9 Egyptian sights of St. Petersburg and their mystical stories

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The distance between St. Petersburg and Cairo is almost 5000 km, but the charm of legends, original culture, deities and myths have descended to the land of the northern Russian capital. They have taken root here, creating part of the city's image that attracts tourists from all over the world. And each of the Egyptian sights of St. Petersburg has its own, interesting and mystical story.

1. Pyramid in Catherine Park

The main symbol of Egypt, of course, is the pyramids. And today scientists puzzle over their riddle, attributing their construction to various civilizations, and sometimes even to aliens. But in the case of the pyramid in Tsarskoe Selo, everything is simpler - it was built as a tribute to European fashion and a symbol of eternity. And Catherine II, in whose reign this pyramid was erected, added a pinch of sarcasm to this architectural form. In defiance of the Egyptians, who were buried in the pyramids of the pharaohs, she ordered the court dogs to be buried there: Duchesse, Zemir and Tom Anderson.

True, the pyramid in Catherine Park has its own secret. In 1780, a couple of years after its construction, for some reason, it was destroyed, and after 8 years, for some reason, it was reassembled. But be that as it may, the pyramid is perfect for exploring the Egyptian sights of the northern capital. It is not at all necessary to go to distant, dusty Cairo, you can wander through rainy Peter.

2. Egyptian gate in Pushkin

It is worth saying that the fashion for everything Egyptian in St. Petersburg remained even half a century after the construction of the pyramid by Catherine II. In this regard, Nicholas I had his own Achilles heel - the gate. By his highest order, Narva, Moscow and … Egyptian were built. The function of them was simple - they served as an adornment of the main entrance to the city. And also there were guard towers at these gates, which, incidentally, were quite suitable for living.

(c) Memories of one old-timer.

3. Egyptian bridge

Now let's move from the suburbs to Peter himself. There are more than enough Egyptian traces in the northern capital. For many years this bridge was completely different both in form and in engineering, but in 1905, during the march of the cavalry regiment, the bridge collapsed. At that time, there was a bike that the bridge collapsed due to the fact that a certain Maria Ilyinichna Ratner, who lived nearby, was tired of the cavalrymen running under the windows. And in her hearts she shouted out the window "May you fail!", And the desire was immediately fulfilled.

Instead of the collapsed Egyptian bridge, a temporary wooden bridge was hastily built, which served for a very long time. The new bridge was built in 1950 and differs significantly from the original. In 1989, another incident occurred with the bridge: the truck driver lost control, crashed into a pedestal and hit the Sphinx right into the Fontanka. They got the Egyptian poor fellow from the bottom of the river much later. It is not known whether the sphinx cursed the driver.

4. Sphinxes on the University Embankment

In now about the sphinxes. It is these mysterious inhabitants of Egypt far from the northern realities that envelop St. Petersburg with a mystical veil. They are installed on one of the most favorite places among tourists - on the University Embankment. And today there are always crowds of people who want to take a selfie near them.

The Sphinxes owe their move to St. Petersburg to the Russian diplomat Muravyov. He was in Alexandria on a visit and saw these sphinxes dug out, by the way, only at the beginning of the 19th century. They impressed him so much that he immediately wrote a letter to Nicholas I himself with a request to buy handsome men for the fund of the Academy of Arts. The emperor was inspired and allocated 64,000 rubles from the treasury for the purchase of ancient statues. However, for the budget it was a mere trifle. After all horses on the Anichkov bridge cost 8 times more.

So the sphinxes on the University Embankment are the real ones - from Egypt itself.

5. Hall of Ancient Egypt in the Hermitage

And of course, remembering the land of the pharaohs, it is simply impossible not to visit the hall of the same name in the Hermitage. There you can see sculptures of Amenemkhet III and Semkhet. Of particular interest is the lion-headed daughter of the god Ra. She was the patroness of doctors who were considered her priests. And the Egyptians revered her as the protector of people and the keeper of the world, they asked her for help when they were in danger.

The ancients believed that epidemics and pestilence could bring her anger. It is known that when the "black death" came to Egypt, Pharaoh Amenhotep III gave the order to make 700 statues of this goddess in order to appease her anger.

6. Egyptian house

What kind of requests the architects did not have to fulfill in their time. I wanted a griffin on the roof - a griffin on you. You want to look out of your own bedroom window and see the naked bodies of muscular athletes - and this is not a problem. Or cupids over the balustrade, as it should be with a bow and arrow. Today we can only guess what request the wife of the famous lawyer Nizhinsky, Larisa Ivanovna, made to the architect, but what happened was the architectural masterpiece of Songailo, which is popularly called the "Egyptian House".

The entrance to this house resembles the entrance to the tomb and is decorated with statues of the God Ra. That's for sure - "a stupid slave is not worthy to spend the night in this temple."

There is a legend that only when you kiss your beloved in the arch of this house, the union will be blessed in the heavenly office, and God Ra will unite this union forever.

7. Monument to the victims of political repression

Opposite the famous St. Petersburg prison "Kresty" you can see not only a monument to Anna Akhmatova, but also a sculpture dedicated to the victims of political repression. However, the stone parapet resembling a prison window is only a reminder, and the main part of the monument is the Egyptian sphinxes.

As conceived by the artist, they should inspire horror, and therefore are divided into half - a living and bared skull. And the place was chosen for them quite well.

8. A pier with sphinxes on the Sverdlovskaya embankment

On the Sverdlovskaya embankment there are sphinxes again. This time they were installed at a spring with healing water. By the way, Peter I himself managed to taste this water. Initially, a pair of chimeras guarded the grotto, while the other fled from adversity along the descent to the Neva. In the 19th century, the sphinxes disappeared without a trace, but they were recreated during the last restoration of the Kushelev-Bezborodko dacha.

9. Sphinxes on Stone Island

To decorate the Egyptian Bridge, 4 sphinxes were cast, but the curators of the project found a number of defects. Therefore, the sculptures were scrapped and new ones were cast. Some of the residents of the house on Mozhaiskaya Street picked up the sphinxes from the landfill and installed them.

In the 1970s, they decided that the sphinxes at the entrance to the front door of one house were too much. They were taken to Kamenny Island and installed on a pedestal, where they can still be seen today.

Returning to the origins, it's time to remember and 10 little-known facts and bold theories about the Great Sphinx of Giza.