The Bushev Bridge in the Rostov Region has been recognized as a cultural heritage site.
Bridge over river Kumshak near the village Dubravny have made The inclusion of this unique engineering structure in the list of designated cultural heritage sites (CHS) follows a long-standing campaign by a local activist to preserve it.
How the Bushev Bridge was built
The Bushev Bridge was built in 1914 on the initiative of the superintendent of the Kumshatskaya post station, which was located in the middle of Tsaritsyn tract, Elpidifor Ippolitovich Bushev. The bridge got its name in his honor.
By that time, the wooden bridge across the Kumshak, as follows from the auditor’s report, had become “unsuitable for passage due to its dilapidation,” and from Petersburg invited Italian architects who worked there - Luciano Rodari и Roberto FerreroThey oversaw the construction of a bridge made of cast reinforced concrete—a technology previously unknown in Russia.
And having completed work on the bridge, the Italians responded to the request of the residents of a neighboring village Karpovsky, They had already petitioned several times for the construction of a new church, as the village's wooden church had burned down yet again. The church was also built of reinforced concrete—there are only a few such buildings in southern Russia, and very few elsewhere, either.
The struggle for the status of a monument
In 2017, plans were underway to clear the Kumshak Riverbed, and the designers declared that a dredger wouldn't be able to fit under the bridge, so the bridge would have to be demolished. Then a local activist Georgy Sorokin I began to push for Bushev Bridge to be designated a cultural heritage site. But this only happened now.
Now the bridge should be included in the main register of monuments.
