Green Bridge

The Green Bridge is a bridge over the Neris River in Vilnius, Lithuania, that connects the city center with the district of Šnipiškės. The original 16th-century bridge was the oldest bridge in Vilnius.HistoryThe first bridge dated from 1536. It stood closer to the present-day Mindaugas Bridge. It was a wooden covered bridge with brick and stone piers. It had a second floor with apartments for toll collectors. Because its builder Ulryk Hozjusz wanted to recoup the cost by collecting tolls, Grand Duke Sigismund I of Poland granted him a privilege prohibiting others from building any other bridges between Kernavė and Bistrica (Быстрыца in Belarus) or to offer other crossing services between Verkiai and Paneriai. The bridge was burned by retreating Lithuanian Army commanded by Janusz Radziwiłł after the Battle of Vilnius (1655).A new project was planned in 1673, which envisioned a span of between piers — the longest known span at the time. However, an early spring and ice jam destroyed the piers. Therefore, the old piers from the first bridge were reused and the second bridge was completed in 1679.In 1739 another wooden bridge was erected and painted green. Since then this crossing has been known as the Green Bridge. In 1789 a new plan for a brick bridge was prepared by Laurynas Gucevičius, but the builders selected another proposal. The construction was supervised by Marcin Knackfus. The project was not successful as the bridge burned in 1791. It was rebuilt according to a plan by Michael Schulz in 1805, but it was burned again on orders from Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly during the French invasion of Russia of 1812.