Griboyedov Canal

The Griboyedov Canal or Kanal Griboyedova (кана&#769;л Грибое&#769;дова) is a canal in Saint Petersburg, constructed in 1739 along the existing Krivusha river. In 1764–90, the canal was deepened and the banks were reinforced and covered with granite.

The Griboyedov Canal starts from the Moyka River near the Field of Mars. It flows into the Fontanka River. Its length is 5 km, with a width of 32 m.

Before 1923, it was called the Catherine Canal, after the Empress Catherine the Great, during whose rule it was deepened. The Communist authorities renamed it after the Russian playwright and diplomat, Alexandr Griboyedov.

The streets or embankments running along the canal are known as Naberezhnaya Kanala Griboyedova.

Bridges
There are 21 bridges across the canal:


 * Tripartite Bridge
 * Novo-Konyushenny Bridge
 * Italian Bridge
 * Kazansky Bridge
 * Bank Bridge
 * Flour Bridge
 * Stone Bridge
 * Demidov Bridge
 * Hay Bridge
 * Kokushkin Bridge
 * Voznesensky Bridge
 * Podyachensky Bridge
 * Bridge of Four Lions
 * Kharlamov Bridge
 * Novo-Nikolsky Bridge
 * Krasnogvardeysky Bridge
 * Pikalov Bridge
 * Mogilyovsky Bridge
 * Alarchin Bridge
 * Kolomensky Bridge
 * Malo-Kalinkin Bridge

Cultural references
Griboedov Canal appears on the cover of the 2011 contemporary classical album, Troika.

The canal is a key location in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel, Crime and Punishment. Like most locations in the novel, the canal is rarely identified by its proper name; in fact, on most occasions Dostoyevsky refers to it as a kanava, a word which in English is closer to the word "ditch." In a footnote to the Penguin Deluxe Classics edition of the book, translator Oliver Ready describes the canal as a "filthy and polluted place" which is nevertheless "the topographical center of the book." The novel's protagonist, Raskolnikov, repeatedly crosses over the canal, and tentatively plans on disposing of stolen property there. The apartment building where he commits his crimes "faced the Ditch on one side and [Srednyaya Podyacheskay]a Street on the other."