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People came this place on the right bank of the Neva in early 1300s. But 7 centuries later the land remains the battlefield of human passions. In 1300 the Swedes chose the source of the Okhta river to construct a fortress Landskrona. They found the most effective and fast way of constructing fortifications - a continuous ditch between the Okhta and the Neva was dug through. As referred to the Sweden chronicles of Erik Dahlberg “there was a wall with eight towers and embrasures; the ditch was dug between two rivers, the whole army was behind”. The fortress stood there for a year only: in spring 1301 the Novgorod citizens headed by Grand Prince Andrey Alexandrovich wiped it off the map. The fortress Nyenskans took place in the source of the Okhta river in 1611 and consisted of 500 people “to defend the whole Neva under the aegis of the Sweden crown”. Small town Nyen is situated near the fortress on the opposite bank of the Okhta. In 1638 queen Kristina ... gave Nyen a right to receive foreign vessels and send local vessels to the other cities to trade. In 1642 she awarded Nyen with full rights of the Sweden Kingdom. Port freedom of Nyen allowed to receive vessels from overseas and conduct domestic and international trade. From 1640 to 1645 Nyen hosted from 92 to 112 vessels. Most of them were Russian boats together with boats from Sweden and towns from the Northern Germany, Holland and England. (2 paragraphs are citied from website of museum “700 Years — Landskrona, Nevskoye Ustye, Nyenskans”) On May 1, 1703, during the Ingrian campaign of the Great Northern War, the fortress of Nyenskans was taken by Peter the Great. After the city of Saint-Petersburg was created and Peter and Paul Fortress was founded on Zayachy Island, Peter I ordered to demolish fortifications of fortress Nyenskans. New people came to the Okhta only in 1715, when Powder plant was founded. In 1717-1718 by assignment of Peter I 15 windmills were built on the bank of the Neva near the Okhta, they were removed from the Strelka of Vasilievsky Island to release place for building of Academy of Sciences. In 1806 Navy Department accepted the land near mouth of the Okhta river to found new shipyard. In 1818 after visit of Nicholas I the Okhtinskaya shipyard received status of Admiralty. First time the idea to build a bridge near the Okhta river was circulated in 1829, when Nicholas I approved the bridge as part of strategic city development plan. After all in September 1, 1901 the city Duma organized international contest. There were total of 16 projects submitted including projects from France, Germany, Austria, Spain and USA. Also there were three projects submitted out of contest. In according to recommendations of expert commission municipal goverment acquired 4 designs, including one named "Freedom for navigation" from professor of Nikolaevskaya engineering academy G.G.Krivoshein and military engineer (architect) V.P.Apyshkov. Authors were invited to produce final draft in 6 months, 40000 roubles were allocated for this task. It was decided to forget about other 3 designs, although representatives of engineering and architectural communities paid attention to its technical solutions and excelent exteriors. They were design "7.6" by engineer S.P.Bobrovskiy and architect V.P.Apyshkov, design "Kronshtadt-Toulon" by French building society "Levallois-Perret" and design "Two anchors" by A.Schnell of Viena. A.Schnell was the first and only who proposed to use reinforced concrete for bridge construction. (Let me assume that name of Paris suburb "Levallois-Perret" was used to mask participation of famous engineer and architect Gustave Eiffel) In spring of 1907, the passenger ship Arkhangelsk which transported people from the left bank of Neva to the right bank has sank. This tragic event set things in motion, and on September 24, 1907 the contract for building the bridge was signed. The ceremony of bridge founding took place on June 26, 1909 - exactly two hunrend years from the Battle of Poltava. Hence the bridge was named after the triumphator of that battle - Emperor Peter the Great Bridge. The bridge was open for traffic on October 26, 1911. (citied from wikipedia.org) Total length of the bridge is equal to 339,2 meters. The central span of 42,6 meters between towers is split into 2 equal bascules, which can be raised to an angle of 73 degrees to allow ships to pass. Minimum time of raising equals to 30 seconds. Total weight of metallic constructions is 8920 tons. (More technical details - in article of Dmitriy Maiorov) Bolsheokhtinsky Bridge differs from other bridges constructed in Saint-Petersburg at the time - Trinity Bridge, Liteyny Bridge and Nikolayevsky Bridge. This extraordinary apperance permits the Bolsheokhtinsky Bridge to play a part of Tower Bridge in movie "Treasures of Agra" based on novel "The Sign of Four"" written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (film director is Igor Maslennikov, 1983) It is part in the story of bridge where I become silent to give place press-cuttings. They will tell You about plans of transforming old plants on the right bank of the Neva into modern Gazprom-city crowned with 300-meter tower. It will be another story - story about transportation of strategic investor from Moscow into Saint-Petersburg. On November 15, 2005 Saint-Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko and Chairman of the Executive Board of Gazprom Alexey Miller attended the presentation of international contest for the best architectural design of the Gazprom-City Business Center (News of JSC Gazprom). The project of building a business and administrative centre at Malaya Okhta in Saint-Petersburg is aimed at erecting a complex of buildings with a dominating skyscraper business center (Press Release of JSC Gazprom Neft). On April 17, 2006 St. Petersburg Vice Governor Alexander Vakhmistrov told reporters that Gazprom is finalizing negotiations to buy out Petrozavod plant (4.2 hectares) and intends to acquire Shturmanskie Pribory plant (4.5 hectares) and Okhtinskaya hotel (0.4 hectares). All three enterprises will widen the area of the business center, which Gazprom is constructing in St. Petersburg. (Kommersant Moscow) In a letter to Governor Valentina Matviyenko released Thursday (July 6, 2006), the St. Petersburg Union of Architects said the tower will destroy the unique harmony of the city’s skyline and might result in St. Petersburg’s exclusion from the UNESCO list of world heritage sites. “The low skyline makes the verticals of St. Petersburg especially magnificent… the conservation of inimitable silhouettes of its spires and domes is of great importance to town planning and spiritual importance,” reads the letter from the St. Petersburg Union of Architects. “A 300-meter tower, more than twice as high as the Peter and Paul Cathedral and three times higher than St. Isaac’s and Smolny Cathedral, visible from all the main locations of the historical city center (even from Vasilievsky Island)…will bring the irreparable damage to the fragile skyline of the city as it will make all its verticals look almost toy-like,” the document continues. The architects said the world already has the “depressing example” of London, where the Tower of London and historic cathedrals are now lost among skyscrapers, and Rome where the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica is no longer the city’s focus (Evgenia Ivanova in The St. Petersburg Times)(Explicit mistake of author - Architects wrote about St.Paul Cathedral). Saint Petersburg, August 23, 2006. A meeting on the issue of realization of a major project on constructing a business and administrative centre in Saint Petersburg was held today in the Saint Petersburg Gazprom Neft office at Galernaya Street. Saint Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko, Chairman of the Executive Board of Gazprom Alexey Miller, Gazprom Neft President Alexander Ryazanov, Gazprom Neft Invest General Director Nikolay Tanayev, representatives of the Government of Saint Petersburg as well as heads of six architectural companies – Herzog & de Meuron architekten (Switzerland), Ateliers Jean Nouvel (France), Studio Daniel Libeskind (Germany), Massimilliano Fuksas Architetto (Italy), UK RMJM (Great Britain) and Office of Metropolitan Architects (Netherlands) having won in the preliminary architectural tender participated in the meeting. Alexey Miller and Alexander Ryazanov welcomed the heads of the world leading architectural companies. …In late October the architectural companies shall present their drafts of the business and administrative centre, after which the public hearings where the presented drafts will be discussed with the representatives of the municipal public organizations are to be held in the middle of November. (Press Release of JSC Gazprom Neft) Are You interested in? Be online, keyword is "Gazprom-city". External links P.E.Sorokin "Predecessors of Petersburg. Landskrona - Nevskoye Ustye - NyenskansNyenschanz". Article on the website of the St.Petersburg Diocese gazette (in Russian) The Neva river: Bridges. Postcards from Russian National Library. 1900-1917 Panoramic view of Bolsheokhtensky Bridge, looking from Smolny Cathedral - panorama shooted by Vladimir Shirokov in 2005 Behind the scene : how this panorama was made Caption in Russian (Перевод на русский язык) - Большеохтинский мост через Неву
Shortcut to this page: http://worldwidepanorama.org/wwp_rss/go/n2433
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