Rotunda history of creation. What is a rotunda

At the intersection of the Fontanka embankment there is a “house with a Rotunda”, built in the 18th century for the merchant Savva Yakovlev, whose family owned the house until the mid-19th century. The last owner of the house before the revolution was the merchant Evmentyev. This is a legendary place, which was especially popular in the 80s of the last century.

View of the house (entrance to the Rotunda from the Gorokhovaya courtyard)
Although the legends of the Rotunda are widely known, I can’t resist telling you about them in my performance. A very tempting topic about parallel worlds, the Masonic lodge and the Devil's ladder. So many different stories in one house at the intersection of Gorokhovaya and Fontanka, which I often drove past, but always paid attention to. Finally, I looked inside and saw the famous Rotunda.

This is what the Rotunda looks like now. I would like to grumble about why the local residents, having locked themselves with a combination lock, did not “chip in” for repairs in the “front door”
Mystical legends about the Rotunda have been known since the 19th century. They said that in this place exactly at midnight the Devil himself appears and can fulfill any request. For gifts, the master of darkness will then demand payment, but people usually do not think about the consequences.

From a legend of the 19th century: “a certain young girl, in the late 40s of the 19th century, turned to the Antichrist in the Rotunda with a request to punish the man whom she loved, but who did not reciprocate her feelings. And Satan answered the victim of unhappy love - the next morning after the conversation with the Evil One, her beloved man, who rejected her love, was found dead in bed without any signs of violent death.”
They say that A.S. himself Pushkin sometimes visited the Rotunda on Gorokhovaya.

Now they write their wishes on the walls
The unusual location of the building was discussed back in the 18th century. Before the construction of Yakovlev's house, there was a glass factory of Willim Elmsel, whose owner was suspected of being interested in Alchemy.

The stairs leading up, nicknamed the “Devil’s Staircase,” appeared in the mid-19th century

One of the tenants of the house at the beginning of the 19th century was Count Andrei Zubov, an adherent of the Masonic order. According to legend, initiation ceremonies into the Freemasons took place in the Rotunda.
By the way, in the basement there is an underground passage leading to the neighboring courtyard, but now the entrance to it is concreted. The reason for the creation of this dungeon is unknown.

Admission to the Masonic Lodge

Masonic signs
They say that in St. Petersburg there are several buildings with Rotundas, and if you connect them with lines, you get a Masonic pentagram. This magical sign protects the city. One of the pentagram rotundas is located in St. Isaac's Cathedral. The rotunda on Gorokhovaya is central to the sign.

Even today, the iron hatch on the floor, located in the center of the Rotunda, once split into a pentagram. No explanation was found for the case.
According to the legend of the 19th century, the Masons walled up a traitor to the order under the hatch.

According to the official historical version, in the 19th century there was a “cafe Chantan” with criminal fame in the house.

House plan

According to another legend, in the Rotunda there is a path “to another dimension”; legends about the “path to nowhere” spread in the 19th century.
Interestingly, there are two staircases in the Rotunda: one leads up, the other rests against the wall. They said that it was the staircase that ended in the wall that led to another world, the door to which opened on certain days. According to another version, the door to the “parallel world” opens under the dome of the Rotunda.

The staircase on the right leads up, the staircase on the left leads to nowhere

This staircase rests against the wall

Previously, in the Rotunda there was a chandelier that descended between the first and second floors. According to legend, one townsman hanged himself from a chandelier, and now his spirit wanders around the house. The room is quite conducive to ghost stories. It is likely that the ghost of the hanged man is not the only one.

View into the darkness from the top floor

There are several legends about people missing in the basements of the building. The famous criminal of the late 19th century, Alexander Shtramm, often hid in the basement of the Rotunda from the police, but one day he did not return. In the “roaring 90s” of the 20th century, one young business student decided to beg business success from the Rotunda and stayed in the building overnight, never to be seen again.
According to the legend of our days, one person managed to visit “another dimension”; he went down to the basement as a 20-year-old guy, and 15 minutes later returned as a 70-year-old man. He could not tell anything about his journey.

In the 80s of the 20th century, the Rotunda was a meeting place for informal youth. There are legends that if you write your wish on the wall, it will definitely come true. Just don’t forget about the old legends of the 19th century - wish granters always demand their payment with interest.

Folk art with wishes

Guardian of the portal to other worlds :)

View of the building from the other bank of the Fontanka

Bridge to Gorokhovaya Street

Such different locals

For those who want to go inside, here are some of my impressions from communicating with the local public.

Now the door to the Rotunda is locked with a combination lock; entry is possible only by the grace of the residents. I was lucky, I met a kind girl who let me through. She complained that she had to close the door from the local gopotas and drug addicts who had ruined everything.

And then I was unlucky, while photographing the room, I came across an aggressive madam. Judging by the manner of her conversation, she is a typical habala aunt, accustomed to going ahead on the tram with string bags and winning scandals in the communal kitchen.
In response to my answer that I wanted to write about the house, she burst out, “You write all sorts of crap about the house!” (quote of the phrase of this “intelligent” woman) and so on.

After such a “pleasant” meeting, I am ready to agree with the skeptics - there is no evil spirits in the building. Of course not, all the evil spirits fled because of such women, I remember the fairy tale “About the Devil and the Evil Woman.”

If you want to see the Rotunda, hope to be lucky that you will meet friendly people who will not refuse a decent person to come in and take a photo. But then be prepared for the rudeness of inadequate people crawling up the stairs with wallets.

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As a general rule, a rotunda is an architectural structure made in the form of a round building topped with a dome with columns around the perimeter. Rotunda - “round” (from Italian rotunda, from Latin rotun-dus). The round shape is perceived by humans as ideal, creating the impression of wholeness and completeness, harmony and balanced peace. Therefore, the development of rotundal architecture began with the creation of round funeral structures designed to serve the memory and eternal peace of the deceased (mausoleums, baptisteries, chapels, churches). The first ancient temples of this kind are the ancient Greek tholos and the ancient Roman frontal-axial rotunda. During the Renaissance and Baroque, they saw further development in terms of constructive and artistic execution. The most active construction of rotunda temples was carried out during historical periods of the heyday of humanistic ideas and creative rethinking of classical examples of architectural heritage.

Sacred circular buildings

The use of centric (that is, central-axial) buildings in religious architecture is associated with the expression of the idea of ​​heaven. The center of the circle is the absolute of sacredness, the unity of infinity and completeness, the limit of peace and highest perfection. There is nothing superfluous in the round temple, nothing distracts from communication with the Almighty. At each point of such a structure, a person is in the space under the dome, which means he remains alone with God Almighty. The rotunda temple also serves as a reminder that the Church of God will exist forever. The main elements of Christian religious buildings are the altar, the porch and the pillars dividing the internal space. The rotunda was used as an apse rounding the altar part of the temple. This type of religious building was close to Christians and was more suitable for them for services.

Among the historical monuments of European sacred architecture, there are several of the most significant.

• The Rotunda Church of St. George (Bulgaria), dating back to the 4th century, has the shape of a rotunda. This is an early Christian building, originally used as a baptistery.
• The temple in Brescia is famous for the fact that until the 20th century it remained the only round Christian cathedral.
• The oldest temple in Mantua, the Rotunda of St. Lawrence, is considered a monument of Romanesque architecture in Italy.
• The Cathedral Rotunda Mosta Dome in the city of Mosta (Malta) is a beautiful building that became famous thanks to its unique domed top. In 1942, a shell hit the church. Having broken through the dome, it fell right next to the altar and did not explode. None of the parishioners were injured. The dome crowning the rotunda, with a diameter of about 37 meters, ranks third in size in Europe.

These and many other religious buildings were often built in the image and likeness of the Roman Pantheon, or in their architectural design they were oriented towards the appearance of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Holy Land.

The Jerusalem shrine in its current form is a huge (22 m in diameter) rotunda, inside of which there is a cuvuklia. Reliquaries (zions or Jerusalems) are also made in the form of miniature rotundas, symbolically reproducing this temple.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher became the prototype for many Christian buildings. And the rotunda, along with the cruciform building and the octogon (regular octagon), took its historical place among the main types of central-domed religious buildings.

The love for round tops (domes) and round (from the base) churches that came to the Russians from the ancient Hellenes and the inhabitants of Byzantium was expressed in the creation of buildings that became unique for Russian church architecture. The construction of rotundal churches in Russia began with an experiment to reproduce the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the New Jerusalem Monastery near Moscow (Istra, 1658-1685). The cathedral, built by decree of Patriarch Nikon in imitation of the temple in the Holy Land, also had a rotunda topped with a conical tent.

In the pre-Petrine era, rotundas appeared in Moscow monasteries. Russian architects of the 18th century studied the works of Vitruvius, A. Palladio, J.B. Vignola and others, and applied European experience in religious architecture. But the appearance of cylindrical churches in central cities was hampered by the difficulty of including them in the grid of neighborhoods (in those days the rectangular building principle was used). Therefore, round churches began to be built in small parishes and on private property. These were small tent churches, not designed for crowds of parishioners, located in noble estates. There are more than 50 of them in the Moscow region. The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, located on the Podmoklovo estate near Serpukhov, is a pearl of Russian church rotundal architecture.

There are less than a dozen such buildings in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. The first round church was designed at the Strelna palace by Nicolo Michetti. Another Italian architect Pietro Trezzini created a round temple in the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, reminiscent of a fortress tower. In 1785, in the village of Aleksandrovskoye (on the road to Shlisselburg), a rotunda church appeared in the country estate of the secular nobleman A. A. Vyazemsky. This is the famous Trinity Church, built by the architect N. A. Lvov.

Because of its unusual shape, the Temple in the name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity was popularly nicknamed Kulich and Easter. The bell tower is made in the form of a tetrahedral pyramid - this is Easter, and the rotunda acts as an Easter cake.

In the ancient Russian understanding, the circle and sphere are the image of the Heavenly City. But for the Baroque style, these figures were too simple and uncomplicated, and the masters were not willing to turn to this architectural form. They began to actively build rotundal churches in Russia only under Catherine II. Nicholas I and the “Russian style” that came with him did not favor round buildings, since he was guided by pre-Petrine architecture. Therefore, rotunda churches are unique for Russian architecture and belong to the monuments of cylindrical sacred architecture.

Rotunda in secular architecture

The interpretation of classical examples of architectural heritage affected not only religious buildings, but also secular buildings. During the Renaissance, circular architectural solutions began to be used in the construction of public buildings and private houses, places of recreation and entertainment.

Impressed by the Roman Pantheon, the talented Renaissance master Andrea Palladio designed and built the first non-religious building topped with a dome. Villa Capra “La Rotonda” was made in the form of an ancient temple, looked little like a cozy home and was intended for receptions and celebrations.

The Italian's initiative was taken up by English and American aristocrats, who built luxurious estates for themselves (Mereworth Castle, Chiswick House, Monticello, etc.). In the image and likeness of Villa Capra, the third US President Thomas Jefferson designed not only his own apartments, but also the Capitol. And the main building of the University of Virginia that he built is still called simply the Rotunda.

A striking example of the Palladian style is one of the buildings of the famous Bodleian Library, Oxford. Radcliffe Camera is one of the world's first examples of so-called circular libraries. Several scenes from American films about Sherlock Holmes were filmed near the Radcliffe Rotunda in the 20th century.

There are many examples of public and private domed buildings with a circular layout in modern foreign architecture: the New Zealand Parliament (the so-called Beehive) and the main federal institution of India Samsad Bhavan, the rotunda on Masham Street in London and an office building in Birmingham, the main concert hall of Romania and the Irish theater Gate, Nereworth Castle and Ickworth House in England, etc.

In Russia, a historical example of a secular rotunda is the current exhibit of the Hermitage, which is considered one of the most expensive in the museum. We are talking about a malachite gazebo, which was presented to Nicholas I as a gift by the Ural industrialist A. Demidov.

Made by the best European craftsmen in Paris, the stone rotunda was supposed to decorate the palace park. But the autocrat used it differently. In the “malachite canopy”, covered with a crimson velvet canopy with the image of a double-headed eagle, was his royal place during services in the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

The rotunda, which has no direct analogues in architecture, was built in 1845 under the roof of the Mariinsky Palace. This internal structure was erected at the intersection of two main palace enfilades, is divided into several tiers and is a continuous colonnade of 32 columns. Recognized as a masterpiece in terms of its unusual architectural design, the Mariinsky Theater is a traditional place for lavish receptions and luxurious balls.

And the Rotunda of the former Dutch church, recently opened after restoration (currently the Mayakovsky Library Center for Art and Music is located here) functions as a concert and exhibition hall.

Residential buildings designed using dome-circular architectural elements have survived to this day. For example, one of the symbols of Yekaterinburg is the Sevastyanov house.

During the Soviet period, round buildings with a domed roof and cylindrical structures became recreational facilities, clubs, restaurants and baths, metro lobbies and sea terminals. Multi-petal rotundas (the architectural term “octaconchs”) appear in parks and embankments.

The legendary building in St. Petersburg, known as the House on Gorokhovaya, has stepped from the era of classicism into modern times. In appearance, this is an inconspicuous building, typical of the city of the late 18th century, formerly called the Yakovlev-Dementyev House. The secret is in the inner circular building with six columns and curved staircases.

The Rotunda on Gorokhovaya is credited with mystical properties; it is literally “overgrown” with myths and legends about connections with the other world. And in the 70-80s of the last century, which saw the boom of the informal youth movement, the building became a cult place.

Monuments - rotundas

The era of modernism, with its commitment to strict plans, borrowed the rotunda from antiquity, like a pantheon or chapel. In our country, some historical monuments are made in the form of rotundas.

• As a reminder of the grief and suffering that war brings, in Voronezh the rotunda of the hospital building, destroyed during shelling in 1942, has been preserved in ruins.

Rotunda as an element of landscape architecture

A special type of cylindrical structure is a gazebo. This is a rotunda in the form of columns standing in a circle, connected by a low dome in the form of a roof. The gaps between the columns can be filled with a balustrade, and the internal space allows radius benches to be placed. Such a structure is associated with silence, solitude and peace.

In the era of romanticism, the meaning of the gazebo was to hide passionate kisses and ardent declarations of love from prying eyes. The columns of the romantic gazebos for dates were covered with ivy and decorated with flowers. Among the nobility, the rotunda was considered a favorite vacation spot and was an integral attribute of the 18th century estate. Garden pavilions were placed in high places, allowing for views of the surrounding area. Later they took on the appearance of guest houses, the openwork of which made it possible to demonstrate the guests’ outfits in all their glory.

The two-tier Milovida rotunda in Marfino, Moscow Region, stands not far from the music pavilion on a steep hillside before descending to a large lower pond. This is one of the best-preserved examples of estate gardening architecture to this day.
A gazebo today is an essential element of a summer cottage or country house. Also, light and elegant circular designs are used as an attribute when organizing outdoor weddings.

The rotunda is present in recreation areas.

As an example of an architectural remodel, there is a meditation gazebo.

Sources:

• Rotunda (architecture)

ROTUNDA

ROTUNDA

(French, from Latin rotundus - round). 1) a round building with a dome, sometimes on pillars. 2) women's outer garment without sleeves.

Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. - Chudinov A.N., 1910 .

ROTUNDA

1) a round building with a roof in the form of a dome or tent (often glass); 2) ladies' outer dress, sleeveless.

A complete dictionary of foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language. - Popov M., 1907 .

ROTUNDA

1) a round building topped with a dome (often glass) or a tent-shaped roof; favorite form of Roman. and Byzantine. architectures, as well as the Renaissance; 2) ladies' outer dress, long, sleeveless.

Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. - Pavlenkov F., 1907 .

ROTUNDA

French rotonde, it. rotunda, from Lat. rotundus, round.

a) Round building with a dome. b) Women's outer dress., 1865 .

Explanation of 25,000 foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language, with the meaning of their roots. - Mikhelson A.D.

(Rotunda it. rotonda lat.

1) rotundus round) architect

a round building covered with a dome, often with columns;

2) women's warm outerwear in the form of a long sleeveless cape, common in the 19th century. 20th centuries, 2009 .

New dictionary of foreign words. - by EdwART,

Rotunda rotundas, w. [ from Latin rotundus – round

Large dictionary of foreign words. - Publishing House "IDDK", 2007 .

New dictionary of foreign words. - by EdwART,

s, and. (Rotunda it. rotonda rotundus round).
1. rotundus round) A round building covered with a dome, often with columns.
|| Wed. belvedere.
2. Women's warm outerwear in the form of a long cape without sleeves (was common in the 19th - early 20th centuries).
Rotunda- related to rotunda 1, 2, rotundas.
|| Wed. mantilla, cape, poncho, talma.

Explanatory dictionary of foreign words by L. P. Krysin. - M: Russian language, 1998 .

See what "ROTONDA" is in other dictionaries:

New dictionary of foreign words. - by EdwART,- Capitol. Washington, USA. ROTONDA (Italian rotonde), a centric structure, a building round in plan, usually topped with a dome. Jefferson Rotunda. University pcs. Virginia, Charlottesville, USA. Rotunda with a fountain. Place Charles de... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Pantheon, martyrium Dictionary of Russian synonyms. rotunda noun, number of synonyms: 6 building (45) martyrium ... Synonym dictionary

- (Italian rotonde), a centric structure, a building round in plan, usually topped with a dome... Modern encyclopedia

- (Italian: rotonda, lit. round), 1) a building with a round plan (temple, mausoleum, pavilion, hall), usually topped with a dome. 2) A long sleeveless women’s cape... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

ROTONDA, rotundas, women. (from Latin rotundus round). 1. Round or semicircular small building with a dome (architect.). 2. Warm women's outerwear without sleeves. Fur roronda. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 … Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

The section is very easy to use. Just enter the desired word in the field provided, and we will give you a list of its meanings. I would like to note that our site provides data from various sources - encyclopedic, explanatory, word-formation dictionaries. Here you can also see examples of the use of the word you entered.

Meaning of the word rotunda

rotunda in the crossword dictionary

rotunda

Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, Dal Vladimir

rotunda

and. French a round building under a vault, sometimes on pillars.

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. D.N. Ushakov

rotunda

rotundas, w. (from Latin rotundus - round).

Round or semicircular small building with a dome (architect.)

Warm women's outerwear without sleeves. Fur roronda.

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. S.I.Ozhegov, N.Yu.Shvedova.

rotunda

Y, f. (specialist.). A round or semicircular small building, usually with a dome.

adj, rotbndovy, -aya, -oe.

rotunda

Y, f. Warm women's outerwear without sleeves in the form of a long cape.

adj. rotbndovy, -aya, -oe.

New explanatory and word-formative dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova.

rotunda

and. A round building surrounded by columns and topped with a dome.

and. outdated

Women's warm outerwear in the form of a long sleeveless cape.

rotunda

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

ROTONDA (Italian: rotunda, lit. - round)

a building with a round plan (temple, mausoleum, pavilion, hall), usually topped with a dome.

New dictionary of foreign words. - by EdwART,

Long sleeveless women's cape.

(Italian rotonda, from Latin rotundus ≈ round), a centric structure, a building round in plan, usually topped with a dome. Columns are often located along the perimeter of the river. The ancient Greek tholos, some ancient Roman temples (for example, the Pantheon) and mausoleums, baptisteries, individual Christian churches (mostly Romanesque, Renaissance, and Classical style), halls, and halls from the 18th century have a R. form. ≈ park pavilions.

New dictionary of foreign words. - by EdwART,

Explanation of 25,000 foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language, with the meaning of their roots. - Mikhelson A.D. Wikipedia

- a building with a round plan, usually topped with a dome. Columns are often located along the perimeter of the rotunda.

The shape of the rotunda is found in ancient Greek tholos and monoptera, some ancient Roman temples (for example, the Pantheon) and mausoleums, baptisteries, individual Christian churches (mainly Romanesque, Renaissance and classical style), halls from the 18th century. - park pavilions and gazebos.

New dictionary of foreign words. - by EdwART, Rotunda (Italy)

- a commune in Italy, located in the Basilicata region, subordinate to the administrative center of Potenza.

The population is 3890 people, the population density is 93 people/km². Covers an area of ​​42 km². Postal code - 85048. Telephone code - 0973.

rotunda Rotunda (geometry) - any member of the family of dihedral-symmetric polyhedra. They are similar to domes, but instead of alternating squares and triangles, there are alternating pentagons and triangles. is the Johnson body ().

J

Other types of rotundas can be achieved using dihedral symmetry and deformed equilateral pentagons.

New dictionary of foreign words. - by EdwART, Rotunda (monument, Voronezh)

- the building of the Voronezh Regional Clinical Hospital of the 1930s, destroyed during the Battle of Voronezh and not restored as a memory of the Great Patriotic War. Historical monument of regional significance.

The monument is located in the Transport Park of the city of Voronezh, near the intersection of Burdenko and Transportnaya streets.

• Rotunda (disambiguation)
  • A rotunda is a building that is round in plan, usually topped with a dome.
  • Brodsky Rotunda - architectural project of A. S. Brodsky
  • Rotunda is a monument in Voronezh.
  • The Rotunda of the Winter Palace is a round hall in the northwestern wing of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
  • The Rotunda of Friendship of Peoples is a colonnade in Poltava, one of the symbols of the city.
  • The United States Capitol Rotunda is the central rotunda of the Washington Capitol.
  • The Rotunda of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary is a Romanesque rotunda located in the Czech village of Holubice
  • Rotunda PKO is a bank building at the main intersection of Warsaw - Rondo Dmowski.
  • The Rotunda of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the oldest structure on Wawel Hill in Krakow.
  • The Rotunda of San Lorenzo is a religious building in Mantua, belongs to the Catholic diocese of Mantua.
  • Rotunda of St. George is an early Christian church in Sofia.
  • The Rotunda of St. George is part of the Arch and Tomb of Galerius complex in Thessaloniki.
  • The Shukhov Rotunda is a round steel rotunda pavilion built by engineer V. G. Shukhov for the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod.
  • Villa Rotonda is a country house built by Andrea Palladio on a hilltop near Vicenza for retired Vatican official Paolo Almerico.

• A rotunda is any member of the family of dihedral-symmetric polyhedra.
• Rotunda is a commune in Italy, in the Basilicata region, subordinate to the administrative center of Potenza.
• Rotunda West is a statistically distinct locality in Charlotte County.

Examples of the use of the word rotunda in literature.

He walked around, with his legs wide open, the camp, the convoy, where he carefully examined the harness and counted the horses, then the kitchens and bakeries, where he tried dinner and bread, then rotunda He leafed through the record of the officers' debts, then in the regiment's office, which still remained in the winter quarters, inviting Buzun, the treasurer, and others from the headquarters, he ordered the books of accounts to be collected and unexpectedly began an economic inspection.

William Cowper exercised this right and carried out all the formalities of the initiation of Lord Ferman of Clancharlie in the glass rotunda.

Two old captains - Loboda and Selenginsky, who had recently been transferred to the regiment from the Caucasus and a week later were leaving for the Far East, became masters rotundas.

The young clerk, continuing to pass rotundas, replied that if they did not give her eight hundred francs, she would leave this madhouse.

When Colonel Benin interrogated me, he mentioned that during the period of time when the body of ba Lur could have been laid at the sarcophagus, in the burial chamber rotunda There were six out balls.

Our unexpected reunion, Merili said, is a gift from fate for her, since she hopes that I will help her solve one problem with the decoration of her palazzo, which she has been struggling with for many years: what paintings to cover the meaningless voids between the columns rotundas, or maybe paintings are not needed at all?

Not only the lodges, but also rotunda was packed with members of the Makers Guild, dressed in various combinations of heraldic bluish green with white and silver.

Corridors, round hall - Rotunda with four white tiled stoves, Catherine with a forest of beautiful columns and seven electric gilded chandeliers, the White Meeting Room, choir corridors, approaches to the buffet, the Ministerial Pavilion.

Semicircular, in Rotunda, to the White Hall - where there was a constant change of speakers talking about freedom, about duty to the people, about victory over the Germans.

In the evening the engineer's wife was already sitting with us, and maman told her how before going to bed she ran through the garden in one rotunda to the river.

He walked up to the door without hesitation, opened it and saw a cluttered room with a sour smell of dampness. rotunda with thin streams of light flowing from under a dirty glass cover.

The Consul likes this evening to proceed splendidly, luxuriously, truly festive: the whole family solemnly gathers in the landscaped, and in rotunda there were already a crowd of servants and various newcomers, the city poor, some old men and women - the consul shook their bluish-red hands with everyone - and outside the door suddenly a four-voice singing was heard, a chorale performed by singers from the Marienkirche, so jubilant that the heart began to grow stronger beat in my chest, and at that time the smell of a Christmas tree was already breaking through from behind the tall white doors.

The consul got up and quietly left the dining room, for at the lower end of the table the chairs of Mamzel Jungman, Doctor Grabov and Christian were empty, and from rotundas There was a sound like a suppressed sob.

And I don’t know if they flew into rotunda during the period of time we are considering.

In the period of time we are interested in rotunda five ba, four guards and six out-ladies appeared.

R Otonda on Gorokhovaya is one of the most mystical places in St. Petersburg. Many legends are associated with it.
They were accepted into the Freemasons here, Rasputin and Lenka Panteleev lived here, there was a brothel here and.... however, first things first)))

According to the official version, the house was built by order of the merchant Ustinov for a very “worldly” purpose. The owner wanted to have another building on his site in which apartments could be rented out, without worsening the living conditions in other premises facing the courtyard. By 1827, construction was completed.

The customer was satisfied - the new building did not darken the corners in the courtyard of the existing house. In 1861, a three-story building was added to the unique structure, but during the Soviet years the house was restored to its original appearance.

However, there is a version, which is much more popular among St. Petersburg residents, that the building was originally intended either for a Masonic lodge or for a Satanic temple (they say differently, but as proof they cite a strange pattern of gratings on which pentagrams are visible). Afterwards, a brothel was allegedly located there, and already at the beginning of the 20th century, Grigory Rasputin lived in a house on Gorokhovaya in the same entrance of the Rotunda.

This house belonged to Count Andrei Zubov, a famous freemason, at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, and it was there, in the basement of the rotunda, that initiates into the famous lodge were received and, allegedly, people were even sacrificed on a special stone-altar... and etc. etc... and other complete horror...

Once upon a time, the entrance to the Rotunda was from the embankment, but for unknown reasons it was blocked off. This can be seen on the facade of the house. Where there should be a door there is a blank wall, and there is no window.

We played around there a couple of times... with masks and stuff...

During the reconstruction in 1856, metal stairs were installed here, following the curve of the walls. At the same time, cabalistic symbols were removed from the walls and the grating of the stairs. On the third floor landing, the walls are decorated with pilasters and completed with a domed ceiling. Structures of this type are called rotunda, and under the name “Rotunda” this legendary place entered the modern history of Leningrad-Petersburg.

In Soviet times, the Rotunda was a gathering place for hippies and rock and rollers, and was a truly cult place for young people. Around the same time, it received the name “Center of the Universe.” Naturally, the Rotunda gradually began to acquire even more myths that still have adherents to this day. More on them a little later...

Ladder.

Window... there will be no lantern and no pharmacy...

All the walls are covered with wishes. It is believed that someone who is unhappy in love needs to come to the Rotunda and leave some kind of inscription on its walls. True, they wrote wishes related not only to personal life, and gradually all the walls were covered with numerous messages. On the dome ceiling there used to be a call with the opposite meaning: “Forget your hopes, everyone who enters here...”.

But the inscriptions still appear...

Wishes from serious to ridiculous and even naive.

Russians love the Rotunda, but the same cannot be said about the locals. There were many battles for peace in the entrance, but lovers of mysticism won.

For the sake of the photo I even took off my jacket))))) this is because I had a T-shirt appropriate for the place)))) the cycle of the divine in nature...

Zenit is sacred...

There is something incomprehensible in the bottom photo... but THIS is exactly what is located in the very center of the lower platform of the Rotunda (they are standing on it in the top photo). It is here at night that they make wishes to the Prince of Darkness.

Legends of the Rotunda

There are six columns... but you can also see the shadow of the seventh column. The Arch is a mystical place. Temple of Satan. People were accepted into the Freemasons here; they say various sects made human sacrifices here. Lenka Panteleev and Rasputin had an apartment here, there was a brothel here))) people disappeared here... the outrages mostly happened in the basement, now it is walled up. It is believed that there is a time portal here and transitions to other worlds are possible... from where you can return or not return... you can come here young and leave old... or vice versa...)))

There is an opinion that there are 6 mystical rotundas in St. Petersburg, which form a regular hexagon on the city plan, similar to the Israeli symbol.

I did this unscientific research around 2009 and it went viral on the Internet. My blog post on Mile

Even travel sites have already picked it up.
In my opinion, it is difficult to take research seriously, but it really does have a certain mystical charm))) in these places some kind of “devilish things” often happen, strange events that then turn into legends.

Connoisseurs of this place and psychics claim that the Rotunda on Gorokhovaya has special physical properties - even the possibility enter the fourth dimension. And that there are quite a few such cases.

In Soviet times in the 80s, one guy went into the basement, stayed there for 15 minutes and came out an old man of 70 years. He never told about what happened to him, except to his close relatives and the doctors of the madhouse. Television then was too far from mysticism and too faithful to the ideals of Marxism-Leninism. I can imagine with what delight this “young man” would be shown today on TV-3 or NTV.

They say that if you come to the lower platform exactly at midnight, stand in its center (there is an incomprehensible pentagram there), you can meet Satan himself, and if suddenly a desire or some need arises, you can even ask him for something cherished.

And these are not “fresh” myths of today. All this comes from tsarist times. So, for example, a certain young girl N, from the nobility, in the late forties of the 19th century, as she herself said, called him there on the occasion of an unhappy love, had a long conversation with him, and the next morning her lover was found dead in his bed without any signs violent death.

Already in our time, at the end of the 80s of the twentieth century, a student of the Faculty of Economics of the University Sushkov, despite the persuasion of his comrades, who while away another evening in the Rotunda, stayed there until midnight, because he wanted to acquire some dollar capital. Nobody saw him again. (c) Anton Uspensky.

Very mystical properties were also attributed to the basement. Since Soviet times it has been sealed tightly. It was there, under the Rotunda, that they were accepted into the Masons and even made sacrifices. They say the famous bandit Lenka Panteleev liked to hide there. He entered this basement and found himself in a completely different place in St. Petersburg. There were allegedly numerous witnesses to such transfers. So he escaped surveillance and the Cheka. But Lenka Panteleev had many doubles, so I would not attach much importance to this evidence.
In Soviet times, they looked for his jewelry and gold coins here (he did not recognize paper money). It was believed that he hid his treasures in this basement. Of course they were looking for them, but alas... Lenka Panteleev’s treasures have not yet been found, and this is a very serious amount, even by today’s standards. Rotunda knows how to keep its secrets.

Residents of apartments also disappeared here. Moreover, without documents and, as they say, with all ends and without any apparent reasons. By the way! One of the apartments in the next entrance is now for sale.

If you sit “correctly” on the Rotunda dead end (a kind of staircase landing), you can see shadow from the seventh, non-existent column(there are 6 of them in total and I already wrote about this above).

Another legend - whoever spends the night in the Rotunda and tries to pray to God may go crazy. This myth was also refuted, but it is interesting that no matter how many people are convinced of the opposite, the legends live on and are passed on to followers.

The place is rightfully considered one of cult places of dark forces in the city. The forces of evil. The center of dark forces and the temple of Satan. At one time, a popular café-chantant and Martsinkevich’s dance class with a very dubious reputation were opened.

If you whisper something while facing the wall, the phrase will not only be heard by everyone present, but also, having flown around the entire Rotunda, will return to its owner: it will seem that someone is whispering your own words in your ear.

The group “Picnic” rehearsed here, Viktor Tsoi and Konstantin Kinchev visited, many of today’s stars - artists and musicians - came here to chat. They say that the now famous artist Khabensky asked for something here at night.

The Soviet-era rotunda was named "Center of the Universe" and is overgrown with a lot of myths. The largest inscription in Soviet times was “Abandon hope, all who enter here.” Photos of celebrities and the Rotunda of the Soviet period (C).

The entrance is periodically repaired, all signs are painted over. Now there are expensive apartments there, but the “pilgrims” continue to go to the former place of worship. The residents stopped fighting, they just asked not to make noise or litter. Sometimes the abundance of people in the entrance makes them dissatisfied, but they understand that it is not possible to fight with the guests.

All boxes numbered 666... ​​humorists...

It is difficult to say what the true history of the Rotunda is. However, that faith in legends, that energy of the people who came here could not help but create a completely unique atmosphere in it. After all, buildings necessarily absorb the spirit of their inhabitants...

Some components...
There is so much mysticism here that it can be easily found in everything. An unremarkable (at first glance) window sill on the top floor (photo from approximately 2008)

On the windowsill everything is as usual - inscriptions, requests and wishes, etc. Everything was the same as everywhere else, but there was something spilled on it, a brown stain... most likely beer, Pepsi or Coca-Cola.
If you look closely, you can see that what was spilled in a strange way has acquired some kind of “artistic” shape. There you can see something with a beard and horns... and like an inversion of the picture - a pig.

I have outlined this area below with red ovals. Mysticism, however... the Rotunda really lives on)))

People here are not without humor))) and cats are calm and arrogant.

This picture under the arch leading to the Rotunda, alas, has already been painted over by the utility workers... there is a door blocked with bricks next to it. I don’t know where it led. Now it has already been plastered and painted over, so it is an ordinary wall.

Nearby (right in the next yard) there is a monument to Olga Bergolts.

At the entrance to the courtyard there is an original cafe with a skeleton in the window)))

Now you can sit in a cafe...)))