The mystical portal of St. Petersburg is one of the most mysterious sights of the informal city. This architectural artifact is located between Rubinstein Street and the Fontanka River embankment. But first things first.
In fact, the Mystic Portal is a group of three walk-through arches located on the same axis in the risalits of the right wing of the Residential Complex of the Petersburg Merchant Council (as viewed from the street). The house itself was built in 1911 by the architect A. A. Baryshnikov, his address is st. Rubinstein, 23. Urban folklore endowed this mysterious place with unusual sacral properties - people say here people disappear. Oddly enough, this legend has its own weighty justification. But first, let's see how to get there.
How to get to the mystical portal on Rubinstein
This place is located along the Mikhail Manevich Square, along Shcherbakov Lane from Rubinstein to house number 5 if you go in the direction of Fontanka. Walk along Rubinshteina (best of all to the Vladimirskaya metro station) to the gate leading to the courtyard, go into the courtyard, immediately to the right you turn into the inner courtyard gateway on the right side and walk a little forward - you are all at the southern arch of this mysterious place. Or you can turn off the street or from the Fontanka embankment into the passage between the square and house number 7 along Shcherbakov lane and you will find yourself in the northern gateway. In general, see the map below.
The entrance to the house of the St. Petersburg Merchant Council, the gateway leading to the Mystical portal - to the left behind the gate.
Having taken pictures here, do not be too lazy to go through the back streets of the courtyards of old Petersburg. This, I must tell you, is a whole stone labyrinth of gateways and passages in which, from habit, you can get lost. I remember friends from Moscow came to me, so Yonya and Natusya ran around there with an open mouth, forgetting to look at the navigator - if it weren't for me with them, they would have stayed wandering in the gray, ghostly shadows of the old Petersburg courtyard … This happens with us and even often … Remember how the hero of Andrei Mironov, with a dazed gaze, was confused in the labyrinths of the old city. This is how it is with us in St. Petersburg - people who do not know the transitions and curvatures of the space of St. Petersburg parallels become eternal ghosts of the city …
South gateway of the Mystic portal.
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Where do people disappear in the Mystic Portal?
Once on Facebook I wrote (prooflink), I quote, “… They say that people disappear without a trace here. In fact, not so completely. If you, through some time portal, of which there are a lot in St. Petersburg, wander into parallel worlds, you will see that all these “disappeared” are simply thumping with reptilians in alternative universes …”. It's a joke, but where did the legend about the disappearance of people come from?
Full view of the portal, left - square of Manevich.
Everything is very simple. It so happened that the flow of people in the evening goes mainly from the Fontanka towards Rubinstein. So it is quite problematic for a large mass of people to walk along Shcherbakov Lane. This is a rather narrow street - two people on the sidewalk will no longer disperse. In addition, keep in mind that the fifth house is a kindergarten and if parents go with a stroller, then a real transport collapse occurs. So people turn, bending around the square, into these gateways, and then, completely imperceptibly, the crowd dissolves through the surrounding courtyards and houses, dissolving in the passages and entrances invisible from the street … If you stand for a short time and look at this stream of people from the houses opposite, and this is the facade of the famous Tolstoy house), then it seems that people disappear in the mysterious arches of the gateways of the house of the St. Petersburg Merchant Council.
So it’s all simple … It’s just not simple, but gave birth to a legend …
How to find the Mystical portal on Rubinstein, map.