“Time. It flies,” they say, and perhaps that’s why this monument is also known as the “Carriage of Time”. Officially, this is a monument to a legendary carriage. It is also simply a monument to a carriage. We are standing before the Sanitarnaya kareta in Saint Petersburg. This bronze sculpture represents a horse-drawn carriage. It takes us back to the late 19th century.
The Sanitarnaya kareta commemorates the first ambulance in Russia. It was specifically designed to transport infectious patients. This Sanitarnaya kareta monument was erected in May 2018. The sculptor Aleksandr Dobrovolskiy created it. The monument features a bronze carriage. It stands on two stepped pedestals.
Interestingly, there is a clock mounted above the carriage. It sits on a bronze support shaped like crossed staves. People call it the “Carriage of Time”. This nickname reflects how quickly time passes. Once upon a time, people traveled by carriages. Now, high-speed cars zoom through the city. They conceal over 100 horsepower.
The “Carriage Clock” is connected to the GLONASS system. This ensures the time is displayed accurately. Some say the Sanitarnaya kareta is magical. Allegedly, someone “hid” their wallet inside. It then follows its owner and will soon bring wealth. In any case, it will leave a small coin.
The artist himself said that the horses are not needed. “The glass is half empty or half full” says Dobrovolskiy. Everyone chooses for themselves. The wheels are in a suspended state. They can be restored or dismantled.
The location of the Sanitarnaya kareta is not accidental. In the second half of the 18th century, the street was called Novaya Karetnaya. This name came from a new carriage row. This row consisted of long lines of stone sheds. Here, people traded carriages, wheels and other equipment.
Later, the street had several names. These were Karetnaya, 1st Rozhdestvenskaya and simply 1st. The street received its current name on October 6, 1923. The Sanitarnaya kareta stands near Nevsky Prospekt. It is at the end of Pervaya Sovetskaya Street. A circle surrounds the monument. The names of the street are written on it.
Emergency medical services appeared in Russia in 1897. The first station was in Warsaw, Poland. Later, stations opened in other cities. These included Lodz, Vilnius, Kyiv, Odessa and Riga. Soon after, ambulance stations were established in Kharkov, St. Petersburg and Moscow. Ambulances appeared on the streets of Moscow around 1898.
Before that, police and firefighters transported victims. They took them to emergency rooms at police stations. Often, injured people waited hours for medical attention. Moscow’s first two ambulances were part of the police units. Merchant Kuznetsova funded the carriages.
In St. Petersburg, five ambulance stations opened on March 7, 1899. Surgeon Nikolai Velyaminov initiated this. The ambulance station in Odessa began operating on April 29, 1903. Count M.M. Tolstoy financed it. By the early 20th century, subsidies partially funded ambulance stations.
This monument before us serves as a reminder of the evolution of emergency medical care. It honors those who provide urgent assistance. It shows how far we’ve come from horse-drawn carriages to modern ambulances. Now, take a moment to reflect on the Sanitarnaya kareta. Think about the passage of time and the progress of medicine.