The Anichkov Bridge

           The Anichkov Bridge is situated where Nevsky Pros­pect and the Fontanka River intersect. This bridge was rebuilt three times, but its name has never been changed. It was named after an Admiralty engineer Major Mikhail Anichkov.

           The first wooden bridge in this place was built in 1715. The present bridge was built between 1839 and 1841 by the engineer Andrey Gotman and the architect Alexander Bryullov. The length of the bridge is 54 me­tres. The width is 37 metres. Its main decorations are four “tamed horses”. They are considered to be the Pyotr Klodt’s best sculptures. These sculptures won him the world acclaim.

          One sculpture group depicts a young man leading a horse; another sculpture depicts a youth attempting to control a mettlesome horse.

          Klodt finished working on the first two sculptures in 1841. He cast them in bronze. Each sculpture was re­peated and the two pairs were to be placed symmetri­cally on the bridge corners. But Nicholas I ordered to send two of the statues to Berlin as a present to the Prussian King. These sculptures were installed there in front of the Grand Palace. They greatly added the at­traction to the royal palace. For these sculptures Pyotr Klodt was elected a member of the Berlin, Paris and Rome academies of Fine Arts.

         The remaining two sculptures were given as a present to the King of Naples and placed in the garden of the San Carlo Theatre in Naples.

         The two pairs of the alabaster copies were placed on the Anichkov Bridge. For some years Klodt sculptured and cast new and more impressive sculptures. In 1850, they were mounted on the granite pediments of the Anichkov Bridge.

         The struggle of a man and a wilful unbroken horse is a theme of the sculptures. The sculptor possessed a brilliant knowledge of the human and horse anatomy. He reproduced the strain of the struggle very convinc­ingly.

         These sculptures have made up an expressive sculp­tural ensemble. They have always been considered a success since the moment of their creation. These out­standing works have become one of the symbols of St Petersburg.

Vocabulary

acclaim - одобрение, признание

add - добавлять, увеличи­вать

alabaster - алебастр

anatomy - анатомия

attempt - пытаться

attraction - прелесть, привлекательность

bridge – мост

cast - отливать

consider - считать

convincingly - убедительно

depict - изображать

elect - выбирать

expressive - выра­зительный

human - человече­ский

impressive - впечат­ляющий

install - помещать, устанавливать

intersect - пересе­каться, перекрещиваться

knowledge - знание

length - длина

major - майор

mettlesome - смелый, рьяный

mount - поднимать

pediment - фронтон

place - помещать, раз­мещать

possess - владеть, обла­дать

repeat - повторять

reproduce - вос­производить

sculpture - скульп­тура, ваять, высекать, лепить

strain - напряжение

struggle - борьба

success - успех

symmetrically - симметрично

tame - укрощать

unbroken - непо­коренный

width - ширина

wilful - своенравный

youth - юноша