Мой первый журнал SUNRISE November № 1 2018 | Page 50
HISTORY
On the Banks of the Neva
Polina Ermizina
Lyceum BSPU,
Blagoveschensk, Russia
My favorite season is summer. It`s the
longest period of time during the year when
children can do whatever they like because
there are no lessons, homework and tests.
In June I had a rest in a summer camp
with my best friends. We met many friendly
and kind people and communicated with one
another. Every day we indulged into sports
such as volleyball or football, took part in
various competitions and spent a lot of time
outdoors.
In July I was in Saint Petersburg with my
family and had an opportunity to get
acquainted with its history better. To tell the
truth, when a great moment comes and
knocks on your door, its first knock is
sometimes as soft as the sound of your
heartbeat. Thus, one day the banks of the
Neva perceived the knock. The time of Saint
Petersburg was beginning. Perhaps, it was
that stormy white night which caught Peter
the Great on Zayachiy Island surrounded by
rampant waves flooding the banks? The
mighty Neva overwhelmed Peter! He had a
passion for the force of nature. And on
vibrating bog which was as if woven from mist,
on islands scattered like boats after a storm,
his passionate dream was born: to create a
majestic city by the sea.
Nowadays, this city is known as one of
the biggest and most beautiful cities of the
country. It was founded in 1703 and its
foundation started with building of the
Fortress of Peter and Pavel which is now called
Petropavlovskaya fortress. Many rivers and
channels cross the city and create the
atmosphere of intelligence, history and
charm.
Just take the Dvortsovyi Bridge
opening in such a kingly fashion! It flaps its
wings and both the past and the present
disappear for a moment. Petersburg seems to
be born again: the Neva and the sky, light and
the bridge, palaces and pink and ash grey
granite of the embankment. It is all a mirage!
What consonance! And at the same time what
diversity resulting from water mixing with
buildings! The Neva is like an architect creating
Petersburg of its own. Here, on embankments,
it is the main creator.
It is impossible to imagine Saint
Petersburg without bridges just like, for
example, Egypt without pyramids. At first,
Peter the Great prohibited to build bridges
over the Neva. Why? The freedom-loving,
water-abundant beautiful river agitated
waves so powerful that boats, barques and
barges capsized but Peter the Great wanted
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SUNRISE
the islands to be inhabited by seafarers who
would feel at home when afloat. Marine spirit…
The first bridge ascended over the Neva in the
mid 19 th century. Its bascule leaves did not
shoot upwards but rotated slowly like a gate
opening for ships. The most amazing thing is
that they were drawn manually. At last, there
was the opening! Thousands of people spilled
out to the embankment. Petersburgers were
rejoicing: the Neva was tamed! The Emperor
was the first to cross the bridge followed by
the general manager of transport routes and
the project designer Stanislaw Kierbedz.
Before reaching the middle of the bridge,
Nikolay I stopped in admiration and kissed the
e n g i n e e r. T h e b r i d g e w a s n a m e d
Blagoveschenskiy. The Neva's firstling was the
longest bridge in Europe. Peterburgers walked
on the bridge with their families, feasting their
eyes on the figured railings created based on
Brullov's drawings. The cast iron lace was
decorated with Neptune's tridents and sea
horses. Contemporaries wrote that the bridge
seemed clear and lightweight like waves. A few
years later the architect Andrey
Shtakenschneider built a richly decorated
chapel here dedicated to Saint Nicholas the
Wonderworker which was called Nicholas on
the Bridge. In the Soviet period the chapel was
demolished and by that time it had turned into
a storage of shovels and brooms but there
was a belief among Leningraders that Saint
Nicholas occasionally visited his St.
Petersburg abode to give his blessing and pray
for all the suffering. This was the beginning of
the glorious history of the city which was
destined to encapsulate a whole mix of human
feelings and emotions embodied in its splendid
frontages and buildings and to become an
important page in the history of entire Russia.
…Bridges are raised and everything
gets disconnected. You feel that the
connection between islands, the easiness of
access from the Admiralty district to the
Petrograd Side or to Vasilyevskiy Island turns
out to be so easy to break. There is some
association with a human life. Everything can
be ruined in a moment. There is a sense of
fragility of a human life.
I have heard that there was a plan to
mount towers with hoisting mechanisms on
Dvortsovyi Bridge but the Academy of Arts
argued against it. How could they obscure the
most beautiful square in St. Petersburg? The
Neva framed by Petropavlovskaya Fortress,
the Winter Palace and exchanges. There was a
call for proposals at the beginning of the 20 th
century and the discussion took as long as
almost 10 years and when construction was
finally started, only 2 years remained until
World War I. Who could know? The war
interfered abruptly with the destiny of
November 2018 №1