A mystical front door, the legends about which are composed almost daily, and each inhabitant will have his own secret and an amazing story associated with this place.
The name of the front door was very simple - Rotunda, yes, that's right, with a capital letter, because it is not just an architectural term, but the name of the most original sight of the city. Even though this is only a front door in one of the houses, there is an official opening hours and a museum worker who collects entrance fees, monitors visitors, and does not allow vandalism.
Fulfillment of desires
The label “cult place” did not stick to the Rotunda immediately, but only in the 70s and 80s of the last century, when the future stars of rock-n-roll Petersburg took a fancy to it. In the atmosphere of kumar, mixed with drunken stupor, anarchy arose, port wine and other not only noble strong drinks poured. In the hall of this Rotunda, concerts were given for those closest and closest, and in the informal arena, Tsoi, Kinchev da Butusov were lit from these metal steps.
Passing around not only bottles of alcohol, but also precious cigarettes, with anguish singing along to the notes erupted by the guitar, the people with a certain amount of vandalism wrote on the walls, in the messages of which whole lines of new hits were read. Then the popular belief that the Rotunda fulfills all desires that you leave in writing on the walls or columns of an underground temple fell on the intoxicated head of a rebel. Since then, every resident of St. Petersburg considered it necessary to paint his autograph with wishes on the magic walls.
Promotional video:
Saigon
This column is not about a city in Vietnam far from us, but only about a cafe at the intersection of Nevsky and Vladimirsky avenues. Here the whole color of hippie youth gathered, which gradually changed with the wind of fashion for rebels and rockers. The most interesting thing is that, as such, he did not have a name until one policeman appeared here, who threw at the people an ordinary phrase, somewhat reminiscent of the saying of a school teacher: “What are you smoking here? Ugliness! They arranged some kind of Saigon! So, without realizing it, he gave the name to the place, which took root, like potatoes in Belarus, and went down in history.
A thoughtful reader will ask me why I started this lyrical digression? I'm telling you. They say that it was the Rotunda that became the informal pre-party chill-out of this cafe, before going out to the people, the light of the nation gathered here and warmed up before the gatherings. And who in our youth did not do this? After all, drinking in restaurants and cafes was more expensive than sitting on the steps of any front door, so the local underground fell in love with such a mysterious Rotunda.
They also fell in love with her for the indescribable acoustics, because if you stand facing the wall, then the words will fly around the entire front door and return in a circle, creating the feeling that you stood behind your back and speak into your own ear, this creates indescribable sensations, and they run in a herd goose bumps. It is not surprising that people with a violent and explosive character, who gave the world not only wonderful music, were able to produce so many mystical stories.
Prince of Darkness
Each of those visitors considered the Rotunda "the center of the universe", they even had their own statement for this. The fact is that if you take a map of that Petersburg and place it in a hexagon, then its diagonals will intersect exactly in this place. The geometric theory was far-fetched, as a complete reflection of the soul of its creators, because for each of these visitors the Rotunda was indeed the center of not only the beloved city, but the whole world.
Maybe some of the Georgian guests of informal Petersburg visited this place, because the next legend is associated with a young boy (according to the best toasts in the Caucasus), who went to the basement for only fifteen minutes, and returned very old and gray (consider an old man). According to folk legends, a portal to another world is hidden there, but why not if you smoke and drink different things. Today, legends say that whoever goes down to the basement will go crazy.
But most importantly, on this staircase you can meet the Prince of Darkness himself, who visits the sleeping city through this portal, reads the above-mentioned inscriptions on the walls with columns and fulfills the wishes made by visitors. True, they say, the fees for their performance are very high, but we know this from other stories as well. No wonder now the descent is called the "Devil's ladder". After all, this road leads nowhere, one of its fragments simply rests against a wall where there is nothing.
Freemasons and Rasputin
Naturally, we cannot pass by the most secret society of our planet, by the order of the Freemasons. Wild minds say that the place became magical not thanks to the underground of our music, but only according to historical traditions, because earlier a secret order gathered here and decided the fate of that Petersburg, made plans and immediately initiated new members into its ranks. Why is that? Yes, because a certain Count Zubov lived here, who was the main adept of this secret lodge. And also this place was loved by Grigory Rasputin, who lived nearby, perhaps, I clarify that it is only possible that it was from the portal to another world that he drew his strength from. Or maybe he made a deal with the Prince?
What does the Rotunda mean to Peter now? Let's start with the fact that this is a place with a different atmosphere, which has been created here for decades, acquiring new legends and myths every year. It is from the doors of this front door, this nondescript house on the corner of Fontanka and Gorokhovaya that real and invented stories are scattered, similar to children's horror stories. People still come here to make wishes, but you shouldn't write them on the wall, otherwise you can get cabbage soup from local residents.
Author: alkopona