Samarskaya embankment: photo and description

In this short essay we will consider what the Samara embankment is. Photo and description of this landmark of the Volga city will be presented further. In the meantime, to preserve the intrigue, we will say that the embankment appeared much earlier than Samara itself. "It's understandable," - those who know that natural objects were formed millions of years before the first human settlements will say.

But we are talking about the fact that the Venetian merchants in 1367 marked a convenient pier on the map of the Volga near the village (or farm?) Samar. The city at this place appeared much later. Only the first security fortress, designed to protect the following ships along the Volga, was built in 1586. So it turns out that the embankment of Samara appeared two hundred and twenty years before the city.

And this is not its only merit. Samara embankment - the longest on the Volga and, probably, the most beautiful and equipped. It cascades down to the river and has a length of more than four kilometers.

The history of the Samara embankment

Many believe that the arrangement of the Volga bank began only in the thirties of the last century. They say that there was no embankment near Samara. But this opinion is erroneous. The construction began in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Indeed, until 1850, the Samara embankment was a sad sight. It was all built up by the hovels of the local poor, port warehouses, warehouses of merchants. This spontaneous building was interspersed with boards and logs, which were unloaded from ships just ashore. This not only did not paint Samara, but also was an epidemiological threat to its population. Therefore, in the summer of 1852 the provincial road and construction commission of Samara instructed the architect Firsov to develop a plan for the construction of the embankment. Work began in two years.

The first Samara embankment

City authorities first took up the arrangement of descents to the Volga. The Moscow postal route followed the river, to the floating bridge. Two more descents were laid along the streets of Cathedral and Factory (now Molodogvardeyskaya and Ventcek, respectively). An important contribution to the construction of the Samara embankment was made by a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Alfred von Wakano. In the spring of one thousand eight hundred and eightieth year he signed with the city government a contract for the lease (for ninety-nine years) of the shore for the construction of a brewery. This was the birth of the Zhigulevsky plant, known today to many fans of a foamy drink.

Alfred von Wakano built the factory buildings in Austrian style, and the red brick building became another attraction of the Samara embankment. And ten years later another architectural decoration appeared - the chapel of the saint and Metropolitan Alexy of Moscow.

This church was built according to the project of architect A. A. Shcherbachev in the "Russian" style. A small chapel of the chapel on the tent in the form of an octagon and with white stone ornaments was clearly visible from the side of the Volga. The building stood at the Resurrection (now Pioneer) descent.

Construction of the thirties

In tsarist Russia, one order could not be taken to deprive people of housing, in order to equip the riverbank and rid it of buildings. Therefore, right up to the thirties of the twentieth century, the Samara embankment was an inaccurate housing block of the poor, interspersed with beautiful new descents to the Volga.

But in 1935 the situation changed. The embankment project was developed, according to which all buildings were to be demolished. Already in the thirty-ninth year the area between Vilonovsky and Nekrasovskiy descents was completely cleared. The project envisaged not only the decoration of the shore, but also its strengthening from washing. It was decided to equip the beach and landscaped area between the upper and lower terrace. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War prevented the continuation of the work.

Construction of the fifties

Only in 1954 there were funds to continue construction of the embankment. Managed the construction at this stage, MA Trufanov, who foresaw the optical "invasion" of greenery and water smoothness into the body of the city.

Samara embankment was built gradually. In the fifties, the first stage (between Nekrasovskaya and Vilonovskaya) was completed. The entire site, a length of one thousand three hundred and fifty meters, was covered with a retaining wall of reinforced concrete lined with granite, which was brought from the Urals. The first site was decorated with sculptures in the aesthetics of that time. In the middle of the fifties a beautiful sandy beach was arranged and landscaping of the site was carried out.

The Samara embankment. Address: whole city

Only the first stage was completed, as soon as they took up the second. It was built from the fifty-eighth to the sixty-first year. The length of the second stage is almost one and a half kilometer from the CSK basin to the Kinap plant. It is noteworthy that it was part of the plan for integrated development of the shore - the present Volga avenue. The promenade alleys alternated with garden sofas, sports and children's playgrounds, kiosks and summer cafes. Now near the CSK basin there is a light and music fountain, and along the entire second stage there is a bicycle path.

In the seventies the project of the third stage was developed, which extends from the Nekrasovsky Descent to the River Station. But this plan was not fully implemented. Instead of four, they installed only one fountain, and a semicircular rotunda was not built at all. And, finally, the last line - from the street Osipenko (plant "Kinap") to the Silicate ravine. On this site the shore is not as flat as in the center of Samara. It was decided to break a steep slope with cascading terraces. By the four hundredth anniversary of Samara (1986), a twenty-meter stele "Ladya" was opened in this section in the form of a canoe under sail. Now this concrete monument is the emblem of the city.

Modernity and future plans

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, no new lines were built, although the city was expanding, including along the river bank. But this does not mean that the Samara embankment was abandoned. Photos show that she has become even more beautiful. Asphalt here is replaced by paving slabs, new lanterns are installed, bicycle paths are laid. In addition to the existing monuments, new ones have appeared. A plan for the construction of a new, fifth stage has also been developed. It will stretch from the stele "Rook" to the street. Lieutenant Schmidt.