Chizhik-Pyzhik

Chizhik-Pyzhik is a miniature sculpture on the Fontanka Embankment, one of St Petersburg's smallest monuments and a widely recognised symbol of the city's urban folklore. The small bronze bird is fixed to the embankment's retaining wall by the First Engineer's Bridge, opposite house No. 12/1, not far from the Mikhailovsky Castle. Despite its modest size, the figure has long become an essential stop on tourist routes and the subject of a popular local superstition.

The idea of installing the figure was put forward in 1994 by the writer Andrei Bitov at the "Golden Ostap" satire and humour festival. The sculpture was created by the Georgian-born Rezo Gabriadze — a film director, screenwriter and sculptor — while the architect Vyacheslav Bukhaev worked out its placement on the embankment. The bird was originally meant to be shown bending down to drink from the water, but the idea was never realised: by November the river by the bridge already begins to ice over. The monument was unveiled on 19 November of that same year.

The sculpture turned out to be very small indeed: the figure stands 11 centimetres tall, weighs around 5 kilograms, and is made of bronze. The bird perches on a narrow ledge of the retaining wall directly above the water, so it is almost impossible to make out from a distance — one has to approach the bridge parapet and look down. This placement and miniature scale set the monument apart from the rest of the city's monumental sculpture, which is usually designed to be viewed from far away.

The name refers to an old comic ditty whose exact origin has never been established. According to a popular legend, the nickname is linked to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence, opened in 1835 at No. 6 Fontanka Embankment by Prince Pyotr of Oldenburg, a nephew of Nicholas I. Its students wore green uniforms with yellow collar tabs resembling a siskin's plumage, and hats made from the fur of a reindeer calf, or "pyzhik" — hence the nickname; the school's graduates included the composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky and the father of the writer Vladimir Nabokov. The explanation itself is disputed: parodic lines of the ditty already appear in a letter written in 1825 by Pushkin's contemporary Alexander Izmailov, ten years before the school even opened. Since it was installed, the bronze bird has been stolen no fewer than six times; each time the figure was recast at the expense of city residents and patrons.

Today Chizhik-Pyzhik remains one of the city's best-known superstitions: it is said that if you toss a coin and it lands and stays on the pedestal, your wish will come true. Newlyweds lower a filled shot glass to the bird on a string and, without breaking it, clink it against the beak for good luck in family life. The spot by the monument is almost always crowded, and the figure is regarded more as a city mascot than as a solemn monument.

The story of this tiny sculpture shows how a city legend can give rise to a landmark in its own right. Despite its miniature size and repeated thefts, Chizhik-Pyzhik always returns to its place by the Fontanka, remaining part of St Petersburg's folklore and one of the city's recognisable emblems, standing alongside far more monumental landmarks.