Where to look for ghosts and make wishes on the city streets.
Petersburg has been overgrown with myths and superstitions since its foundation. The seers prophesied eternal suffering to the city, built at the cost of many lives. Treasure hunters were looking for a gold carriage, allegedly buried by the Swedes after the Great Northern War. The townspeople recalled countless stories about the ghosts of the former owners of the Winter Palace and Anichkov Palace, the Mikhailovsky Castle … "Karpovka" rummaged in the archives, talked to the folklorist of St. Petersburg Naum Sindalovsky and collected urban legends of famous and not so famous houses, sculptures and courtyards.
About treasures
Bobrinsky Palace
Address: Galernaya street, 60.
The classicist mansion or palace of Bobrinsky was built in 1790 by the architect Luigi Rusca. Initially, the building belonged to the favorite of Catherine II Platon Zubov. However, after the accession of his patroness, Zubov fell into disgrace, and the empress handed the palace over to the illegitimate son of Prince Grigory Orlov, Alexei Bobrinsky.
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According to legend, Catherine II hid treasures within the walls of the palace, on which the illegitimate son was supposed to live. Rumor has it that the Bobrinskys, who tried to leave the country during the revolution, offered in exchange for saving themselves and half of the treasures walled up in the building. The Bolsheviks refused the deal, but without the help of the owners of the family mansion they could not find the cache.
Currently, the mansion houses the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences of St. Petersburg State University.
Stock Exchange Building
Address: Spit of Vasilievsky Island
The first mention of the improvement of the site on the arrow dates back to 1767. In 1783, Quarenghi took up the project, but four years later it was sharply curtailed, since the building allegedly did not correspond to the appearance of the city.
In 1805, the building of the Stock Exchange began to design the architect Thomas de Thomon. Due to the war with Napoleon, construction stopped for almost six years. The building was completed in the late classicism style in 1816. In this regard, there is a legend that during the laying of the foundation of the Exchange, merchants put an ingot of gold in four corners to protect the building from evil spirits.
Shop of merchants Eliseevs
Address: Nevsky Prospect, 56
The house of the Eliseev Brothers trade partnership, or among the common people, the Eliseevsky store in 1903 was built by Gabriel Baranovsky in the early modernist style. The facade, which stands out sharply from the architecture of Nevsky Prospekt, is decorated with four sculptures symbolizing industry, trade, art and science.
The building is based on a frame structure. Eight pylons support floor beams. Therefore, there are no walls in the usual sense - the side wall is represented by alternating pylons and high rectangular openings.
“In 1812, on Christmas evening, the serf gardener of Count Sheremetyev, Pyotr Eliseev, brought fresh strawberries to the astonished guests on a saucer. The count, having come to his senses, asked what the devoted gardener wanted for such a miracle. He found himself and replied: “Free.” The count kept his word. He gave Peter free and one hundred lifting rubles - huge money at that time. The former serf went with his family to St. Petersburg. Bought a bag of oranges, went out to Nevsky Prospekt and began to trade. 90 years later the descendants of the first Eliseev opened a grocery store in the same place,”the shop owners say.
One money legend is associated with a rich store and revolution. Rumor has it that, intending to leave Russia in 1917, the owner made a huge chandelier out of all his gold, which he hung in the store. Soon, he allegedly hoped to return the abandoned wealth, as he was sure that the Bolsheviks would not last long in power.
In fact, there was no chandelier in the Eliseevs' store. It appeared there only in the 1930s and, naturally, was not gold.
About ghosts
House of unrequited love
Address: corner of Nevsky Prospect and Fontanka Embankment
In the 1850s, this place was one of the tallest buildings in St. Petersburg. It was rumored that one elderly woman and her young pupil fell in love with the same official, who chose the younger of the two.
When the girl and her lover got married, they moved to this very house. An elderly woman suffering from unrequited love once rang the doorbell of a young couple's apartment. When the guests opened the door, she threw herself out of the staircase window before their eyes. It is believed that in the evenings the shadow of the unfortunate woman pursues lonely male passers-by and "opens its lifeless arms to them."
Borovoy bridge
Address: Obvodny Canal
According to legend, in ancient times a pagan temple was located on the site of Borovoy Bridge. According to one version, it was ruined by the Swedes. According to the other, on the site of the temple, the builders of the ferry found plates with ancient inscriptions, which they converted into curbs for Ligovsky Prospect.
In any case, the peace of the sacred place was disturbed. Since the construction of the city there has been a series of suicides every ten years. So, in 1923, 89 people threw themselves into the Obvodny Canal from this place, and in 1933 - 107.
Demut-Malinovsky bulls
Address: Moscow highway, 13
In 1827, the sculptor Vasily Demut-Malinovsky created two bronze sculptures of bulls, which were installed at the entrance to the Skotoprigonny yard at the corner of the Tsarskoye Selo road and the Obvodny Canal. One day he had a dream in which bronze statues came to their creator. No one understood Demut-Malinovsky's dream and did not attach any importance to it.
In 1941, when the front came close to Leningrad, the bulls were transported by tractor to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. There, where in 1846 the architect who created the sculpture was buried. Bronze statues throughout the war stood near the grave of their creator, until they were transported to the Leningrad meat processing plant.
About wishes that will come true
Pel's Pharmacy and Griffin Tower
Address: 7th line V. O., 16
The Griffin Tower, also called the Digital Tower, is the last thing left of the boiler room of one of the oldest pharmacies in St. Petersburg. The medical store was owned by Wilhelm Pel and his sons.
Petersburgers prefer to ignore prosaic facts about the purpose of the tower and tell tourists that, in fact, an extraordinary pharmacist conducted alchemical experiments in it, tried to turn mercury into gold and was looking for an elixir of happiness.
A separate reason for myths was the facade of the griffin tower covered with figures. According to legend, the lucky one who adds all the numbers into one sum can make any wish, and it will certainly come true. The numbers on the tower supposedly change every day, so the count must be completed within 24 hours.
Spirit Court
Address: 4th line V. O., 5
On Vasilievsky Island, you can find a well yard measuring only two by one and a half meters. Locals believe that if you enter this courtyard, look up and make a wish, it will definitely come true. The legend allegedly came from the artist, mystical philosopher and traveler Nicholas Roerich, who lived there at the beginning of the 20th century. The eccentric Petersburger was fond of summoning spirits and participated in spiritualistic experiments.
The publisher and teacher Vladimir Shibaev recalled: “I was invited to the artist, Academician Roerich on the evening of June 2, 1920, and, as usual, sat with his son in the latter's room, talking about various scientific topics. I did not know that Nicholas Roerich and his wife, together with their youngest son, were engaged in spiritualistic experiments. I also didn't know that they were asking their leaders to let me join the circle. But having secured a positive answer, I was asked to enter and sit at the table. The room was full of light, and I clearly saw that any possibility of deception was ruled out. The table nervously shook and jumped, and when they asked him who it was (there was a conventional knock: one - yes; two times - no; three times - reinforced yes), whether it was a teacher, then the table jumped up and hit once. Then there was a sequential message of letters. Namely,one of those present called the alphabet in a continuous order, and when the letter was pronounced, a knock followed. So several phrases were collected."
"Underground" legends
House of the Emir of Bukhara
Address: Kamennoostrovsky prospect, 44
The house on Kamennoostrovsky prospect was built in 1914 by the sculptor Stepan Krichinsky. The building was ordered by the emir (in Muslim countries, this is the name of the ruler) of the Bukhara Khanate Abdul-Ahad-khan. The facade cladding was made of large blocks of Ural marble. This is the only house in St. Petersburg created from this rock.
Rumor has it that a tunnel runs from the Emir's palace underground, which connects the building with the Cathedral Mosque on Kronverksky Avenue. In addition, within the walls of the house, the gold of a wealthy eastern ruler is allegedly walled up, who could not take it during his flight from revolutionary Russia.
Pavilion under the flag
Address: Elagin Island
The pavilion at Granite Pier was built in 1825 by Karl Rossi. Because of the elegant design in the style of classicism, the people called him Malovida, but his official name is a pavilion under the flag. The flag was raised above the flat dome of the building whenever members of the royal family came to the island.
Legend has it that under the pavilion there was an underground hall where Freemasons gathered. From him allegedly went an underground passage, through which one could get to the meeting of the Freemasons directly from the Elagin Palace.
Legend from Naum Sindalovsky
On the eve of the Urban Dictation, we asked a specialist in St. Petersburg folklore, Naum Sindalovsky, to tell a legend about one of the buildings in St. Petersburg.
The Astoria Hotel has long been known as a military hotel. It was commissioned in the early years of the First World War, so it was mainly occupied by military officials. Later, many urban proverbs and sayings arose around Astoria. For example, “Don't go to Astoria - you'll get into history.” It was believed that something would happen there and the guest would get involved in something, or even end up in a “jail”.
But the owners of Astoria got into the history of the city. When Nicholas II declared war on Germany during the First World War, an anti-German campaign began in the country. In St. Petersburg, it was a real holiday of chauvinism: they caught Germans and German-speaking foreigners, broke glass in German shops.
The "Astoria", which belonged to the Germans, also fell under the distribution. In the wake of anti-German propaganda, a legend was born in the city that an underground passage was laid from the hotel to the German embassy. Then it was on the opposite side, in house 11 on St. Isaac's Square (now the Ministry of Justice is located there). It was said in the city that the owners of Astoria communicate with officials of the embassy, and from there they transmit information to the headquarters of the enemy.
German embassy
The townspeople decided that the embassy's radio stations were inside the horses that used to decorate the building of the current Ministry of Justice. Indignant Petersburgers gathered on the square one day in 1914, threw ropes over the sculptures and threw their horses off the roof. The legend lives on that these horses are still lying at the bottom of the Moika or Neva River and are waiting to be lifted.
Photo: ru.wikipedia.org, etovidel.net, Karpovka, citywalls.ru