Mikhailovsky Castle was built. Mikhailovsky Castle - engineering castle - Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy

This is one of the most mysterious places in St. Petersburg. Conceived as an island of salvation for the unfortunate Russian emperor, the castle became the place of his death... Let's be transported to the galleries of the Mikhailovsky Castle and listen to what story the paint of the facade tells, what the portraits on the walls whisper about, whose steps the bedroom of the murdered emperor will tell. And yet we will try to find a bridge between myths and reality.

Winged patron
Previously in Rus', royal palaces were called, as a rule, either by the name of the owner or by toponymic principle. The castle was named after the Archangel Michael. Perhaps the unexpected name was explained by the fact that Paul ascended the throne just on the eve of the day of this archangel, whom he also considered the Heavenly patron of his family. There is another explanation for the castle’s unexpected name. A legend is recorded in the memoirs of many of Paul’s contemporaries: supposedly the Archangel Michael once appeared to a sentry standing guard at the old Summer Palace (formerly located on the site of St. Michael’s Castle). And he ordered that an order be conveyed to the emperor: to build a church on this site in his, the archangel’s, honor. According to Paul I, the Mikhailovsky Castle was to become not just another imperial residence, but also a symbol of his reign.

Legend No. 1. “Madam, you dropped it!”
According to legend, when the construction of the Mikhailovsky Castle, named after St. Archangel Michael, the heavenly patron of the House of Romanov, was approaching completion; at one of the palace balls, Anna Lopukhina, excited by the dancing, suddenly dropped her glove. Paul I, who happened to be nearby, demonstrating chivalrous courtesy, was the first of the men present to pick it up, and was about to return it to its owner, but suddenly drew attention to the strange, unusual, yellow-orange color of the glove. After thinking for a moment, the emperor immediately sent it to the architect Brenna as a sample for drawing up the color scheme of the palace.

Anti-legend No. 1. But the king has no time for gloves!
Paul was in a hurry with the construction of the castle. Contrary to common sense, logic and construction experience, the digging of ditches for the foundations began in late autumn, and the laying of walls - in winter! Plastering and finishing work were carried out almost simultaneously. There was no time left for drying and the necessary exposure. The consecration of the castle took place on November 8, 1800, three years after its ceremonial foundation. It is unlikely that Paul was seriously faced with the problem of choosing the color of the castle facades, and it is unlikely that future favorite Anna Lopukhina played such a decisive role in this choice - although what has not happened in Russian history!... Most likely, the architecture of the Mikhailovsky Castle, unusual for the northern capital, excluded the use of traditional classic tones of St. Petersburg buildings. One way or another, the mysterious color of the Mikhailovsky Castle turned out to be so successful that it is impossible to imagine another color for this “monument to the tyrant.” The story of painting the facades of the Mikhailovsky Castle did not end there. The legendary knightly courtesy of the emperor towards the lady caused a wave of loyal feelings among those close to him. And the facades of many St. Petersburg mansions were hastily repainted in the gloomy color of the royal residence.

Legend No. 2. ABC of Death
At the very end of the 18th century in St. Petersburg, a holy fool appeared at the Smolensk cemetery on Vasilyevsky Island. She predicted the imminent death of Emperor Pavel Petrovich, adding that he had as many years to live on earth as there were letters in the text of the saying above the main gate to Mikhailovsky Castle. This gloomy prediction was passed on from mouth to mouth in St. Petersburg until it became a widespread belief. They awaited the onset of 1801 with superstitious fear and secret hope. They counted and recounted the letters of the biblical text...

Anti-legend No. 2 Who stole the inscription?
This saying was intended to decorate the facade of St. Isaac's Cathedral. But together with facing marble slabs and other building materials, the stone inscription was taken from the temple under construction, which may have become the reason for superstitious assumptions. When the castle was consecrated, it was not yet ready. Throughout November, December and January of the following year they tried to finish the interior decoration and expel the monstrous dampness from the premises. We didn't have time to do either of them. Impatient and persistent in his impatience, Pavel, together with his large family, moved into a new residence on February 1, 1801. And on the night of March 11-12, he was killed. The death of the emperor, as many contemporaries claim, turned into some kind of holiday. On the streets, complete strangers kissed and congratulated each other openly, without hesitating tears of joy, as if during Easter. Especially a lot of people gathered at the Mikhailovsky Castle. We read the embossed letters of the biblical saying: TO YOUR HOUSE SHALL THE HOLY THING OF THE LORD BE LOW OF DAYS. The letters were counted and recounted again. By a strange coincidence, their number was equal to the number of years lived by Emperor Pavel Petrovich! In 1901, in essays published for the 200th anniversary of St. Petersburg, V. M. Sukhodrev mentions this text as existing. The same thing is repeated by V. Ya. Kurbatov in 1913. Subsequently, mentions of him seem to disappear. The inscription itself also disappears, the memory of which remains in the St. Petersburg legend and the dark dots on the clear field of the frieze above the Resurrection Gate of the castle, long-standing marks for attaching mystical signs.

Legend No. 3. His transparent majesty
After the death of Paul I, Mikhailovsky Castle was left without an owner... The drawings containing the secrets of the dungeons were destroyed by Brenne himself, who left Russia exactly a year after the assassination of the Tsar. Since then, something strange began to happen to the castle. They say that in a completely empty abandoned residence after midnight, footsteps, groans were heard and sometimes a faint dim light was visible. People began to avoid this place. The gloomy dilapidated palace, covered with ill fame, was empty for 18 years. And then it happened that after much deliberation, the royal family decided to locate the Main Engineering School here (hence the new name of the castle - Engineering). One day, a team of soldiers from the capital's garrison transporting military equipment, caught in a rainstorm, was forced to spend the night in a still empty palace. The senior non-commissioned officer allowed his subordinates to inspect the former royal chambers. Literally half an hour later, one of the soldiers, his face twisted with fear, feverishly crossing himself, reported that he had seen a ghost with a candle in his hand. After some time, the school’s property was concentrated in the castle and a guard was posted for protection. And then one night the guard corporal, a certain Lyamin, having changed the guards, relieved himself right at the entrance. Turning his head to the side, he noticed a light spot falling on the lawn, coming from the third floor window. The corporal moved away and peered out the window. The candle was burning. Moreover, she did not stand on the windowsill, but trembled and hovered in the air. The candle was held by an invisible hand... They say that even in our times, the restless soul of the murdered emperor sometimes visits his castle.

Anti-legend No. 3. Excursions into murder...
Most likely, Hamlet's story with the appearance of the emperor is connected with the youthful pranks of the cadets. But it is important for us that, even after Paul’s death, she consistently continues the logical series of mystical legends about the emperor, whose invisible shadow has been coloring the biography of St. Michael’s Castle for two centuries in the gloomy tones of understatement and mystery.
And so that rumors and speculation about the old castle do not disappear, a St. Petersburg excursion company has come up with an unusual midnight excursion. The excursionists arrive at Paul's residence at half past twelve, exactly when the conspirators approached this palace. They enter Mikhailovsky through the Rozhdestvensky Gate and quickly, in the insane rhythm of the crime - through the former guard room and library they rise to Pavel's bedroom. And here they learn about what happened on the March night of 1801 in all the terrible details.

The general layout of the Mikhailovsky Castle is quite simple. It is a square with a side of just over a hundred meters and an octagonal courtyard inscribed in it. However, the interior layout of the castle was designed with extraordinary imagination. It is distinguished by a wide variety of spatial architectural forms. Rectangular in plan rooms, built in enfilades, give way to round, triangular, oval halls; other enfilades represent a combination of different geometric shapes.

According to the principles of classicism, the building should be a symmetrical, strictly balanced composition. This impression persists if we consider any façade of the Mikhailovsky Castle separately. But since no facade is a repetition of another, the volumetric-spatial solution of the castle is an asymmetrical composition. It allows you to find a wide variety of perspective views when viewing it from all sides. Symmetry in the planning and spatial design is largely preserved only by the octagonal courtyard - the center of the entire architectural composition. There is only one passage leading here, located on the side of the main facade. From the inside, the passage resembles a multi-columned hall or vestibule with four rows of columns, six columns in each row. The columns support the ceiling of the mezzanine, on which rests the main Resurrection Hall, which bears the same name as the entrance gate.

Despite the different solutions of the facades, the castle is perceived as a holistic volume, thanks to the gradual transition from one facade to another, which is achieved by a system of braces and rounded corners.

The composition of the main facade was built on a gradual increase in architectural masses and sculptural decoration from the periphery to the center. Against the background of smooth walls, a significant risalit with marble columns juts out in relief, connecting the two upper floors. Each column was once associated with a round sculpture located above the cornice, depicting in an allegorical form one of the regions of Russia.

The central portico with the same but double columns is lined with multi-colored marble, treated with large rustication, decorated with two obelisks with military fittings and the monogram of Paul I. A frieze made of Shoksha porphyry runs over the colonnade. The composition of the façade was completed by a triangular pediment with a bas-relief and a stepped attic, topped with a sculptural group by a student of the Academy of Arts, Academician M. P. Aleksandrov-Uvazhny. Of the sculptural works, only the bas-relief in the tympanum of the pediment on the theme “History records the glory of Russia”, executed by the sculptors brothers Stagi-Pietro, Giacchino and Lorenzo, has survived.

No less interesting is the façade from the side of the Summer Garden and the Moika River. It is no coincidence that the architect designed it as a garden façade, linking the facade with the Summer Garden, which by that time had lost its regular appearance and turned into a landscape garden.

The wide gentle flights of the huge staircase made a smooth transition from the space surrounded by greenery to the gallery-loggia, reminiscent of a vast vestibule open towards the garden, as if inviting into the premises of the castle. The pictorial baroque techniques used here - the alternation of sinking and protruding parts, the abundance of decorative sculpture - allowed Brenna to connect Mikhailovsky Castle even more closely with the natural environment being created.

The more strict classical structure of the architectural elements of the main facade was designed for the open space of the parade ground, and the use of decorative sculpture in the design of this facade contributed to a better compositional connection between the castle and the equestrian statue in front of it. At the same time, the equestrian statue helped organize the square immediately adjacent to the castle and ensured a closer deep-spatial relationship between all the constituent parts of the ensemble.

The side facades - from the side of the Fontanka River and the church - are more modest and similar to each other. Both are marked in the central part by a protrusion, corresponding in one case to the Oval Hall, and in the other to the church premises.

Mikhailovsky Castle is one of the most mystical places in St. Petersburg. It was built by order of Emperor Paul I, the first stone was laid exactly 220 years ago - on March 9, 1797. The emperor, who owned the first sketches of the future palace, passionately wanted to move to a new house as soon as possible. True, his life there was very short - soon the conspirators killed Paul right in the palace.

After these tragic events, the fortress became overgrown with myths and legends. Some of them are still passed on by word of mouth. On the anniversary of the start of construction of the castle, Komsomolskaya Pravda decided to talk about the legends and ask the modern inhabitants of the fortress which of them may turn out to be true and which of them may be fiction of local residents. The head of the sector for studying the history of the Mikhailovsky Castle, Vladimir Puchkov, answered our questions.

GHOST OF THE EMPEROR

The dream of Emperor Paul I, built on the site of his birth, became the place of his death. As they say, minotaurs are destined to perish forever in the labyrinths erected for them. This happened to Paul too. For only forty days the castle served as an abode for the royal family, but there are legends that the spirit of the emperor was never able to leave this place - he was so attached to it. It is believed that sometimes in the windows of the castle you can see the dark shadow of the emperor with a candle in his hands, and in the corridors at night you can hear the creaking of floorboards: this is Paul wandering and looking for peace.

According to legend, a ghost appears in the castle at midnight, but I don’t go there at that time,” Vladimir Puchkov told us. - Moreover, none of the employees have ever seen him. Mikhailovsky Castle is very old, and its history is connected with tragic events. Therefore, people want to attribute some mystical features to this place.

It turns out that the myth remains a myth. It was especially popular at the time when the Nikolsk Engineering School settled in the castle. Most likely, the cadets used this fairy tale, or perhaps even made it up, to intimidate the younger ones.

STRENGTH COLOR OF WOMEN'S GLOVE

One of the legends is associated with the color of the castle facade. It says that it was determined by the glove of Anna Lopukhina, the favorite of Emperor Paul. At one of the balls, the lady was so carried away that she dropped her yellow-orange glove. Admired by Lopukhina's grace, Pavel ordered his monastery to be painted exactly in the color of her accessory.

Vladimir Puchkov refers to this legend in two ways:

We can say that such a fact exists. In the report of the Saxon envoy, a contemporary of Paul, there is a line: “The newly built palace in St. Petersburg has the name of an archangel and the colors of a mistress.” This confirms the glove story. But perhaps the color of this glove gave Pavel some thoughts, and it coincided that he considered it a good choice for the castle.

By the way, after the construction of the castle, yellow-orange became popular in the city and many houses at that time were repainted in this shade. We can say that not only the palace, but also St. Petersburg began to dress in the colors of the emperor’s mistress.

ORDER OF THE HEAVENLY MESSENGER

Another legend is associated with the name of the castle. They say that an unknown young man appeared in a beautiful radiance to one of the sentries of Elizabeth Petrovna’s summer palace, which used to stand on the banks of the Fontanka. He announced to the guard that it was in this place that the house and the temple should stand, and then he seemed to disappear into thin air. Later they realized that the young man was the Archangel Michael. The castle was named in his honor.

In Pavlov's time there really was such a version. When the message was conveyed to the emperor, he declared that the will of the archangel would be fulfilled, and supposedly this temple was built in his honor. But the fact is that it later turned out that this sentry was the cousin of Paul I’s valet. Therefore, knowing about the emperor’s desire, someone decided to play along with him - and such a legend appeared. Contemporaries wrote that this story could somehow justify the huge amounts of money spent on the construction of the Mikhailovsky Castle.

By the way, this is the first case in Russian architecture when a secular building was named not after a place or owner, but after the name of a saint.

CHEST OF THE KNIGHTS OF MALTESE

Paul I had a special passion - knights and their ideals. He was even Grand Master of the Order of Malta. And this hobby of his became the basis for another myth: supposedly in the basements of the Mikhailovsky Castle there is a chest of the Knights of Malta, which the emperor himself brought there. The one who finds it will have supernatural abilities and the gift of divination.

Firstly, Pavel had never been to Malta, so he could not bring anything from there. But the Knights of Malta, who arrived in St. Petersburg, brought relics, which they gave to Paul. There was the right hand of John the Baptist, a particle of relics and an icon of the Mother of God, which were revered by the Maltese. They were kept in the church of the Winter Palace, and on the Day of John the Baptist they were transported to Gatchina. But after the revolution, these relics were taken abroad, and now they are kept in one of the monasteries in Serbia. There were no Maltese iron chests, especially in the castle. So this myth is complete nonsense,” explains Vladimir Puchkov.

LETTERS ABOVE THE GATE

Another legend connects the death of Paul I with Xenia of St. Petersburg, the blessed one who lived in the capital during the time of the emperor. There are rumors that she allegedly predicted that Paul would live as many years as the letters in the inscription above the Resurrection Gate of the new palace. The inscription read: “To your house shall the holiness of the Lord befit the length of days.” In 1934, these letters disappeared from the gate, leaving behind only black dots where they were attached.

None of the most detailed lives of Xenia of Petersburg speaks about this prediction, says the researcher. - And one of the contemporaries of Pavlov’s time wrote that they noticed this only after the death of the emperor. That is, the legend existed even then, but it appeared retroactively in relation to what actually happened. No one spoke about this until the death of the emperor.

Moreover, the legend itself is inaccurate. The inscription above the gate contains 47 letters, despite the fact that Paul lived only 46 years and died in the 47th year.

“Intoxicated with wine and malice, secret killers are coming, there is insolence on their faces, fear in the heart... The unfaithful sentry is silent, the drawbridge is silently lowered, the gates are opened in the darkness by the night hand of hired treachery...” - from the very first days the story of Mikhailovsky ( Engineering Castle) was shrouded in various legends and myths. After all, it was in this beautiful, majestic building that Emperor Paul I was treacherously assassinated from March 11 to 12, 1801. After his tragic death, the royal family returned to the Winter Palace, which was quite logical - no one else wanted to trust their lives to a castle that did not was able to protect even his creator. Today we have prepared for you a small educational program on the history of this mystical place, in which there is a place for both reliable facts and frightening legends.

Fact No. 1: The castle was named after Michael the Archangel

According to one of the legends, an extraordinary young man, completely surrounded by radiance, once appeared to a soldier holding guard at the clock in the Winter Palace and said the following: “Go to the emperor and convey my will - so that a temple and a house in the name of the archangel will be erected on this place.” Mikhail." The soldier carried out the assignment, and, according to legend, this is how the decision to build the Mikhailovsky Castle was made.

According to the official version, the new imperial residence received such an unusual name thanks to the temple of Archangel Michael, the patron of the House of Romanov, located on its territory, as well as the whims of the emperor - Paul I wanted to build his palace in the form of a medieval castle.

Fact No. 2: Construction was carried out around the clock

The emperor was in such a hurry to move to his “impregnable castle” as quickly as possible that he gave the order to build it around the clock, without any breaks - for example, at night work was carried out by torchlight. More than 6 thousand people worked on the construction of the new imperial residence, and building materials were brought from all other objects under construction in the capital at that time. However, fate has a very unkind sense of humor - Paul I was killed in his own bedroom exactly 40 days after his official move to the Mikhailovsky Castle, built specifically for his protection.

Fact #3: The castle was surrounded on all sides by water

During the life of Paul I, Mikhailovsky Castle resembled a defensive medieval structure not only in its architectural style - it was also surrounded by water on all sides: the Fontanka and Moika rivers and the Voznesensky and Tserkovny canals, now filled up. It was possible to get into the imperial residence only through one of the guarded (as it turned out later - not so carefully) bridges.

Fact No. 4: Paul I was predicted to die soon in the new castle

There is a legend that Paul I knew that his life would soon come to an end. Thus, legend says that the hieroschemamonk Abel predicted his death, answering the emperor’s question in the following way: “The number of Your years is like counting the letters of the saying above the gates of Your castle, in which there is truly a promise about Your Royal race.” We were talking about the inscription located on the frieze of the south-eastern facade of the castle: “THE HOLY OF THE LORD BECOMES TO YOUR HOUSE FOR THE LENGTH OF DAYS.” There are 47 letters in this phrase, and Paul I was killed at the age of 47.

Fact #5: The unusual color of the castle walls was chosen for a reason

Historians are still debating the origin of the color of the walls of the Mikhailovsky Castle. According to one opinion, such an extraordinary color scheme was dictated by the fact that Paul I was the Master of the Order of Malta - and yellow-orange is the traditional color for this religious association. There is also a legend that the Mikhailovsky Castle was painted in the color of the accidentally dropped glove of one of the emperor’s favorites, Anna Lopukhina. One way or another, the unusual color quickly became fashionable, and many St. Petersburg buildings were soon painted in the same way.

Fact #6: Ghost in the Engineering Castle

After the death of Paul I, the royal family hastily returned to the Winter Palace, and the Mikhailovsky Castle was empty for almost two decades, so it is not surprising that the dilapidated palace gave rise to many frightening legends. For example, according to one of them, the castle is sometimes visited by the restless soul of the murdered emperor.

So, one day, in a still empty building, a team of soldiers from the capital’s garrison was forced to hide from a heavy downpour. The non-commissioned officer allowed his subordinates to walk through the former imperial chambers. Just half an hour later, one of the soldiers returned in a completely shocked state - in one of the corridors he saw a candle floating in the air.

It’s interesting, but even after the Engineering School was located in the Mikhailovsky Castle, the legend did not die - the shadows and terrible secrets of the past more than once played with the imagination of the inhabitants of the former imperial residence. Senior students used the image of the ghost of Paul I to intimidate juniors. The rebellious spirit of the murdered tsar received the greatest fame after the publication of N. S. Leskov’s story “The Ghost in the Engineering Castle.”

Fact #7: A horse in a woman's shoe

In front of the main facade of the Mikhailovsky Castle, back in 1800, a bronze equestrian monument to the first Russian emperor was erected with the inscription “Great-grandfather, great-grandson.” How many times have we seemingly seen this monument, admired the monarch proudly seated on a horse, the luxurious pedestal decorated with bronze bas-reliefs, but many of us have never noticed that the left front leg of the horse is made... in the form of a woman’s foot in a slipper.

There are several explanations for such a surprise: some are inclined to attribute it to the sculptor’s sense of humor, while others are sure that Rastrelli did it deliberately, thereby wanting to immortalize his beloved’s lovely leg for centuries.

Alas, in fact, everything is completely different, and we are dealing only with a banal optical illusion, and not at all with a romantic story from the life of a sculptor. If we stood level with the pedestal (which is impossible), we would certainly see an ordinary horse’s hoof. But the monument is very tall. And below, no matter how you look at it, it’s a lady’s shoe.

Drunk with wine and anger,
Hidden killers are coming,
There is insolence on their faces, fear in their hearts...
The unfaithful sentry is silent,
The drawbridge is silently lowered,
The gates are open in the darkness of the night
By the hired hand of betrayal...
A.S. Pushkin

M Ikhailovsky or Engineering Castle of St. Petersburg.
This is not only a historical and architectural monument. This is the mystical castle-palace of Emperor Paul I, which became a predictor of his death. Legends and traditions of past centuries swirl around it, and even now there is still a lot of mystical and inexplicable things in the castle.

Some historical sources claim that the name is associated with the appearance of the Archangel Michael or his envoy to the guard soldier at the place where the castle was subsequently erected (perhaps in memory of this there is a small soldier in a niche near the bridge). This is exactly how the sovereign’s decision was previously explained to call the castle “Mikhailovsky” immediately after the start of construction.

The palace was built in an emergency... Pavel was in a hurry, taking away construction and finishing materials from other objects. And here is your first legend. Not only coins were laid in the foundation (as it should be for good luck). Pavel personally also laid commemorative bricks made of jasper.

I have a separate post about the construction of the castle-palace and its history in Pavlovian times and after him...

On November 8 (21), 1800, on the day of St. Michael the Archangel, the castle was solemnly consecrated, but work on its interior decoration continued until March 1801. The assassination of the emperor took place 40 days after the housewarming...

In a niche near the bridge, stalwart tin soldiers stand guard day and night. Even the shadow of the emperor is visible.

Some believe that this is Second Lieutenant Kizhe, a sort of Lieutenant Rzhevsky from the time of Paul I. He will bring good luck if you hit his head with a coin. Then he will curse...

Listen carefully, the place where he will send you is the promised land for you... (joke).

The second lieutenant is not the only mystical guard of the Mikhailovsky Castle.

They say the ghost of the murdered Emperor Paul still walks the dark corridors at night.
This is no longer a joke. His silhouette was seen immediately after his death, then during the years of revolutionary change. Even during the time of Soviet anti-religious atheism, the ghost regularly made your teeth chatter with fear.

The spirit of the murdered emperor frightens both religious people and atheists. Usually he comes exactly at midnight. Pavel knocks, looks out the window, tugs the curtains, creaks the parquet floor... even winks, inhabiting his own portrait. Some see light from the glow of the candle that Paul's spirit carries before him.
At night, doors slam loudly here (even if all the windows are closed). And those who are especially lucky and impressionable even hear the muffled sound of playing the harmonic, an ancient musical instrument that the emperor loved to listen to during his lifetime...

There is a belief that every year on the day of his death, Paul stands at his bedroom window and looks down. He counts passers-by... and takes the soul of 48 with him... however, there is no need to panic, this is just a legend. And he can take the soul only if there is a bright Moon in the sky.

Attention! In order not to incur the wrath of a ghost, when meeting you, you need to lower your head and say: “Good night, Your Imperial Majesty!” The Emperor will immediately disappear... otherwise, there may be trouble.

The portrait of the emperor is also naughty... for those interested, watch the video in the post under the link below.

In addition, according to legend, a casket with great Christian relics of the Order of Malta, including the “Grail,” is hidden in the dungeons of St. Michael’s Castle. This legend is not based on nothing! I have already written about it in detail, so I will not repeat it.

During the Great Patriotic War, the city leadership received information from the military from a deceased monk about a secret room under the basements of the castle where there was a silver casket with Christian relics and a certain mystical object that allowed one to travel in time and look into the future.

After the war, a commission on anomalous phenomena worked in the palace. Whether the reason was the desire to find the casket or frequent complaints about ghosts, it is no longer possible to find out. But a commission consisting of Soviet atheist scientists counted more than 17 inexplicable facts and inexplicable night lights (ghosts) in the castle. The materials were classified - no one intended to scare the religious population and amuse the communists.

In 2003, a monument to Paul I was erected in the courtyard of the castle by sculptor V. E. Gorevoy, architect V. I. Nalivaiko.

Surprisingly, during the renovation, an antique lampshade (a huge painting on the ceiling) from the main hall of the Catherine Palace was found in it. Previously, the lampshade was considered lost. Now it is in its historical place. The lampshade was rolled into a huge roll, which lay quietly in the corner, littered with various antique rubbish. But inventories took place there throughout the Soviet period! I wrote a detailed post about this on Mail, I’ll post it over time.

From secular legends - supposedly the color of the walls was chosen in honor of the glove of the emperor's favorite Anna Gagarina (Lopukhina).

But it’s time to move on to the main legend and the tragedy of the castle - assassination of Paul I

The brutal murder of Emperor Paul I in the Mikhailovsky Castle gave rise to many legends. According to evidence, a few days before the murder, the spirit of Peter I appeared to Paul, who warned his grandson about the danger that threatened him. They also said that on the day of the murder, Pavel saw in one of the mirrors the reflection of himself with a broken neck.

On the day of his death, Pavel was cheerful. But at breakfast he suddenly became sad, then stood up abruptly and said, “What happens, cannot be avoided!”

Some researchers believe that Paul knew about his imminent death and tried to avoid it in the palace. There is a legend that Hieroschemamonk Abel told Paul the approximate date of his death. Paul believed the predictors and this particular elder, because he accurately predicted the date of death of his mother, Catherine the Great. Allegedly, Paul asked him about his death and heard in response - “The number of Your years is like the counting of the letters of the saying above the gates of Your castle, in which is truly the promise and about Your Royal generation.”
This inscription was a modified text of the psalm of David (Ps. 93:6):

“YOUR HOUSE SHALL BE HOLY TO THE LORD FOR THE LENGTH OF DAYS ”

By order of Paul, the builders brought this inscription with copper letters from St. Isaac's Church, and for Isaac it was “stolen” from the Resurrection Novodevichy Convent.

Perhaps by the holiness of the test, Paul wanted to remove the “curse” of prediction from himself. Or perhaps he simply surrendered himself into the hands of God.

The inscription contains 47 letters, and Paul I was killed precisely at the age of 47.

When the conspirators came to kill Pavel, he could use the secret passage that was in his bedroom. There was enough time for this. But for some reason Pavel didn’t want to... the fact that he was hiding from the conspirators in the fireplace was quite possibly an invention of the killers.

An underground passage was dug from the Mikhailovsky Castle to the Vorontsov Palace. 3.5 km! At that time it was the longest underground passage in Russia, and possibly in the world. Some historians believe that it was precisely because of this that the conspirators entered the palace.

Here is a plan of the castle premises. I won’t write how the murder was committed; Google will tell you about it just as well as I can.

The conspirators failed to get him to abdicate the throne and...

As you know, the emperor died from an apocalyptic blow... to the head with a snuff box (the black humor of those times).

Not everyone knows that Pavel (for the first time for Russia), instead of an image of his profile, ordered the inscription to be minted on a silver ruble:

"NOT TO US, NOT TO US, BUT TO YOUR NAME."

The emperor took religion seriously.

Researchers generally consider the number 4 to be magical for Pavel. The total length of Paul's reign was 4 years, 4 months and 4 days. Mikhailovsky Castle (his main and favorite brainchild) took 4 years to build. And the emperor managed to live in it only for 40 days.

Engraving by Uthwaite after a drawing by Philippoto.

Paul tried to make the castle impregnable. Perhaps he foresaw future upheavals (according to some sources, the future of all the Romanovs was predicted for him) and Pavel wanted to protect his descendants, build a protected fortress house for them. Which would be guarded by soldiers and guns and the Lord God himself.

The palace was surrounded on all sides by water - from the north and east by the Moika and Fontanka rivers, and from the south and west by the Tserkovny and Voznesensky canals. The palace could only be reached via three drawbridges, which were very tightly guarded. In addition to bayonets, Paul was protected by guns and secret passages and numerous secret rooms of the castle.

But all this did not help Pavel. The elder’s prophecy came true... and his castle, instead of a defender of autocracy in Russia, turned into a mystical “dirty” place - no one else dared to trust the castle with their lives, because it could not even protect its creator, Emperor Paul.

It so happened that Paul I died in the same place where he was born. He erected the building of the Mikhailovsky Castle on the site of the wooden Summer Palace, where on October 1 (September 20), 1754, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna gave birth to him...

The image of a ghost was actively used by senior cadets of the Nikolaev Engineering School, based in the Mikhailovsky Castle, to intimidate younger ones.
The fame of the ghost of Pavel was brought by the story of N.S. Leskov "Ghost in the Engineering Castle".

In Soviet times, there were complaints about doors slamming, footsteps involuntarily opening windows in the castle at night (which led to the alarm going off). In the 1980s, staff of the Commission on Anomalous Phenomena at the Russian Geographical Society of the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted a limited and informal study of supposed anomalous activity in the building (which was simply amazing for that time).

The research consisted of a detailed survey of employees, filming the premises with a film camera, measuring the magnetic field, and even examining the premises with a “frame” or “dowsing”. The study's findings are kept secret.

They met a long time ago - great-grandfather and great-grandson... I’m sure they had something to tell each other about. If Pavel had lived, the history of Russia would definitely have turned out differently. And it’s not a fact that it would have been less great; Paul was preparing to take India in alliance with Napoleon. At the very least, a war with Napoleon would certainly have been avoided, but it would obviously have been necessary to fight with England together with Napoleon and capture India. I don't even know which is better.

Some photos and info (C) Internet