Bank Bridge in St. Petersburg: a monument to the past with a hope for the future

The charm of the white nights and the splendor of the Winter Palace, the "Bronze Horseman", the clear prospect of Nevsky Prospekt, the majestic St. Isaac's Cathedral and the skilful grille of the Summer Garden are all our native and beautiful St. Petersburg, whose sights for many decades have made us admire all the guests of this Northern Palmyra .

The city on the Neva has several symbols at once: it's the famous ship at the Admiralty, and Peter the Great, and the equally famous "St. Gryphon". Griffins, as is known from Eastern mythology, are fantastic monsters with a lion's body and eagle's wings. It is these monsters that guard one of the most beautiful engineering structures of the city - the Bank Bridge.

These griffins were at one time manufactured at the Alexandrovsky plant, which specialized in cast iron. The head of the work was the famous sculptor P. Sokolov, who, in turn, used the drawings of G. Tretter. The finding of griffins in this place of the city is not accidental: according to myths these fantastic creatures are engaged in the fact that day and night they guard gold, and where to do it, how not at the building of the former Assignation Bank ?! Despite the fact that the University of Economics and Finance has long been located in this building, the griffins continue to protect the wealth and well-being of the citizens.

It was the Assignation Bank that gave the name to the bridge in front of it. The banking bridge in St. Petersburg is a unique building. First, it is one of the few surviving hanging bridges in the city. Its construction and opening falls on a turbulent time for the city - 1825-1826, when the main theme was the Decembrist uprising and the subsequent investigative process.

Secondly, the bank bridge created according to the project of the famous engineer G.Tretter is exclusively pedestrian. Thrown across the Griboedov Canal, he connects the Kazan Cathedral and the Spassky Island. Thirdly, its unusual appearance, together with the already mentioned griffins, make the necessary diversity to the surrounding urban reality.

In addition to the aesthetic load, the griffins themselves carry out an important engineering function, namely, chains are fixed in them, which support the entire structure of the bridge. Inside these figures are special consoles, through which metal chains and fasten.

For its nearly two hundred years of history, the Bank Bridge has seen a lot of things, but it itself was really repaired only once - in 1949-1952. During these works, its prism was returned to its original appearance, and the griffins were again covered with gold leaf. In 2007, the griffins themselves were repaired, and when they were dismantled, a real treasure was found out of coins, which are fortunately left by tourists.

To date , the Bank Bridge with famous griffins is one of the business cards of the city and a place of constant pilgrimage of tourists. They are attracted not only by the beauty of the structure, but also by the calmness and comfort of the place itself.