St. Petersburg is like lots of small islands that are connected via bridges, especially when you roam around the center of the city, it’s tough to walk more than hundreds of meters without passing at least one bridge. If you’ve never been to St. Petersburg, you should know that these bridges are quite crucial for the city. Besides their general-purpose, they play an essential role in the tourism industry of the town. One of the major attractions of St. Petersburg in Russia tour is the draw-bridges, which has nothing to do with tourism. Still, many people find it quite fascinating on their trip to St. Petersburg and willing to spend several hours after midnight to watch them. If you don’t know what they are, you can read about it on our Night Boat Tour on our weblog, but briefly, there are several draw-bridges in St. Petersburg that will be opened at a specific time of the night to let large commercial ships pass under them to the other side. Though it has nothing to do with tourism, many travel agencies and Russian tour operators use them as an opportunity to provide a fun, exceptional, pleasant night for their tourists. We at the Star Travel Group also recommend our Night Boat Tour in St. Petersburg, in which you can enjoy a night of dance, drink, sightseeing, and watching the draw-bridges open from the river with your family, friend, or even by yourself. However, those draw-bridges are not the only bridges that you see on your travel to Russia. When you visit St. Petersburg, you’ll see that there are at least hundreds of bridges inside the city, which more than 40 of them are historical bridges that you can learn about on your tour to Russia. Here are our top four picks of bridges that are important on the Russia tour.
The Palace Bridge
Even though our first pick was constructed in the modern era in the 20th century, it still is one of the most critical bridges in St. Petersburg. The Palace Bridge is almost impossible to miss on tour to St. Petersburg because it is the main link between the Palace Square that houses Hermitage Museum and Vasilievsky Island, which is the site of multiple St. Petersburg attractive places in Russia tour. Constructing this bridge was quite vital for the city because before that, at the beginning of the 20th century, people used boats or temporary bridges to commute between the places. However, while the competition began in 1901, it took about eight years for the jury to pick a winner. The construction and grand opening of the bridge postponed several times due to various reasons, including the first world war and changing the design, but eventually, it constructed. The Palace Bridge has undergone several reconstructions ever since it built. The bridge’s name was also changed several times, but in 1944, it reacquired its original name. While surrounded by multiple historical attractions of St. Petersburg, the bridge itself has a simple design. Even if somehow you don’t use this bridge when you visit St. Petersburg, you will see it during your tour to St. Petersburg without a doubt. The Palace Bridge is also one of the famous draw-bridges of St. Petersburg.
Anichkov Bridge
Anichkov Bridge is one of the leading architectural features of the Nevsky Prospect and one of the bridges that you will visit on your tour to Russia. It locates in the historical center of St. Petersburg, which houses several palaces and attractions of Russia tour. Anichkov Bridge also has four Horse Tamers sculptures on each corner of the bridge, which is one of the attractive features of the bridge on the St. Petersburg tour. The history of the bridge dates back to 1716 when Mikhail Anichkov built a wooden bridge on the Fontanka River. However, in the 1780s, the wooden Anichkov bridge had replaced with a stone version alongside several other bridges, including the famous Lomonosov Bridge, which is one of the few bridges that survived from that era. In the middle of the 19th century, the bridge needed to be expanded due to the ever-increasing volumes of traffic on Nevsky Prospect. The 55-meter-long Anichkov Bridge has a simplistic pink granite design, but the famous four Horse Tamers makes it more beautiful and majestic. Those four sculptures are designed by Pyotr Klodt, who had also designed the equestrian statue of Nicholas I, which can be found in front of the well-known St. Isaac’s Cathedral on tour to Russia.
Lomonosov Bridge
Our next pick is the Lomonosov Bridge, which named after one of the greatest Russian polymaths, Mikhail Lomonosov. The Lomonosov Bridge is one of the few bridges in St. Petersburg that has been built in the late 18th century and maintained its original design from the beginning. The 57-meter-long bridge was initially called Chernyshev Bridge after Count Grigory Chernyshev, one of the prominent generals in the Peter the Great army. This bridge, alongside seven other bridges, such as Anichkov Bridge, had been replaced with stone in the 1780s. However, Lomonosov Bridge and Staro-Kalinkin Bridge are survived more or less intact. One of the features of this bridge is the four pavilions that once housed the bridge mechanism, but nowadays, it only gives a charming look to the bridge since it no longer rises to let larger ships pass through it.
Trinity Bridge
Our last pick is the second-largest bridge and thanks to its elegant art Nouveau design, one of the most beautiful ones in the city. Trinity Bridge was constructed on the 200th anniversary of St. Petersburg in 1903. It was the third permanent bridge that ever been built on Neva River that linked the north of Field of Mars to the Petrograd Side near Peter and Paul Fortress. The 582-meter-long bridge on Neva River named after the Trinity Cathedral, which once stood on the Petrograd Side beside the bridge. However, after the October Revolution, the bridge’s name changed, and the cathedral demolished due to the anti-religious beliefs of the Bolsheviks. The name of the bridge was changed one more time in 1932 to Sergei Kirov before it reacquired its original name in 1999.
Although we can name several other bridges, such as The Bank Bridge, Liteiny Bridge, Blagoveshchenskiy Bridge, and many more as honorable mentions, these four bridges are our top picks that are likely to be included on your tour to Russia. We at the Star Travel Group also recommend our weblog to our tourists if they want to learn more about top Russia attractive places and what they should visit when they travel to Russia.
