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 49 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