As Novgorodian chronicles have it, the bridge, known as Great, was built late in the 10th century into the turn of the 11th, to collapse in the 17th.
The INTAS international research foundation, with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, is financing the search on a project roughly estimated at 100,000 Euros. The Great Bridge endeavor also envisages search for medieval bridges on their tentative underwater sites in Venice, Paris and Armenia.
Novgorod Diving Club activists have for now scanned the Volkhov bottom in the city's historical heart-the citadel vicinity, to come across objects that resemble bridge piers.
"We can't yet say for sure they are really piers-there is too much debris cluttering the river bottom along that stretch of the Volkhov. There are logs and other large objects stocked up over the centuries," say experts.
Divers will go on with their job, June and July next. If their conjecture proves correct, archeologists will saw off samples of the wooden piers to precisely determine their age.
The bridge used to stretch across the Volkhov from the citadel to the prince's palace, which were just opposite each other.
The search is expected to take two years or so. Activists of the Novgorod Amateur History Society will eventually join Diving Club volunteers on the efforts.
The INTAS intends to hold a research conference in Novgorod, within the month, for people involved in Project Great Bridge.
