Three-arch Carp (Lion) Bridge

To the south of the Balcony Terrace, located in the Gatchina Palace Park, lies the three-arched Brick (Lion) Bridge. The bridge spans an unfinished construction channel that was supposed to connect the Karpin Pond with the Black Lake.

All three arched spans of the bridge, faced with chernitsky stone, are made identically. The central piers of the bridge, located between the arches, are reinforced with semicircular stone buttresses, which are, in turn, decorated with metal chains. At the entrances to the bridge stand vacant pedestals made from blocks of pudost stone. The Brick Bridge received its second name — the Lion Bridge — thanks to the lion masks carved from stone located above the arches on the keystones.

To better admire the Brick (Lion) Bridge and enjoy its beauty, it is necessary to approach closer to the channel. However, a wonderful view of the bridge, which closes the perspective of the Karpin Pond, also opens from the Octagonal Well. The three-arched Brick (Lion) Bridge was constructed between 1799 and 1801 according to the design of architect Andrey Dmitrievich Zakharov. On the pedestals located at the bridge entrances, Zakharov intended to place allegorical sculptural groups depicting the “Abundance of Rivers,” but after the death of Emperor Paul I, the realization of this plan was suspended. The stone lion masks above the arches, which gave the bridge its second name, were created by the sculpture academician Mikhail Pavlovich Alexandrov-Uvazhnoy.

During the Great Patriotic War, the bridge was destroyed: after the explosion in 1944, only the shore piers with pedestals for sculptures and partially the arches remained. The Brick (Lion) Bridge was fully restored only by 1991.

Sources:

https://spb-pearl.ru/Gatchina/Ansambl-Gatchinskogo-Dvorca/Dvorcovyi-Park/Karpichnyi-Lvinyi-Most/