Anichkov Bridge – one of the most famous bridges of St. Petersburg permanent stone bridge thrown across the Fontanka Nevsky Prospect on line in 1785. Its name
bridge shall lieutenant colonel-engineer Mikhail Anichkov, whose battalion during the time of Peter the Great was stationed for Fontanka Anichkov in the so-called settlement.
Cast in bronze, the first two of the sculpture “horse with reaching young men” and “young man, taking the horse by the bridle,” appeared on the west side in 1841. Sculpture is on the eastern shore of the western repeated, but were transient in plaster, painted in bronze. Just cast to replace them and barely cooled bronze horses straight from the cast house, Nicholas I gave the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV. They are now in Berlin. In 1844 the eastern plaster sculptures were finally replaced with bronze, but stood for a short time, two years later Nicholas I gave them the king of the Two Sicilies for the hospitality extended to the Russian Empress during a trip to Italy and in 1846 appeared in Naples. Later copies klodtovskih horses were in Peterhof, Strelna, and Moscow Golitsyn Manor -. Kuzminkah
Each time they were removed from the bridge and replaced with plaster copies. Finally, in 1851 the bridge was finally “manned”. Klodt did not repeat earlier sculpture, and created two new compositions, as a result of the statues began to depict four different stages of the conquest of the horse. Statues more times left the bridge: in 1941 during the siege they were shot and buried in the garden of the Anichkov Palace, and in 2000, they were taken for the restoration and for the 300th anniversary of the city returned to its original place
Interestingly, the statue. horses that “look” in the direction of the Admiralty to have their hooves a horseshoe, while the statues of horses, looking towards the square Rebellion horseshoes have not. A common legend explains this by saying that in the XVIII century at the Foundry Avenue housed foundries (from the prospectus actually got its name) and the forge. Therefore, savvy horse “go” from the forges, to the top of the avenue, and unshod horses on the contrary are located facing toward the Foundry prospectus.