The restoration of the celebrated sphinxes by the Egyptian Bridge in Saint Petersburg, which has dragged on for almost three years, nears completion

In Saint Petersburg, the restoration of the celebrated sphinxes by the Egyptian Bridge, which has dragged on for almost three years, is nearing completion. The second stage of the work has brought back the sculptures’ historical colouring.

At the start of the first stage of restoration, in the spring of 2022, specialists found all four sphinxes on the Egyptian Bridge to be in a dangerous condition. The sculptures were dismantled and sent for restoration. Over the course of several months, numerous patches of corrosion were dealt with and traces of the metal’s decay cleared away. The final element of the restoration was the renewal of the gilding on the nemes headdresses that adorn the heads of the figures. In December 2022 the sphinxes returned to their places, as it turned out, not for long.

This summer the sphinxes left the Fontanka embankment once again. The restorers had to clear afresh the areas damaged by scratches and drawings and to regild the nemes headdresses: in the half-year that the figures stood by the bridge, vandals had found time to scrape the gilding off them. It was also decided to return the sculptures to their original colour. Since the middle of the last century the sphinxes had been painted to imitate oxidised bronze, a shade close to the original, yet still different from it.