In this short essay we will look at what constitutes Samara embankment. A photo and description of this attraction of the Volga city will be presented below. In the meantime, in order to maintain the intrigue, let's say that the embankment appeared much earlier than Samara itself. “It is understandable,” - those who know that natural objects were formed millions of years earlier than the first human settlements will say.
But we say that Venetian merchants as early as 1367 marked on the Volga map a convenient marina near the village (or farm?) Samar. The city at this place appeared much later. Only the first security fortress designed to protect the vessels following the Volga was built in 1586. It turns out that the embankment of Samara appeared two hundred and twenty years earlier than the city.
And this is not her only advantage. Samara embankment is 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.
History of Samara Embankment
Many believe that the arrangement of the Volga coast began only in the thirties of the last century. Say, before Stalin, Samara had no embankment. But this opinion is erroneous. The arrangement began in the mid-nineteenth century.
Indeed, until 1850, the Samara embankment was a sad sight. It was all built up with shacks of the local poor, port warehouses, warehouse facilities for merchants. This spontaneous development was interspersed with boards and logs that were unloaded from ships just ashore. This not only did not color Samara, but also posed 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 to equip the embankment. Work began in two years.
First Samara Embankment
The city authorities first of all undertook the arrangement of descents to the Volga. The Moscow Postal Route followed to the river, to the floating bridge. Two more descents were laid along the streets of Sobornaya and Zavodskaya (now Molodogvardeiskaya and Venzeka, respectively). An important contribution to the arrangement of the Samara embankment was made by the subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire Alfred von Wakano. In the spring of one thousand eight hundred and eighty, he signed with the city government a lease contract (for a period of ninety-nine years) of a section of the coast for the construction of a brewery. So the Zhigulevsky plant was born, known today to many lovers of a foamy drink.
Alfred von Wakano built factory buildings in the Austrian style, and the red brick building became another attraction on the Samara embankment. And ten years later, another architectural decoration appeared - the chapel of the saint and Moscow Metropolitan Alexy.
This church was built according to the project of the architect A. A. Shcherbachev in the “Russian” style. The small chapel head on the tent in the shape of an octahedron and with white stone ornaments was clearly visible from the Volga. The building stood at the Voskresensky (now Pioneer) descent.
Building thirties
In tsarist Russia, it was impossible to deprive people of housing with one order in order to equip the riverbank and save it from buildings. Therefore, up to the thirties of the twentieth century, the Samara embankment was a sloppy housing quarters of the poor, interspersed with beautiful new slopes to the Volga.
But in 1935 the situation changed. A design of the embankment was developed, according to which all buildings were to be demolished. Already in the thirty-ninth year, the area between Vilonovsky and Nekrasovsky slopes was completely cleared. The project included not only decorating the coast, but also strengthening it from washing out. It was decided to equip the beach and green areas between the upper and lower terraces. The outbreak of World War II prevented the continuation of work.
Fifties building
Only in 1954 there were funds to continue the arrangement of the embankment. M. A. Trufanov supervised the construction at this stage, which provided for an optical “invasion” of greenery and water surface in the city’s body.
Samara embankment was built gradually. In the fifties, the first stage was completed (between Nekrasovskaya and Vilonovskaya). This entire site, a thousand and a half hundred meters long, was covered with a retaining wall of reinforced concrete, faced with granite, which was imported from the Urals. The first section was decorated with sculptures in the aesthetics of that time. In the mid-fifties, a beautiful sandy beach was arranged and the site was landscaped.
Samara embankment. Address: whole city
As soon as the first stage was completed, they immediately took up the second. It was built from the fifty-eighth to sixty-first year. The length of the second stage - almost one and a half kilometers - from the CSK basin to the Kinap plant. It is noteworthy that it was part of the plan for the integrated development of the coast - the current Volzhsky Avenue. Walking alleys interspersed with garden sofas, sports and playgrounds, kiosks and summer cafes. Now a light and music fountain is working near the CSK basin, and a bicycle path has been laid along the entire second stage.
In the seventies, a draft 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, only one fountain was installed, and a semicircular rotunda was not built at all. And, finally, the last turn - from Osipenko street (Kinap plant) to Silicate ravine. On this site, the coast is not as gentle as in the center of Samara. It was decided to break the steep slope with cascading terraces. By the centennial of Samara (1986), a twenty-meter stele “Rook” in the form of a boat under the sail was opened on this site. Now this concrete monument is the emblem of the city.
Present and future plans
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, no new lines have been built, although the city has grown, including along the riverbank. But this does not mean that the Samara embankment was abandoned. Photos show that she has become even more beautiful. Asphalt here has been replaced by paving slabs, new lights have been installed, bicycle paths have been laid. In addition to the existing monuments, new ones 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.