Italian Bridge

Italian Bridge is a pedestrian crossing over the Griboyedov Canal in the centre of Saint Petersburg, continuing Italianskaya Street by the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. Besides pedestrians, the bridge carries heating-main pipes beneath its deck, which is why specialists call this type of structure a "heat-pipe bridge." It is recognised as a regional cultural heritage site.

The idea of a crossing in line with Italianskaya Street was already being discussed in the early 1880s, but it was realised only by the railway engineer Leonid Kolpitsyn. In 1894 he proposed to the City Duma that he build, at his own expense, several pedestrian footbridges to replace the ferrymen's crossings on the city's canals and rivers, in exchange for the right to charge tolls for his own profit for ten years, but the authorities rejected the proposal. Without waiting for state support, Kolpitsyn built a wooden bridge here in 1896 with his own money, spending about 3,500 roubles; it opened on 6 October of that year. The span of this first crossing, made of nailed timber trusses, was almost 20 metres, and its deck was, for the first time in local practice, made of xylolite slabs.

The wooden structure was rebuilt more than once: in 1902 the architect Karl Baldi replaced the xylolite surface with a plank one, and in 1911–1912 the engineer Yefimyev erected a new timber-beam bridge on pile supports with a shorter span. In 1937 the crossing was thoroughly rebuilt, with two district-heating pipes laid beneath the span. The present metal single-span bridge appeared in 1955, replacing the dilapidated structure: the design was drawn up by the engineer Gutzeit and the architect Vasilkovsky, and construction was carried out by the Lenmostostroy trust. The load-bearing welded girders, with a curved lower flange, are shaped so as to accommodate the district-heating pipes within a minimal section depth, and the span is topped with reinforced-concrete slabs.

The bridge's decoration harks back to examples of Saint Petersburg bridge-building of the first half of the 19th century: ornamental cast-iron railings, granite pedestals with torchères on the abutments, and relief decoration on the facing panels all echo the ornamentation of the neighbouring crossings. In 1969 the decorative details were gilded, and in 1996 the lamps and railings were restored. The bridge received its name in the 1910s after Italianskaya Street, which had in turn been named after the Italian Palace with its garden that once stood on the Fontanka embankment.

Today the crossing serves as a pedestrian link between Nevsky Prospect and Italianskaya Street; the nearest metro station lies three hundred metres away, with one of its exits leading straight to the canal. Nearby, just upstream and downstream, are two more crossings over the same canal. Its plain asphalted deck and modest size do not prevent the bridge from remaining a noticeable feature of the cityscape.

Italian Bridge is a clear illustration of how a utilitarian structure — originally the private initiative of a single engineer — can, over time, become part of a protected heritage. Modest in size, it has long since become a familiar element of the recognisable view of the historic centre, standing beside the domes of the Savior on Spilled Blood.