What sphinxes inhabit St. Petersburg?
Read our selection of sphinxes that live in St. Petersburg
The Sphinx is an ancient, mysterious and cunning creature like a woman.
“Chthon” guarded the road to Thebes and threw into the abyss (ate) those who could not guess its riddle. Sphinxes on the University Embankment
The Sphinxes on the University Embankment seem to be an integral part of the city, and the face of Pharaoh Amenhotep III has become a symbol of the Russian city.
For 3 thousand years, the sphinxes calmly guarded the sanctuary in Thebes, until they were excavated by archaeologists at the beginning of the 19th century. Then the fashion for Egypt began, and the sphinxes had to board a ship and sail from Alexandria to St. Petersburg for a whole year on the ship “Good Hope”. In 1834, the sphinxes settled on the university embankment, which is not so long ago, considering that they outlived the prophet Moses. There are a huge number of legends associated with these sphinxes: that you can go crazy if you look into the sphinxes’ eyes for a long time, that drowned people float up next to them, about the curse that is carried by the inscription on the pedestal. Sphinxes in the courtyard of the Stroganov Palace
The very first Sphinxes of St. Petersburg, the creation of a Russian sculptor.
In 1796, they were installed on the pier of the Stroganov country estate on Bolshaya Nevka. They lie on low pedestals, below human height, and can be seen closely. Time has left its mark on them: traces of destruction are visible. These sphinxes are believed to be female. Sphinxes on the Egyptian Bridge over the Fontanka
The only thing left from the richly decorated Egyptian bridge, which collapsed in the winter of 1905, is four cast-iron sphinxes in gilded crowns, created by sculptor Pavel Sokolov.
The sphinxes are not of the Egyptian type, but of the Greek type, impassive female faces in crowns and a massive animal body. The Sphinxes are facing not towards the water, but towards Lermontovsky Avenue. Shi-tza on Petrovskaya embankment
Shi-tza is a pair of granite mythological guards installed at the descent to the Neva on Petrovskaya embankment in 1907.
Mythical creatures, either lions, or sphinxes, or Pekingese. Shih Tzu was given to St. Petersburg by the Amur Governor-General Grodekov, who received the Manchurian lions as a gift from the Chinese. Unlike most paired sculptures, shih-tzas are heterosexual: the left sculpture has a cub under its paw, the right (male) has a pearl, a symbol of divine light and the fulfillment of desires. Monument to victims of repression on the embankment of Robespierre
The Chimeras were erected by sculptor Mikhail Shemyakin in 1995, when they were still very young. Two emaciated female Sfinskis, with protruding ribs and faces divided into living and dead, guard the “gate” to the prison. Directly opposite the sphinxes, across the Neva, is the Kresta prison. On the pedestals of the sphinxes they are immortalized with quotes from disgraced poets, Gumilyov, Brodsky, Mandelstam, Andreev, Akhmatova. You can look at the crosses through a special prison window. Nearby is a monument to Akhmatova, who spent many days here, “Both in the bitter cold and in the July heat. Under the blinding red wall."
“Chthon” guarded the road to Thebes and threw into the abyss (ate) those who could not guess its riddle. Sphinxes on the University Embankment
The Sphinxes on the University Embankment seem to be an integral part of the city, and the face of Pharaoh Amenhotep III has become a symbol of the Russian city.
For 3 thousand years, the sphinxes calmly guarded the sanctuary in Thebes, until they were excavated by archaeologists at the beginning of the 19th century. Then the fashion for Egypt began, and the sphinxes had to board a ship and sail from Alexandria to St. Petersburg for a whole year on the ship “Good Hope”. In 1834, the sphinxes settled on the university embankment, which is not so long ago, considering that they outlived the prophet Moses. There are a huge number of legends associated with these sphinxes: that you can go crazy if you look into the sphinxes’ eyes for a long time, that drowned people float up next to them, about the curse that is carried by the inscription on the pedestal. Sphinxes in the courtyard of the Stroganov Palace
The very first Sphinxes of St. Petersburg, the creation of a Russian sculptor.
In 1796, they were installed on the pier of the Stroganov country estate on Bolshaya Nevka. They lie on low pedestals, below human height, and can be seen closely. Time has left its mark on them: traces of destruction are visible. These sphinxes are believed to be female. Sphinxes on the Egyptian Bridge over the Fontanka
The only thing left from the richly decorated Egyptian bridge, which collapsed in the winter of 1905, is four cast-iron sphinxes in gilded crowns, created by sculptor Pavel Sokolov.
The sphinxes are not of the Egyptian type, but of the Greek type, impassive female faces in crowns and a massive animal body. The Sphinxes are facing not towards the water, but towards Lermontovsky Avenue. Shi-tza on Petrovskaya embankment
Shi-tza is a pair of granite mythological guards installed at the descent to the Neva on Petrovskaya embankment in 1907.
Mythical creatures, either lions, or sphinxes, or Pekingese. Shih Tzu was given to St. Petersburg by the Amur Governor-General Grodekov, who received the Manchurian lions as a gift from the Chinese. Unlike most paired sculptures, shih-tzas are heterosexual: the left sculpture has a cub under its paw, the right (male) has a pearl, a symbol of divine light and the fulfillment of desires. Monument to victims of repression on the embankment of Robespierre
The Chimeras were erected by sculptor Mikhail Shemyakin in 1995, when they were still very young. Two emaciated female Sfinskis, with protruding ribs and faces divided into living and dead, guard the “gate” to the prison. Directly opposite the sphinxes, across the Neva, is the Kresta prison. On the pedestals of the sphinxes they are immortalized with quotes from disgraced poets, Gumilyov, Brodsky, Mandelstam, Andreev, Akhmatova. You can look at the crosses through a special prison window. Nearby is a monument to Akhmatova, who spent many days here, “Both in the bitter cold and in the July heat. Under the blinding red wall."