Description of the attraction
The pedestrian Lviv bridge (in Russian it will sound like "Lviv bridge") is one of the sights of Sofia. It is located in the north of the central part of the city, if you go in the direction of the Central Railway Station, and crosses the Vladayskaya River.
It was built between 1889 and 1891 by the Czech brothers-architects Vaclav and Josef Proshek, with the help of their cousins Bogdan and Jiri. This stone structure replaced the more ancient bridge that used to be here called "Sharen Bridge". The bridge got its name from its characteristic red and yellow stripes. And the Lviv bridge got its name thanks to four bronze sculptures of lions, sitting regally at the edges of the bridge. Each metal element of the bridge was manufactured by the Austrian company Rudolf Philip Waagner, and the bridge received electric lighting in the early 1900s. In general, the entire construction of the bridge cost the Sofia city budget 260 thousand Bulgarian leva. One of the bronze lions was depicted on the 20 leva banknote, which was issued from 1999 to 2007. The Proshek brothers also acted as architects of another famous Sofia bridge - the Orlov bridge over the Perlovska River.
The Lviv Bridge connects the Central Railway Station with many famous landmarks. For example, there is a memorial church in honor of Alexander Nevsky nearby, the building of the National Library of Sts. Cyril and Methodius.