TASS: Reality and fiction of St Petersburg. On one of Russia's most mystical cities
The misty atmosphere, the greyness, the raininess, and the vast amount of mystery all make St Petersburg one of the country's most appealing cities. Once upon a time, influential citizens formed secret societies here, took interest in black magic, and looked for ways to become immortal, and to learn about themselves and the world. All this cannot but give rise to a great deal of speculation and myth. Together with researchers, we will take the five most contradictory legends of St Petersburg and try to separate the truth from fiction.
Rotunda on Gorokhovaya Street
The late 18th-century house on Gorokhovaya Street century is considered the centre of St Petersburg's gathering of evil spirits. The house, which was built by Savva Iakovlev, a merchant, philanthropist, and richest man of his time, is laden with countless rumours and legends. This is not surprising, because the exterior of the classic L-shaped house conceals a vestibule with six columns arranged in a circle, rounded by a spiralling staircase.
It is the only example of a rotunda being placed inside the building of such shape, hence there is much debate and controversy. Some believe it is a gesture of luxury on the part of the merchant and the main purpose of the staircase is to connect the two blocks of flats for ease of movement.
Some think that the staircase is designed to serve as a passage to otherworldly worlds. Of particular interest is the hatch in the centre of the rotunda. Legend has it that it hides an initiation room for Freemasons and that if an outsider were to enter it, they could get lost in the labyrinths and grow many years older. The rotunda also serves a good purpose – it makes wishes that are written on the wall come true. According to one of the versions, the Masonic entourage was introduced into the rotunda not by its first owner, but rather by Count Andrei Zubov who used to live there in the 1850-1860s when the building housed a hotel and an entertainment venue. Mystics believe that Count Zubov established a Masonic lodge within the rotunda walls and initiated new members in the basement. And the house became the zero meridian around which six more rotundas sprang up in the city, forming an inverted star on the map of St Petersburg.
The place became popular in the 1990s when the famous inscription from Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy appeared on the vault: 'All hope abandon ye who enter here'. This further mystified the house and attracted tourists.
There is no documentation evidence to prove that any of this took place. The space itself is perceived as three-dimensional, spiralling, going upwards, and engaging for visitors. In the 1980s and 1990s, this building was given over to communal flats and underground subculture Leningrad youths gathered here; they painted the walls of the rotunda with various statements, after which legends emerged.
Elena Lelina, Associate Professor in the Department of Historical Regional Studies at St Petersburg University
Kirill Evlampiev, a concierge-guide of the rotunda on Gorokhovaya Street, also believes that most of the legends here are fictional: ‘In the 1990s the hatch was poured with concrete because it caused a lot of problems to tenants. A huge number of people used to gather here all the time. It's not some intricately constructed basement, it's a plain cylindrical room with no exits or entrances, so it's just an iron pit three metres deep. This room was used as a cellar in the 19th century. There are no Masonic signs here because neither the merchant nor the architect who built this house were Freemasons.’
For a long time, the rotunda on Gorokhovaya Street was closed to the public, and it was difficult for the curious to get inside. However, now the tenants have cleaned up the building, painted the inscriptions over, created a separate area for visitors' wishes, and organised guided tours. Even if the legends are groundless, you can still experience magic in the house. To do so, one person must stand on one side of the third-floor wall of the rotunda, a second person must go to the opposite side and whisper into the wall; the first person will feel as if they are whispering directly in their ear.