The Holy Grail, thanks to the medieval legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, has been sought for centuries. The search does not stop now. And the versions given by the lovers of secrets are one more surprising than the other.
The debate about what constitutes the Holy Grail has lasted for centuries. Someone considered the Grail as a stone that fell from heaven. Someone - the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper. Someone - a vessel in which Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood of Christ that flowed from the wound. And someone was convinced that the Grail is the Ark of the Covenant, lost by the Jews.
Some thought that it was necessary to look for this artifact in Palestine, others believed that it had been taken to Europe, and still others indicated more exotic countries - India and China. Only Muscovy, and then Russia, has never been on the list of candidate countries.
City of the holy stone
Until recently, only mystics and occultists were interested in the search for the Grail. But after the publication of the book by notorious writer Dan Brown "The Da Vinci Code" conspiracy theorists appeared trying to check the old legends.
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Brown's heroes bravely followed the instructions of the puzzles they found on Leonardo's canvases and in old books. And in the end they resurrected the theory voiced decades earlier by Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln and Richard Lee: the Grail is not a cup, not a stone or an ark, but the offspring of Jesus Christ.
However, this conclusion did not suit Russian legend seekers at all. They immediately rejected the version about the wife of Jesus, Mary of Magdala, and their joint children. But the cup from the legends about the same Grail, allegedly found and hidden by the Knights Templar, they really liked.
Firstly, the bowl is an understandable and material thing, you can hold it in your hands and hide it in a safe place. Secondly, the version with a bowl does not violate the foundations of the church. Thirdly, the bowl is small in size and weighs a little, it is easy to move - so why shouldn't it get to the swampy banks of the Neva in its wanderings?
And rumors about a certain bowl, hidden by the Masonic emperor Peter the Great, spread throughout the previously cultural and not spoiled by historical illiteracy in the Northern capital.
Petersburg Grail seekers formulated a certain mantra, allegedly indicating the location of the shrine: “The Holy Grail is the cornerstone. This cornerstone must return home, find rest in the tomb under the rose, in the temple under the stars. A sword and a vessel guard the entrance there. There is an apple on the tomb. There, in the temple, the knight lies, he has the Grail. Only the worthy is given to find it."
Exactly Brown's recipe. But if the writer sent his heroes to the Rosslyn Chapel in the southeast of Scotland, then Russian seekers turned their attention to the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the fortress of the same name in St. Petersburg. The name of the city, by the way, in their opinion does not mean "the city of St. Peter", but "the city of the holy stone". That is, the Grail.
Templar legacy
Over the centuries, many legends have accumulated about ancient castles and fortresses. Most are associated with ghosts, the dead, curses, treasures and magical transformations. The Peter and Paul Fortress on Hare Island has also acquired stories over the course of 3 centuries.
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Some legends spoke of hidden treasures. However, it was always added that those who solved the mystery die immediately. Treasure seekers have added new legends to existing ones.
Allegedly, while traveling abroad under the name of Peter Mikhailov, the young tsar made friends with the Masons and entered a secret lodge. So Peter I became a Knight Templar. Returning to his homeland, Peter rebuilt his entire domestic life.
And having reached the age when they think about the salvation of the soul, he began to prepare for death and ordered to build a stone Peter and Paul Cathedral on the site of the wooden church - with a tall thin spire, a sovereign apple, a winged angel, Masonic stars and crosses. And in this cathedral he ordered to build a grave for himself, and to put the Holy Grail in the grave, which was given to him by the Templars for eternal storage.
According to another legend, the knights did not give him any cup. And they ordered to find a secret place on the Nevsky island, where in 1307, saving the treasure from the French king Philip IV the Beautiful, the fugitive Templars built a reliable cache. Peter found the place, dug up the cup, and after death took it with him to the coffin-sarcophagus.
Few knew about this secret, and those who found out by chance died immediately. The conspiracy theorists included many artists, architects, writers, historians, local historians in the list of such "death row" … As well as other historical figures - the Chekist Gleb Bokiy, who was responsible for various supernatural issues in the NKVD, the commander of the firing squads Yakov Blumkin, the Soviet occultist and hypnotist Alexander Varchenko.
The list, of course, would not be complete without the Templars of the 20th century who suffered from comrades Bokiy and Blumkin, who in their entirety fell into the clutches of the Chekists. The executed knights did not reveal the secrets of the Grail. Most likely, simply because they did not know anything about her.
Dead knight
"On an island in the sea, under a six-pointed star, with a knight's grave and an apple …" - this is the instruction of conspiracy theorists for the Grail seekers. They were looking for him in England (also an island!) - they did not find him. They searched off the coast of France - they did not find it. Searched in the Mediterranean. Searched near Holland and Denmark. They even searched in Lithuania and Latvia.
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Why not look in the cold Baltic now? And nothing that the island is not at all in the sea, but on the river! Conspiracy theorists are convinced that the Peter and Paul Fortress has a cross-section like a six-pointed star - and this is an obvious Masonic symbol.
True, this six-pointed star is of some not very regular shape, but it doesn't matter. If people decided to find the Grail here, they cannot do without knights, freemasons and secret intentions.
And the best place to store the Grail is, of course, the cathedral. On the line of the rose, on the same line with Constantinople and Alexandria - why is there no place for the Grail? Is there a knight's tomb and an apple in this cathedral? Conspiracy theorists believe that there is. The knight's grave is the grave of Peter himself. An apple is the top of a spire, a ball on which a cross and an angel are fixed.
Nothing, of course, that it is difficult to call Peter the knight, except that it was a secret sealed with seven seals, and even from the inner circle no one knew about it. Nothing that an apple with a cross symbolizes power. Conspiracy theorists confidently consider the state as a Masonic symbol!
Why shouldn't the Grail lie in a dungeon, in the bosom, inside a "cave", a "rose", under a sovereign scepter in the form of a spire with a ball top, under the protection of the name of the emperor? In the grave of a guardian knight who herself will not allow the intrusion of the defilers?
The features of the architecture and decoration of the cathedral are simply related to the cultural priorities of the emperor. Peter, who had seen a lot abroad, wanted to build a city following the example of the European, or rather the Dutch. Churches in Holland are equipped with tall and graceful spiers.
That is why such a look was chosen for the cathedral in the new city. The work was supervised by the Italian Domenico Trezzini, and the Dutch master Harman van Bolos participated in the installation of the spire. The only thing that distinguished the cathedral from the European ones was its belonging to the Orthodox Church - accordingly, the abundant gilding, the iconostasis and, of course, the Orthodox services that were held inside.
Peter had no secret intent. He wanted to see the cathedral from the outside - Dutch, from the inside - Russian, in order to unite East and West. And not to be ashamed to show it to foreigners. The rich and ancient Christian symbolism and truth are sometimes surprisingly reminiscent of Masonic signs.
But if you really understand, then rather the opposite - these Masonic signs are very similar to Christian symbols. After all, is it not from one source that the symbols of the Masons, and the symbols of Christians, and the symbols of the Jews were taken? Spirals, crosses, flowers are common decorative elements of temples. But even if the design of the cathedral is somehow connected with the Freemasons, then you will have to ask not from Peter, but from those who built the cathedral - that is, from the architects.
Peter, of course, was interested in all sorts of wonders. But if he managed to get himself the Grail, then in the whole of St. Petersburg there would be one and only place worthy of such an exhibit - the Kunstkamera, Peter's favorite brainchild. And another emperor, Paul I, a real Maltese knight, would have placed the Grail in a cathedral or in a cache, away from eyes so that no one could see. However, for some reason no one attributes the possession of the Grail to Paul.
Mikhail ROMASHKO
