The Siberian Marble Gallery between Swan Islands — an artificial archipelago of seven islets in the landscape park of Tsarskoe Selo — spans a rivulet flowing between several ponds. The bridge was modelled after the Palladian Bridge (1736) in the park of Wilton House and served as a showcase for the Ural marbles. All the details of the bridge — including the granite Ionic colonnade — were produced in Yekaterinburg, transported to Tsarskoe Selo and then assembled in the workshop of Vincenzo Tortori in 1774. Probably called Siberian due to its construction of Urals kinds of marble.
Has been repeatedly vandalised (on a small-scale) despite the fact that after renovation in late XXc. it was fenced off from public access and equipped with burglar alarm.
Famous quotes containing the words marble and/or bridge:
“We may live without her, and worship without her, but we cannot remember without her. How cold is all history, how lifeless all imagery, compared to that which the living nation writes, and the uncorrupted marble bears!”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)
“London Bridge is broken down,
Dance o’er my lady lee,
London Bridge is broken down,
With a gay lady.
How shall we build it up again?
Dance o’er my lady lee,”
—Unknown. London Bridge (l. 1–6)