Gold-plated griffins of St. Petersburg

This bridge is really a pride and a landmark of St. Petersburg along with other unique buildings of St. Petersburg. And the name «Banking Bridge» was received for the reason that connecting the two islands of Kazan and Spassky, it stood almost in front of the building of the Assignation Bank of St. Petersburg, where the State Economic University is now located.

Getting to the Bank Bridge is not so, it’s difficult, because the nearest metro station «Nevsky Prospekt — 2» — «Exit to the Griboedov Canal» is only four hundred meters. Like many of St. Petersburg’s bridges built through the Griboedov Canal, the Bank Bridge was built in 1825 by engineer Wilhelm von Tretter, who was the author of bridges built through such channels as Fontanka and Moika.

The unique sculpture of the gilded gryphons created by the Russian sculptor Pavel Petrovich Sokolov gave special prominence to the «Bank Bridge». It should be noted that for Sokolov the theme of lions and griffins is one of the most beloved. After all, he created cast-iron sculptures of lions on the Lion Bridge (1825) and the sphinxes of the Egyptian bridge built in 1829.

For the first time, the Bank Bridge was overhauled in 1949, when its wooden canvas was replaced with a new one, and for the next three years the wooden spans were replaced with metal ones, and also the lanterns and the forged fence of the bridge were restored.

And before the famous griffins reached only closer to 1967, when the gilding of their wings was replaced by a new gilding that unidentified persons tried to scrape off in 2009, using the complete absence of law enforcement bodies, as the latter strengthened the maintenance of law and order at the next football match of the St. Petersburg «Zenith» .