The Fontanka River: history, photo

The Fontanka River is a small water stream, representing one of the channels of the Nevsky delta in St. Petersburg. It branches off from the left side of the Neva near the Summer Garden and flows into the Great Neva to the south of the former Galernoye and north of Gutuevsky Island, at the very beginning of the Gulf of Finland. Crosses the central part of the city in the south-west direction and serves as the southern border of the delta. The length of the reservoir is 6.7 km, the width varies from 35 to 70 m, the depth is from 2.6 to 3.5 m. The Fontanka River has such indicators. Why is it so named and what is its history, you can learn from this article.

The water system of the river, one of the five forming the delta of the Neva, has 12 watercourses. The water flow at the source is on the average 34 cubic meters. M / s, downstream, after the branch of the Moika - 24 cubic meters. M / s, and in the southern part, between the connection with the Kryukov Canal and the confluence of the Griboedov Canal - 22 cubic meters. M / s. The current velocity on the rod from the source to the Anichkov Bridge is 0.3-0.4 m / s on average, and below 0.2-0.25 m / s below it.

The name of the river Fontanka

The original name of the river is Erik. When the construction of the fountains began, a special path was built to supply them, passing through this stream. At first, the hydronym was transformed into the Fountain, and later into the Fontanka.

The beginning of the history of the Fontanka

Until 1714 the marshy river, which formed small islands in its course, was called the Nameless Eric or simply Yerik. Before the foundation of St. Petersburg on its shore was the Russian village of Usaditsa, and closer to the mouth - Izhora settlement with the Finnish name Kalyula, later renamed Kalinkin village. During the construction of the city by 1711, the Fountanka was connected to the Moika River, which before that was a swampy channel used for washing clothes.

Construction, reconstruction and destruction on the Fontanka

During the construction of the first wooden bridge, the maximum width of such a water flow as the Fontanka River reached 200 meters, but after the death of Peter I the construction work in the city ceased, the watercourse again began to fill the earth with washed out embankments, which made shipping difficult. In 1743-1752 the clearing and strengthening of the embankment was carried out. The river received its current name during the reign of Empress Anna Ivanovna, thanks to the fountains installed on her right bank in the Summer Garden. They fed on the water that came through the Lithuanian canal to the pool pond (now the square), dug at the corner of the Greek Avenue and the modern Nekrasov Street, and from there it headed to the park through a pipe. The fountains themselves were destroyed by a strong flood in 1777 and, by Catherine II's decision, were not subject to restoration. Once again they were opened only after a major reconstruction in 2012.

Border

Until the middle of the 18th century, the Fontanka River was viewed as the southern boundary of the city, behind which the country estates of wealthy nobles began. The current was straightened, and some of the watercourses were covered, including the dirty river Tarakanovka. Then the border of St. Petersburg was moved to the Obvodny Canal, but the Fontanka line remained an extreme feature of the parade building for several decades. Between the streams of the Fontanka and the Moika, beyond the Kryukov Canal, in the 18th-19th centuries was the outskirts of the capital city, which was called Kolomna.

Work on the river

In the years 1780-1789, the Fontanka was again cleared and deepened the channel, as well as a project designed by the architect A. V. Kvasov, built embankments, entrances, and river descents lined with granite. In the middle of the XIX century, the river in the area of the current Vitebsk railway station was connected to the Obvodny Canal with the help of Vvedensky, designed to redirect a part of the cargo flows and buried in 1967-1969. In 1892 passenger steamers began to walk along the Fontanka. At present, a two-way traffic of small boats, mostly tourist boats, is carried out along the river. In winter, during the pre-revolutionary period, public ice rinks were arranged on the ice at the expense of the City Duma.

Drinking water

The drinking water intake for the surrounding population was carried out for two centuries. The water was transported in green barrels, unlike the Nevsky one, which was poured into white barrels, and due to severe contamination, it repeatedly became the cause of epidemics of gastrointestinal diseases. Large-scale construction of treatment facilities and diversion of sewage to the Neva Bay allowed to improve the ecological situation, and in 1970 the fish returned to the river.

Flora and fauna

There is no large flora, as well as in the whole on the Neva, coastal plants also do not exist, since the water edge is lined with stone. The Fontanka River (photo below) has a poor fauna. There is a fish that lives in the lower reaches of the Neva and the delta, including croquant, crucian carp and lamprey. Before the revolution, many cages with live fish were kept in the river, brought for sale from the headwaters of the Neva and Ladoga Lake. At present, in connection with the improvement of the quality of water treatment, the fish in the Neva Delta are becoming larger and amateur fishing is practiced on the banks of the Fontanka River, although experts do not recommend eating the bleached and rotan in it. Catching fish from bridges is strictly prohibited. Ornithofauna is represented by waterfowl species typical of St. Petersburg - ducks and seagulls.

Bridges

The banks of such a water stream as the Fontanka River are connected by 15 bridges, which are its main attractions. The most famous among them: Laundress, one of the first stone crossings built in St. Petersburg, Anichkov, famous for the horse sculptural groups of the work of Klodt, and the Egyptian bridge, adorned with two cast-iron sphinxes and four lantern obelisks. The latter collapsed on the ice of the river on January 20, 1905, because of the resonance that arose during the passage of the squadron of the Konno Grenadier Regiment, and was finally restored only in 1955-1956. In the XVIII century, seven similar chain bridges with wooden spans were erected. Of these, Lomonosovsky (formerly Chernyshev) and Staro-Kalinkin have been preserved to this day, as architectural monuments, but their central parts have been replaced by cast-iron and steel ones.

sights

Near the Summer Garden in 1715-1722 was located Particular Dockyard, where until 1762 small civil vessels were built. At the end of the 18th century, wine and salt warehouses were set up in its place, because of which the area was called the Salt Town. From this architectural complex the building of the church of St. Panteleimon was preserved. The space of the left bank below Anichkov Bridge was built up in the second half of the XIX century. There is located the School of Jurisprudence, further - the Sheremetevsky Palace (Fountain House) with the Anna Akhmatova Museum, and the former Catherine Institute. At the intersection with Nevsky Prospekt there is the palace of the princes Beloselsky-Belozersky, then the former Izmaylovsky garden and the manor of the poet Derzhavin.

On the right bank of the reservoir, called the Fontanka River in St. Petersburg, near the branch of the Moika and opposite the Summer Garden is the Mikhailovsky Castle, built as the residence of Paul I, and now a branch of the Russian Museum. Next go Shuvalov Palace, where the private museum of Faberge, Anichkov Palace, ensemble of Lomonosov Square with the building of the former Ministry of Internal Affairs, erected in 1830 by Carlo Rossi. Here is the building of the St. Petersburg State Circus, the Bolshoi Drama Theater, the Yusupov Palace, and near the mouth - the buildings of the Admiralty Shipyards. In 1994, on the embankment near the Mikhailovsky Castle, a monument to the folk Chizhik-Pyzhik, one of the most miniature in St. Petersburg, was erected. This is the Fontanka River, whose history is very informative and important for the state.