by Kristin Berkery

The Currier & Ives print,
The Road, Winter (1853).

There’s a happy feeling
Nothing in the world can buy
When they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie
It’ll nearly be like a picture print by Currier and Ives
These wonderful things are the things
We remember all through our lives! (more…)

by Kristin Berkery

Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg, Russia. Photo by Potekhin

The Anichkov Bridge has spanned the Fontanka River in St. Petersburg, Russia, for nearly 300 years. Named after Mikhail Anichkov, the designer of the original bridge, there have been four versions of the bridge built over the centuries.

The newest bridge was built in 1906, but its most famous features, the horse tamer statues, were created in the mid-1800s upon the order of Tsar Nicholas I. The sculptor, Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg (known as Pyotr Karlovich Klodt in Russia), was commissioned in 1842 to create lifelike sculptures of men taming wild horses to symbolize mankind’s struggle against the elements. Two were given as gifts to the King of Naples who had them installed at the gates of the Royal Palace, and two were given to the King of Prussia, where they adorned the Royal Palace at Berlin. (The Naples statues are still standing at the Royal Palace; the German statues can now be seen at Heinrich von Kleist Park in Berlin.) In 1849-50, four additional statues were created and placed on the four corners of the Anichkov Bridge.
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