Since ancient times, people tend to believe in the mystical purpose of these creatures. These are Winged lions (or griffins, as they are called). These mythical creatures adorn the pedestrian suspension bridge over one of the canals of our city. In this place the Griboyedov canal makes a turn and the "Bank Bridge" serves as a pedestrian crossing from one Bank to another.
.JPG)
Myths about griffins originated in Ancient Egypt. They were considered the keepers of treasures and secret knowledge. These animals with the head and body of a lion and eagle wings meant power in conjunction with the mind.
.JPG)
The bridge got its name from the assignation Bank, which in tsarist times was located opposite. There were countless gold reserves. It was the griffins who were chosen as guards, planted on the "Bank Bridge". These winged lions had a duty to guard the gold reserves of the Russian Empire. In those days St. Petersburg was still the capital of the state.
.JPG)
.JPG)
The building of the assignation Bank has survived to this day. Now here is the State University of Economics.
The bridge was built in 1825. But time and damp climate of St. Petersburg mercilessly over and over again destroyed these majestic sculptures. The first restoration was carried out only in 1950. According to archival drawings, it was possible to restore the broken round lanterns, the wooden canvas of the bridge and the unique openwork lattice of the bridge.
Human vandalism always strikes sadly. For the sake of easy money people are ready to destroy even such unique architectural treasures. The wings of lions are covered with gold leaf and some thieves think they can get rich if they break off pieces of gold plating. But this layer is so thin that it is almost impossible to collect it. It just turns to gold dust.
Well, of course, decent, kind and not indifferent people are always much more. For example, during the next restoration in 2008, one of the residents of our city donated four rare books with sheets of gold leaf for the restoration of griffins "Bank Bridge".
.JPG)
All these restorations took place on the spot. And, only in 2017, the majestic winged lions for the first time in 200 years left their bridge and were sent to restoration workshops. These works wanted to be done a little earlier, but experts took time to get close to the secret of the locks of these mythical creatures. Inside it is hollow sculptures, but the weight of each of them is one and a half tons. They needed to understand how the parts of this complex engineering structure were connected.
.JPG)
Here, too, was not without surprises. Inside the hollow structures was found a treasure of rare coins and a lot of personal notes with wishes that people leave in the hope of fulfilling their dreams. After all, according to legend, which originated in the 19th century, it is believed that griffins can help become rich or solve financial difficulties. Well, I haven't tried to check it yet, but I think that the most important thing is to believe in your dream :))
.JPG)
And finally, in June of this year, fully restored griffins solemnly returned to their usual place. There are always crowds of tourists, visitors and residents. People come day and night. Around me there is a speech in different languages. It is almost impossible to make shots without the presence of people. Well, that's not a problem! I always have a good attitude to people who were able to travel long distances to see the beauty of my city. I know that tours to St. Petersburg are not cheap. Therefore, my special respect to all who decided on such a journey. Well, I - I can wait. After all, I can come here any day and any time of the year.
.JPG)
I walk along the canal , looking back over and over... In the rays of the bright sun these Golden wings so attract my eyes. There really is something mystical about it. The city is well over three hundred years old, but it is so young. It's like a connection of time ...
.JPG)
Thanks to everyone who took the time to visit my blog. I'll see you soon...
All photos are original and made with Camera SONY DSC-W350
.JPG)
Thanks for supporting me :))
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here
Hello!
This post has been manually curated, resteemed
and gifted with some virtually delicious cake
from the @helpiecake curation team!
Much love to you from all of us at @helpie!
Keep up the great work!
Manually curated by @georgeboya.
@helpie is a Community Witness.
For more information about our project,
please visit this month’s UPDATE post.
Wow! thank you guys for the delicious cake :)) Your support and encouragement is much appreciated!
Всегда поражаюсь красотой вашего города, Маришечка) Сейчас читаю "Блокадную книгу" и там описывают как это все сохраняли, а кое-что вывозили в тыл. Аж не верится, что такое могли построить в далекие года. Я смотрю много версий в Ютубе о Питере, есть даже такая, что город откопали, потому что все слишком идеально сделано и без супер технологий не обошлось. Загадочный и прекрасный город!
Привет, Инна!!! Даниил Гранин хорошо описывает то блокадное время. У нас дома тоже есть этот двухтомник. Я надеюсь что хоть когда-нибудь ты сможешь ко мне приехать и посмотреть всё сама. Город действительно уникальный. Я вообще считаю его лучшим городом России.И это не потому, что я здесь живу. Я сама открываю его для себя каждый день по-новому :))
Да, как читаю Гранин и Адамович. У дяди была большая библиотека, много старых книг, а читать я очень люблю)). И у меня есть мечта приехать к тебе и посмотреть ваш город своими глазами. Я очень надеюсь, что это осуществится! Хочу собраться написать тебе письмо, пока срочный заказ до понедельника надо делать.
Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 12 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.
I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 2 SBD worth and should receive 149 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.
I am
TrufflePig, an Artificial Intelligence Bot that helps minnows and content curators using Machine Learning. If you are curious how I select content, you can find an explanation here!Have a nice day and sincerely yours,
TrufflePigThank you for such support :))
обснято! =)
ну, таки,сбылась мечта :))
You got a 6.05% upvote from @ocdb courtesy of @madlenfox! :)
@ocdb is a non-profit bidbot for whitelisted Steemians, current max bid is 10 SBD and the equivalent amount in STEEM.
Check our website https://thegoodwhales.io/ for the whitelist, queue and delegation info. Join our Discord channel for more information.
If you like what @ocd does, consider voting for ocd-witness through SteemConnect or on the Steemit Witnesses page. :)
I love those griffins and thanks for sharing with us this beautiful place
Amazing sculptures of griffins, the majestic winged lions! The bridge is beautiful with four of them. The long history of the griffins is interesting and it's great to see them beautifully after the restorations.
You are very lucky to live in a famous city, St. Petersburg, that many people (including me) around the world love to visit. Thanks so much for sharing. ;)