. The crossing turned out to be of impressive size (we are talking about its length), however, it could not have been otherwise, because the Fontanka itself reached 200 meters in width.

The length of the bridge is 150 meters. The construction of the crossing was carried out by an engineering battalion under the command of Mikhail Anichkov.

Even in the era of Peter I, the bridge was rebuilt. So, in 1721 it was expanded, 18 spans were made. The middle part became a lift, because at that time the Fountain River was cleared and deepened so much that ships even began to sail along it.

In 1726 and 1742, major repairs of the bridge were carried out. In 1749, the architect Semyon Volkov built a new wooden crossing, which had practically no differences from the standard structures of those times. According to one version, the bridge was built without drawbridges and strengthened so that the elephants donated by the Iranian Shah could be delivered to the king.

If you believe other information, then, according to the drawing of 1750, the construction of the crossing was based on a simple beam system with a lifting span. The devices that lift the middle part of the bridge are made in the form of “cranes”. During the reconstruction process, it was decided to preserve all eighteen spans, finished with stone rustication. The bridge was fenced with wooden balusters standing between the pedestals and topped with vases.

Until the end of the 18th century, Fontanka was considered the border of the city, and the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg, in turn, was a checkpoint.

Stone bridge with turrets

By the middle of the 18th century, the city went beyond its natural borders, and suburban areas began to be built up. This can explain the wide activity of government institutions of the Russian Empire, which dealt with issues of planning and development of cities, regulation of small rivers and canals.

According to the projects of the Commission on the stone structure of Moscow and St. Petersburg, in the 1780-1789s, work was carried out to develop the Fontannaya River. A specially established commission took part in this, which until 1783 was under the leadership of General F.V. Bauer. During the work carried out, stone coastal walls with a descent to the water and 7 similar bridges made of stone with wooden draw spans in the middle and towers on bulls were built.

The Anichkov Bridge was rebuilt from 1783 to 1787. There is an opinion that the author of this project is the famous French bridge builder J.R. Perrone. But this is not documented. The crossings of the school of the famous Frenchman continued to be built until the 19th century.

The Anichkov Bridge, the history of which dates back decades, has acquired a new look. The side spans of the crossing were made equal in size and covered with box vaults made of stone, the middle span was wooden and liftable. Heavy chains were stretched between the four superstructured towers, with the help of which the canvases of the adjustable part were raised.

In 1841, the first bronze statues appeared on the western side of the crossing: “A Young Man Taking a Horse by the Bridle” and “A Horse with a Walking Young Man.” The sculptures on the eastern bank were a repetition of the western one, only they were cast from plaster, painted the color of bronze.

New bronze horses from the foundry yard, by order of Nicholas I, were sent as a gift to the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV. The sculptures are still in Berlin today. And only in 1844 the plaster statues were replaced with new, bronze ones. True, they stayed for quite a while. A couple of years later, the emperor thanked the “King of the Two Sicilies” for his hospitality.

Copies of Klodt's horses were located in Strelna, Peterhof, and also in the Golitsyn estate. And each time they were removed from the bridge, returning the plaster ones to their place. In 1851, the bridge was finally completed. The sculptor refused to repeat the previous statues. He set to work creating two new compositions. The horses left the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg two more times. During the siege of 1941, they were removed and buried in the palace garden, and in 2000 they were sent for restoration for the city’s anniversary. Anyone who has seen the Anichkov Bridge will remember the horse sculptures for a long time.

Modern restoration

In 2007-2008, one of the landmarks of St. Petersburg (SPb) was reconstructed. The Anichkov Bridge has undergone a major overhaul. First of all, we started eliminating cracks in the asphalt concrete pavement above the intermediate supports and abutments, also got rid of defects along the drainage trays and carried out waterproofing repairs. The company "Pylon" won the tender, whose main activity for the last 10 years has been the improvement and repair of the Fontanka embankments. NPO Rand acted as the general designer.

During the reconstruction, it was planned to replace the most dangerous fragments of the arched brickwork and shift 20 rows of the vault in the area where the main support is on granite abutments. It was also necessary to update some stone blocks that had cracked from stress or severe frosts.

Bridge operation

During the siege of Leningrad, horse groups were buried on the territory of the Palace of Pioneers. The granite pedestals were lined with boxes of seeded grass. As a result of direct hits from explosive devices, the Anichkov bridge was severely destroyed. In 1942, on November 6, a bomb weighing 250 kg arrived at the crossing, causing a granite stand and 30 meters of a grate made of cast iron to fall into the Fontanka. However, the next day they resumed tram traffic on the bridge, and after another 5 days they completed work on restoring the fence. The new parts of the grille differ only in the “Lentrublite” brand. The animal sculptures were returned to the bridge by May 1, 1945.

Nearby Attractions

Are you planning to visit the second capital of Russia and don’t know what is worth seeing? As mentioned above, the Anichkov Bridge is considered one of the attractions. St. Petersburg is rich in various crossings and amazing architectural monuments. Not far from the Anichkov Bridge are the Mikhailovsky Garden, the monument to Chizhik-Pyzhik, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, the Russian Museum, the Summer Garden and the Fountain House.

Educational center "Anichkov Bridge"

Local residents know that not only the landmark of St. Petersburg is called “Anichkov Bridge”. This is also the name of the European educational center. It unites two creative teams, both are known not only in Russia, but also in Europe. The company works with preschool educational institutions, implementing early development methods.

Folklore name

The people of St. Petersburg have a good sense of humor, and they make fun of their city in a very graceful and elegant way. So, for example, St. Isaac's Cathedral received the name “Inkwells”, the monument to Peter the Great - “The Bronze Horseman”, and the Anichkov Bridge began to be called the “Bridge of Sixteen Eggs”.

The Anichkov Bridge across the Fontanka, located on Nevsky Prospekt, is a three-span stone structure that is rightfully considered one of the most beautiful bridges in St. Petersburg and is the brightest calling card of the city. The bridge takes its name from the name of the builder - engineer-lieutenant colonel M. O. Anichkov, whose battalion was located near the bridge, in the so-called Anichkova Sloboda.

In 1715, obeying the decree of Peter I , who commanded: “Beyond the Bolshaya Neva on the Fontannaya River along the perspective to make a bridge,” the construction of a wooden beam multi-span bridge, standing on welded supports, began. This structure was intended to block the channel and swampy floodplain of the Fontanka River, and was erected quite quickly, a year after the start of construction, in May 1716.

In the period from 1726 to 1742, the bridge was repaired many times, and only in 1749, according to the design of the architect Semyon Volkov, a new wooden bridge on pile supports was prepared. This was done mainly for the “Indian gift” - elephants that were supposed to pass along the old Moscow road. At that time, the Anichkov Bridge did not have a drawbridge. Its spans were covered with boards and decorated to look like granite.

In 1783-1787, the permanent Anichkov Bridge was finally built, which became a three-span stone bridge. The central span of the bridge, made of wood, was made liftable. By the way, the new structure turned out to be similar to the Chernyshev Bridge, which has survived to this day.

In 1841, the Anichkov Bridge was reconstructed, during which it was expanded to the red line of Nevsky Prospekt, all spans were made arched, and the towers were removed. The construction of this new bridge was carried out according to the design of engineers I. F. Buttats and A. X. Reder. Construction work was carried out by contractor M. Pimenov under the guidance of engineers A. Sobolev and N. Derschau, and engineer A. D. Gotman supervised such an important process. The length of the new structure was 54.6 meters, width - 37.9 meters. The cast iron fence of the bridge, with bas-reliefs of seahorses and mermaids, was made by the architect A.P. Bryullov, and resembles the motifs of the lattice pattern created for the Berlin Palace Bridge.

The main artistic highlight of the Anichkov Bridge was the four equestrian sculptural groups “The Taming of the Horse by Man,” installed on the granite pedestals of the foundations.Created by the talented sculptor P. K. Klodt, they represent a tamed horse. By the way, these highly artistic sculptures, along with the Bronze Horseman and lion figures, are among the symbols of St. Petersburg.

The first two sculptural groups, cast in bronze, were installed in 1841 on the western abutments of the Anichkov Bridge. It is interesting that copies of these sculptures were sent to Naples, the Oryol estate, Strelna and Berlin. In 1850, the same sculptures found their place on the eastern abutments of the bridge. During the difficult times of the blockade, these valuable works of art were removed from their pedestals and buried for safety in the garden of the Palace of Pioneers. This was done just in time, since during German artillery shelling and bombing, the bridge received serious damage. As a result, large sections of the bridge fencing and granite pedestals were destroyed. However, even before Victory Day, the fences of the Anichkov Bridge were restored, and by May 1, 1945, the unique sculptures returned to their places.

In the period from 1906 to 1908, reconstruction work was carried out on the Anichkov Bridge, in which engineers G. G. Krivoshein, S. P. Bobrovsky and architect P. V. Shchusev took part.

During the reconstruction, the structures were re-laid and lined with pink granite stones, clean and semi-clean walls, and brick vaults, and the bridge structures were insulated with rolled lead. In addition, the sidewalks were paved with large slabs of red granite.

In 2000, on the eve of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the world-famous sculptures were sent for restoration, after which, having taken on an updated appearance, they returned to their pedestals, delighting the townspeople with their presence.

The text was prepared by Anzhelika Likhacheva

There are many different stories associated with the horses, which were created by the famous and most original sculptor Pyotr Karlovich Klodt, more like tales. We will not retell them all - only two and one more real life incident. We will talk about horses on the Anichkov Bridge, which spans the Fontanka River and serves as part of Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg.

Wife's lover is unlucky

They say that his wife cheated on Klodt. He identified the seducer. But he didn’t kill him, didn’t challenge him to a duel, but... immortalized him in sculpture. More precisely, in its part. Or more precisely, in the genitals of one of the four horses on the Anichkov Bridge. It is difficult to see the face in the photograph, and it does not give a complete picture. True, it’s not easy to see on the horse itself unless you know it and are specifically looking for it. Forgive me, we looked under the tail of every horse, everything is fine everywhere, and only one really has a face under it. We circled the “face” of the seducer of Klodt’s wife with a red line. For a hint: the nose points down.

For those who decide to check: we are talking about a horse that is located on the odd side of Nevsky Prospekt on the bank of the Fontanka, which is closer to the Admiralty.

“I need to find the fifth one right now...”

We took this legend from the book “The History of St. Petersburg in a City Anecdote” by the famous St. Petersburg historian and writer Naum Sindalovsky, whose works we highly recommend. When you read them, you begin to understand that if you knew the history of the Northern capital before, it was only from the top.

During the reign of Nicholas I, one wise man once wrote on one of the horses:

"Baron von Klodt presented to the cross
For being on Anúchkov Bridge
To the surprise of all Europe
Four asses have been placed..."

Nicholas I wrote the following instructions directly on the police report:

“Find me a fifth ass right now
And paint Europe on it!”

By the way, in our times, naked men with horses would clearly arouse unhealthy interest among some St. Petersburg political figures. In general, it’s even strange that so far none of the local politicians, who themselves, due to their stupidity, have become jokes, have demanded that Klodt’s sculptures be dismantled and melted down, for example, for a monument to Putin. Apparently, they are afraid that the monument will be damaged. More precisely, the place where Nicholas I intended to draw a map of part of the continent.

If there is a horse, you can sit on it

One evening on November 20 of some recent year (late 90s - early 2000s), one famous St. Petersburg businessman from the Seaport of St. Petersburg, who later held senior federal positions, celebrated his birthday.

He celebrated so well that by the time his car drove across the Anichkov Bridge, he could only mumble that she needed to stop. Thank God the driver was sober and slowed down. The businessman showed his assistants using grunts and gestures at the horse. They were surprised. Then they realized what the boss wanted. After some time, he was already sitting on horseback and, probably, in his thoughts he was even trotting or galloping somewhere. A police car (then there was still police) also parked nearby, but the law enforcement officers quickly calmed down in the way they usually calm down. Actually, there was no serious violation of order anyway.

What’s interesting: the birthday of the Anichkov Bridge in its modern interpretation, that is, with horses, also falls on November 20. It was opened on this day in 1841. Who knows, maybe the spirit of Pyotr Karlovich, having possessed the drunken St. Petersburg businessman, came to congratulate his most famous brainchild.

At any time of the year, at any time of the day and in any weather, on the Anichkov Bridge you can see someone taking pictures against the backdrop of the legendary bronze horses. Bringing home such a photograph is as much an obligatory part of the tourist program as a trip to the Hermitage or tossing a coin over the Chizhik-Pyzhik monument.

Meanwhile, the bridge did not immediately acquire its “postcard” appearance: at first it was made of wood, and then it was rebuilt several times in stone..

Non-existent Anechka

“Restoration” in this case is not just a repair, but a radical change in appearance, which was preceded by a long history. For the first time, Peter I decided to replace the ferry service on foot in this section in 1715, ordering “a bridge to be built across the Bolshaya Neva on the Fontannaya River along the prospect.”

After the wooden crossing, it was decided to build a stone one. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org Wooden bridge construction was widespread in St. Petersburg in those years - crossings appeared here and there, and no sacred meaning was attached to their name. Since soldiers of the nearby Admiralty “construction battalion” under the command of Major Mikhail Anichkov were contracted to build the bridge on the Fontanka, the bridge began to be called “Anichkov” (with the emphasis on the second syllable). Much later, rumor gave rise to a myth about a certain Anechka - the unknown heroine of a foggy love story, connected either with an architect or with one of the bridge builders. People even called the bridge Anechkin for some time. But this is nothing more than a beautiful legend. In 1739, the Commission on St. Petersburg Buildings decided to call the bridge Nevsky, but this name never took root.

Anichkov himself belonged to a noble family, whose roots go back to the 14th century. It is known that after the construction of the bridge he rose to the rank of colonel and owned the site where the Alexandrinsky Theater is now located. From there Anichkov Lane led to Sadovaya Street, which today is called Krylov Lane. And the Anichkov Palace, built here in the 1740s, was named simply by its proximity to the bridge of the same name and had nothing to do with the Anichkov family.

Stone Age

The wooden one was replaced by a stone crossing in 1785. Before it, the Prachechny, Panteleimonovsky, Izmailovsky, Semenovsky and Obukhovsky bridges, Lomonosov and Belinsky bridges were built of stone on the Fontanka River.

However, the wooden bridge began to deteriorate already in the 1720s. In addition, it was so narrow that two carriages could hardly pass each other on it. In 1921, the Dutchman Herman van Boles undertook its reconstruction, and Domenico Trezzini brought his project to life. “In the month of January 1721, the architect Andrei Trizin was ordered to be released from the city to build a drawbridge, which is being built across the fountain river, for boxes of wild stone, fourteen fathoms from the city...”, said one of the documents of that time.

Thanks to Boles, the bridge acquired a drawable span that could be opened by two people (previously, one of the spans had to be dismantled to allow ships to pass through). In 1749, according to the design of the architect Semyon Volkov, the Anichkov Bridge was rebuilt. One of the reasons why it needed to be strengthened was a gift to the Empress from the Persian Shah - elephants, which were to be solemnly led along Nevsky Prospekt.

This is what the bridge looked like in the 1830s. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

We had to sacrifice the drawbridge, but lanterns on wooden poles appeared at the entrance. The length of that Anichkov Bridge was more than 200 meters, which is almost four times longer than the modern one.

After another 30 years, the entire Fontanka was dressed in granite, and the bridges were designed in the same style according to the design of the Frenchman Perrone. The Anichkov Bridge was also rebuilt: it became granite, three-span and again gained an adjustable mechanism. At the beginning of the 19th century, the stone parapets of the bridge were replaced by trellises with stone pedestals in the spirit of river embankment fences. At the entrance to the bridge, stone obelisks with lanterns were installed.

But by 1839 it became clear that the bridge, although reliable, was too narrow for the expanding city. A decision was made to rebuild, which gave the bridge its modern appearance.

Finding horses

The project for rebuilding the bridge was drawn up by engineer-major Ivan Buttats with the participation of engineer Alexander Reder and signed by Nicholas I in December 1840, and on May 22, 1841 the first stone was laid at the foundation of the new Anichkov Bridge. The work, under the supervision of the director of the Puteya Institute, Lieutenant General Andrei Gotman, proceeded quickly: within three months, new brick arches were laid out, the vaults were lined with pink granite, left over from the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral. The bridge was built in just six months, after which the question arose about its aesthetic design.

Klodt's horses are one of the most famous "postcard" views of St. Petersburg. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org At first they planned to decorate the vaults with bronze plates, the bulls with decorative vases, and the coastal abutments with horse groups. Later they decided to limit themselves to only the latter. St. Petersburg animal sculptor Pyotr Klodt was at that time working on sculptures of horses led by young men, which were to decorate the pier on the Neva embankment near Admiralteysky Boulevard. As a result, lions and vases remained on the pier, and the horses found another use: in November 1841, a platoon of sappers moved them from the foundry on Vasilyevsky Island to the Fontanka. They were installed on the western bank of the river. On the east side there are plaster copies painted bronze.

It took Klodt another year to create a second pair of equestrian groups, but they were not destined to end up on the Fontanka: on the instructions of Nicholas I, the figures were presented to the Prussian king Frederick William IV and transported to Berlin. Meanwhile, the chief police officer, who monitored the condition of the bridge, reported that “the alabaster figure of a horse had a crack, and the alabaster began to fall off in places, making the figure ugly.” One of the plaster copies is so dilapidated that its tail has fallen off.

New bronze sculptures on the Anichkov Bridge were installed only on October 9, 1843 and stood for only three years - this time they were presented to King Ferdinand II of Sicily and taken to Naples. Klodt saw this as a sign of fate and, instead of making further copies, decided to make a completely new composition on the theme of the conquest of nature by man.

The bridge today is under state protection as a monument. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Potekhin

Sketches of the last two groups were ready in 1848, and in 1850 the sculptural groups finally decorated the bridge. Four images correspond to the stages of taming a horse: the first group depicts a man with a cord in his hands, the second - the horse’s attempt to break free, the third - the gradual assertion of the person’s will, the fourth - a man calmly walking next to the tamed horse. The horses of the third and fourth groups, unlike the first ones, are shod. Legend has it that Nicholas I, at the opening ceremony of the bridge, patted the artist on the shoulder and said: “Well, Klodt, you make horses better than a stallion!”

Three more pairs of the same sculptural groups were later installed in Strelna, Peterhof and in the Golitsyn Kuzminki estate near Moscow. They became one of the main symbols of St. Petersburg. Alexander Blok wrote about the Anichkov Bridge.

Here is the Anichkov Bridge, where the unfortunate horses
By order of the king they bridled so cruelly...
I would like to ask these strong people:
“Aren’t you tired of holding freedom by the bridle?”
(Alexander Rosenbaum)

Anichkov Bridge is one of the most famous bridges in St. Petersburg. The bridge owes its name to lieutenant colonel engineer Mikhail Anichkov, whose battalion during the time of Peter the Great was stationed beyond the Fontanka in the so-called Anichkova Sloboda. “Folk etymology”, which traces the name to a certain Anya or Anichka, is incorrect.

Until 1712, the Fontanka was called Nameless Erik, or simply Erik. And after pipes were thrown across this river to install the fountains of the Summer Garden, it began to be called the “Fountain River”. At that time it was a serious water barrier: in some places the river overflowed up to 200 meters, the banks were swampy. Without a bridge across the river it was impossible to imagine the way to the new city. And in 1715, Peter ordered: “To build a bridge across the Bolshaya Neva on the Fontannaya River.”


Unknown artist. View of Anichkov Palace and Nevsky Prospekt from Fontanka to the Admiralty. 2nd half XVIII century

The order was executed by May of the following year by soldiers of the Admiralty “construction battalion” located nearby. They were led by Lieutenant Colonel M.O. Anichkov, whose name was later fixed in the name of the crossing.
The bridge over the Fontanka became a border bridge for the city. They spent 50 rubles on its construction. The length of the first Anichkov Bridge was 150 meters; it covered not only the Fontanka, but also the swampy floodplain of the river. The width of the roadway was so narrow that two carts could not pass each other at the crossing. The size of the Anichkov Bridge can be judged from the report dated May 15, 1716:
“On the prospect across the Fontanka River it was done: it was paved on stumps with a length of 80 fathoms, across 3 fathoms with plates, and on top of the plates on the entire bridge it was paved with boards 4.5 arshins wide, and lifting boards were made, and beams were laid on the entire bridge on both sides of the railing ".
To guide mast ships along the Fontanka, the lifting shields mentioned in the report were removed and returned to place manually. That is, there was no drawbridge here initially.
On the bridge, which was then the southern border of the city, there was a barrier and a checkpoint, where those entering the city were checked for documents and charged - in money or... with stones that were needed for paving the streets. At night the city was locked and opened only to nobles. Vile people (of low origin), although they were in a hurry to St. Petersburg on business, had to wait for the morning.
Like any wooden building of that time, the Anichkov Bridge quickly fell into disrepair. In 1721, with the development of navigation along the Fountain River, the bridge was rebuilt according to the design of engineer Herman van Boles, whose implementation was carried out by Domenico Trezzini. Then they made its middle part liftable. It was bred several times a day: during the day - to allow passage of sailing ships, and at night - to prevent wolves from running into the city.
Then it was repaired in 1726 and 1742, and in 1749, according to the design of the architect Semyon Volkov, the Anichkov bridge was rebuilt. It was thoroughly fortified, since elephants were supposed to walk across it - a gift from the Persian Shah to the Russian Empress. The bridge is no longer a drawbridge. It was covered with boards and decorated to look like granite. At the entrance to the crossing, lanterns were installed on high wooden poles. The length of that Anichkov Bridge was more than 200 meters, which is almost four times the length of the modern one. Now the length of the Anichkov Bridge is 54.6 meters, width - 37.9 meters.

In the 1780s. The banks of the Fontanka were dressed in granite. At the same time, seven similar stone crossings were built across the Fontanka according to the design of J.R. Perrone. In 1783-1787, the Anichkov Bridge was also rebuilt according to a standard design. From that time on, it was a three-span granite bridge, the middle draw span of which was wooden. On its bulls there were towers with an adjustable mechanism. The Anichkov Bridge was fenced off with stone parapets. At the beginning of the 19th century, they were replaced by gratings with stone pedestals, repeating the fence of the Fontanka embankments. At the entrance to the bridge, stone obelisks were installed, and two lanterns were hung on each of them.
The cobblestone pavement on the Anichkov Bridge was replaced by an end pavement in 1832.


Fontanka River near Anichkov Bridge. M.-F. Damame-Demartre. 1813

Anichkov Bridge. 1830

By the middle of the 19th century, the Anichkov Bridge became too narrow for the main street of St. Petersburg. In 1839, a decision was made to rebuild it. The corresponding project, approved in December 1840, was developed by engineers I. F. Buttats, A. H. Reder and A. D. Gotman. To monitor its implementation, a special committee was created, headed by the director of the Putey Institute, Lieutenant General A.D. Gotman.
Construction work was carried out by contractor Makar Pimenov. They began with the dismantling of the old crossing, and on May 22, 1841, the first stone was laid in the foundation of the new Anichkov Bridge. Three arches were laid out in just four months - it was necessary to restore traffic along the highway as soon as possible. During the construction period, traffic was carried over a temporary bypass wooden bridge.


Rebuilding the bridge in 1841

The brick vaults of the new Anichkov Bridge were faced with pink granite, which at that time was imported to St. Petersburg for the construction of St. Isaac's Cathedral. All work was completed by the fall; it lasted only six months. The bridge was no longer a drawbridge, and the roadway became much wider.
For the decorative lattice of the bridge fence, drawings by the German architect Karl Schinkel were used (exactly the same female mermaids and horse mermaids are on the Palace Bridge in Berlin). Interestingly, the same theme - with mythical water horses - hippocampi - appears on the first big bridge in St. Petersburg - Blagoveshchensky. The author of the drawing is Alexander Pavlovich Bryullov (it is not clear whose hippocampus was the first - his or Schinkel's?).

At the beginning of November 1841, railings and granite pedestals for statues were installed on the Anichkov Bridge. According to reports from the Ministry of Finance, the construction of the crossing cost 195,294 silver rubles. The ceremonial opening of the crossing took place on November 20, 1841 (?). Traffic on the Anichkov Bridge was opened in January 1842.
Initially, it was planned to decorate the bridge arches with bronze decorative overlays, place bronze vases on each of the bulls, and horse groups on the shore abutments. But during the construction process, it was decided to limit ourselves to only the latter.
In those years, the St. Petersburg animal sculptor Pyotr Karlovich Klodt was working on a design project for the decoration of a pier on the Neva embankment near Admiralteysky Boulevard. Then they were going to decorate it with two sculptures of horses led by young men. But plans have changed. There were lions and vases installed on the pier. At the suggestion of the sculptor, it was decided to install the horse tamers on the rebuilt Anichkov Bridge.
A platoon of sappers moved Klodt’s horses from the foundry on Vasilievsky Island to the Fontanka. According to A.L. Punin, this happened on November 20, 1841, and two days later they were installed on pedestals on the western bank of the river. This contradicts the fact that the grand opening of the crossing took place on November 20.
First, on the western part of the bridge, the first two statues cast in bronze appeared - “A Horse with a Walking Young Man” and “A Young Man Taking a Horse by the Bridle.” They were matched by exactly the same statues, but made of plaster and painted bronze on the eastern part.
A year later, Klodt made bronze copies of equestrian groups. When the bronze sculptures were ready for installation, in 1842, on the instructions of Nicholas I, they were presented to the Prussian king Frederick William IV. Klodt's horses ended up in Berlin. As a reciprocal gesture, the Prussian monarch in 1845 presented St. Petersburg with two statues of Glory, which were installed on Konnogvardeisky Boulevard.
The plaster sculptures on the eastern bank of the Fontanka quickly fell into disrepair. The Chief of Police informed the President of the Academy of Arts that “the alabaster figure of a horse had a crack, and the alabaster began to fall off in places, making the figure ugly.” In the end, the horse's tail fell off, and the chief of police reported about the danger to pedestrians.
New bronze sculptures on the Anichkov Bridge were installed on October 9, 1843. But in April 1846 they were removed from the crossing and presented again, this time to the King of Sicily Ferdinand II. With this gift, the Russian Tsar thanked the Sicilian monarch for the magnificent reception of his wife. The sculptures went to Naples, their place was again taken by plaster copies. In the end, Klodt abandoned the installation of copies on the Anichkov Bridge and decided to create two new compositions and develop the plot of “The Conquest of the Horse by Man.”


According to the sculptor’s plan, being on the Anichkov Bridge you cannot see all four figures. They need to be considered gradually, one after another. Klodt’s plot will be most fully revealed if we begin the review of the ensemble from the western side, from the first group, depicting a tamer with a cord in his hands.


Then you need to cross Nevsky Prospekt, then across the bridge to its eastern side. The second sculpture conveys the intensified dynamics of the struggle. A man is defeated by a horse, which almost breaks free.


In the third group, the drama gradually subsides, and the fourth shows the tamer calmly walking next to a horse whose back is covered with the skin of a leopard.

The process of taming a horse is symbolized, among other things, by the fact that the horses of the third and fourth groups, unlike the first, are shod.
The horses on the Anichkov Bridge have become one of the symbols of St. Petersburg. Three more pairs of the same sculptural groups were subsequently installed in Strelna, Peterhof and in the Golitsyn Kuzminki estate near Moscow.

The newspapers of that time wrote: “The new Anichkov Bridge delights all residents of St. Petersburg. They gather in crowds to admire the amazing proportions of all parts of the bridge and the horses - dare we say, the only ones in the world. There is something open, deft, and attractive about the Anichkov Bridge! Having driven onto the bridge, it seems that you have rested!.. None of the St. Petersburg buildings made such an impression on the residents of the capital as the Anichkov Bridge! Honor and glory to the builders!”


Ludwig-Franz-Karl Ludwigovich Bonstedt. Anichkov Bridge on Nevsky Prospekt.

Despite protests from the Academy of Arts, the city administration continued to improve the Anichkov Bridge. Soon after its opening, lanterns of gas lighting, which was just becoming fashionable, appeared on it. In the 1890s, a chapel no more than 1.5 meters high was erected here.


When inspecting the Anichkov Bridge on October 9, 1902, its condition was recognized as emergency. When it was decided to run a tram along Nevsky Prospekt, it became impossible to delay the repair of the crossing. To replace the old vaults, it was necessary to dismantle the abutments, that is, the old bridge had to be completely dismantled. Reconstructing the Anichkov Bridge according to the old design required a lot of time and money. Therefore, the city railway commission, led by engineer A.P. Pshenitsky, considered an alternative reconstruction option, which involved the creation of a metal single-span crossing instead of a brick three-span one. This proposal excited the city's public, demanding the reconstruction of the Anichkov Bridge. On April 25, 1905, the Academy of Arts spoke out in favor of preserving the historical appearance of the crossing. Moreover, even the patina on the sculptures of the Anichkov Bridge had to remain untouched, so that Klodt’s sculptures would not seem like a remake.


The reconstruction project for the Anichkov Bridge, which was accepted for implementation, was drawn up by S. P. Bobrovsky and N. G. Krivoshein. Restoration work was carried out in 1906-1908 under the leadership of architect P.V. Shchusev. At the same time, the abutments and bulls remained the same, while the brick vaults were rebuilt. For the convenience of pedestrians, the narrow gangway from the bridge was replaced with wide steps.

After the reconstruction of the crossing, a sign “Anichkin Bridge” appeared on it. This did not go unnoticed by the descendants of M. O. Anichkov, who turned to the city government with a request to correct the mistake, because their ancestors bore the surname Anichkovs, not Anichkins. After making inquiries, the city government, not having the authority to change the name, turned to the city duma, which restored historical justice.


Proposals to “improve” the Anichkov Bridge arose even after its repair. In 1912, a prominent member of the City Duma, architect A.P. Kovsharov, proposed building up the pedestals with granite slabs so that the horses could be seen even better.
In 1938, on the Anichkov Bridge, as well as on the entire Nevsky Prospect, the end pavement was replaced by asphalt.

At the beginning of the war, the equestrian sculptures were removed from their pedestals, but they did not have time to take them out. Klodt's horses were placed in boxes and buried in the courtyard of the Anichkov Palace. And in their place there were boxes in which the blockade survivors grew grass in the summer.
The Anichkov Bridge was seriously damaged by artillery raids. On November 6, 1942, a 250-kilogram bomb exploded on the bridge. The cast iron grate and one of the granite bases collapsed into the Fontanka. But already in November, the blockade tram began to run across the Anichkov Bridge again, and a few days later the fence was restored (the pedestal was only retrieved after the war).
There were shell marks on the granite parapets and railings. One of these terrible traces was not repaired, leaving the memory of the blockade. Klodt's horses, which successfully survived the enemy siege, returned to their place by May 1, 1945.


The horses of the Anichkov Bridge take their old places (June 1, 1945)

In the mid-90s, the cast iron grating on the Anichkov Bridge was completely replaced. It was cast at the enterprise of the Federal Nuclear Center in the city of Snezhinsk (if you try, you can find the coat of arms of this city on the fence - a hybrid of a stylized snowflake and a nucleus with protons). In 2000, restoration of the bronze equestrian groups was carried out. Restoration work was headed by sculptor V. G. Sorin.
The last reconstruction of the bridge was in 2007-2008.

Interesting Facts

Klodt sculpted horses from life - the purebred Arabian horse Amalatbek posed for him. The stallion was wild and unruly, but the sculptor was able to ride him. Klodt was helped in his work by his daughter, who forced the horse to take the necessary poses.

A face on a horse's genitals.
The outlines of the intimate organs of one of the stallions surprisingly resemble a human face. According to one version of this coincidence, the sculptor thus took revenge on some of his ill-wisher. According to another opinion, the contours of the horse’s genitals reproduce the face of Napoleon, who not so long ago passed through Russian soil in a devastating war.

After each reconstruction, the city authorities tried to assign the name “Nevsky Prospekt” to the bridge, but it did not take root.

During the Great Patriotic War, fascist propaganda spread a photomontage of German soldiers standing by Klodt's horses. With their provocative poster, the Nazis wanted to make the whole world believe that Leningrad had supposedly already been captured.

Inside the figures located near the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace, the masters who carried out the restoration in 2000 placed a copper capsule. The capsule contains a list of all participants in the restoration work with the caption: “We did everything we could. Whoever can, do better.”

Guests of St. Petersburg, thinking that the bridge is connected with a certain Anichka, mispronounce the name of the bridge, placing emphasis on the first letter in the word “Anichkov”. It is correct to say - AnIchkov, making the second syllable stressed.

During Prohibition, introduced in the USSR in the 80s of the last century, the following saying was born: “Only four people in St. Petersburg do not drink, they have no time - they keep horses.”

Similar compositions decorate the entrance to the Champs Elysees in Paris.


Horses Marley in Paris

Anichkov Bridge in art:

Four black and bulky,
Untamed stallion
They took off - each on the stage -
Under the tightened bridle of the catcher.
How heavy the swing of the hooves and ardent!
How tense the muscles are
What a branchy network of veins
The smooth slope of the back will be tugged!

"Anichkov Bridge" Vladimir Narbut (1913)

The horse was drawn by the bridle onto a cast-iron
Bridge. The water turned black under the hoof.
The horse snored and the air was moonless
Snoring remained on the bridge forever...
Everything remained. Movements, suffering -
Did not have. The horse snored forever.
And on the leash in the tension of silence
A man hung forever frozen.

Alexander Blok

Obedient to the command of the master,
Having passed through the purgatory of fire,
Soared into the air like a black whirlwind
Four bronze horses! . .

And at the same moment four young
Mighty horseman, from the earth
Jumping up, the reins are like strings,
The martial arts were intense! . .

In vain the horses beat their hoofs,
They strive to get away from their place,
And they laugh and spin angrily,
And they tear the reins and snore! . .

But the muscles of mighty youths
Dexterity, intelligence and pressure,
Calming the ebullient temper,
They are already resolving an old dispute! -

Pulling the reins tight,
They tame the wild temperament of the horse...
So my city humbled the elements
Water, and steel, and fire! . .

Horses on Anichkov Bridge!.. Nikolai Leopoldovich Brown (1956)

They froze over the Fontanka, keeping silence,
There are four powerful horses in different groups.
Next to them they are great fellows – daredevils.
They've been holding those horses by the bridle for so many years.

The veins bulged at the legs - there is a limit to one’s strength.
Well, if only there was a jerk, this horse would take off.
Intoxicated by freedom, still distant.
The horse does not feel how, his lips are tearing at the bit.

And the river under the bridge quietly carries water.
And thoughtfully awaits the outcome of the hot battle...
Those horses, like us, are always held back by something.
But someday the horse will break the bit.

Anichkov Bridge. Ivan Aleksandrovich Solopchuk

Not Anechka at all - Anna
Gave a name to the bridge
And the engineer, lieutenant colonel,
I'll tell you how it all happened:

His name was Mikhail.
Knew: Anichkov in the area
Lived in a settlement beyond the Fontanka,
And the battalion - for each other!

In the eighteenth century, stormy,
He was building a path across the river.
The bridge and the surname are similar -
Glory has come to man!

The bridge then had three spans.
There are four towers, granite.
The middle part, which is lifting,
It smelled like an elite tree.

And in the nineteenth century
This bridge has been rebuilt:
The towers have disappeared. Mermaids
Cast iron on railings

Along with seahorses
They breathe greenery from the river,
Like German fairy tales
They whisper quietly to you and me!

Klodt's creations froze
On a stone pedestal.
Untamed horses -
Creatures cast in bronze!

How many times have you been given as a gift!
We were looking for a better place!
You restless horses
Bring joy to those walking!

You see, the horse is purebred
Proud Arabian breed,
The youth was instantly tamed,
Looking into the cold water...

Anichkov Bridge. Margarita Lyublinskaya

Andrey Efimovich Martynov. View of Nevsky Prospekt from the Fontanka to the Admiralty. 1809-10

P.A. Alexandrov. View of the old Anichkov Bridge and Naryshkin's house on the Fontanka, 1825.

Vasily Semenovich Sadovnikov. Anichkov Bridge

Joseph Iosifovich Charlemagne. View from the Anichkov Bridge to the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace in St. Petersburg (1850s)

Karl Petrovich Beggrov. Perspective of Fontanka from Anichkov Bridge"

Louis Julien Jacottet. Anichkov Bridge. 1850.

Paolo Sala. Anichkov Bridge on Nevsky Prospekt at dusk.

Victor Vladimirovich Merkushev. Anichkov Bridge

Alexander Alexandrovsky. Anichkov Bridge. Fontanka. Saint Petersburg

Azat Galimov. Anichkov Bridge

Evgeny Malykh. Saint Petersburg. View of Anichkov Bridge

Evgeny Malykh. Saint Petersburg. Anichkov Bridge

Baggy Boy. Sculpture of Anichkov Bridge

Oleg Ildukov. Anichkov Bridge on Fontanka

Biktimirova. Anichkov Bridge

Sergey Rakutov. Anichkov Bridge

Ekaterina Shakhova. Anichkov Bridge

Oksana Pivovarova. Anichkov Bridge

Olga Litvinenko. Anichkov Bridge. Winter

Sabir Tahir-ogly Gadzhiev. Anichkov Bridge

Nadezhda Ivanova. Anichkov Bridge