10 MYSTICAL places in Moscow (PHOTOS)

Legends and superstitions are an integral part of urban folklore, which brings the concrete jungle to life, imbuing it with character and mystery. Behind the grand facades and bustling avenues of Moscow lie hidden places where time flows differently and the past constantly makes its presence felt.

1. Kilometer Zero (Voskresenskie Vorota Passage, 1A)

The bronze plaque marked "Kilometer Zero of the Russian Federation's Road Network", installed in 1995 at the Voskresenskie Vorota Gate near the Kremlin, has quickly become the subject of superstitions and rituals, despite its recent installation. The most famous tradition is to make a wish by standing in the center of the plaque, facing the Iverskaya Chapel, and, with your eyes closed, toss a coin over your left shoulder, so that it lands in the bronze square. It’s believed that if the coin remains in the recess, great good fortune awaits.

2. Patriarch's Ponds

Many grim superstitions are associated with them. First, this site was once the site of the ‘Goat Swamp’, where pagans performed sacrifices and, later, executed disgraced boyars. It was believed to be haunted by an evil spirit, which appeared to people in the form of a black goat, foreshadowing death and damage to livestock. To ward off this evil spirit, a patriarchal residence was built there, the swamps were drained and ponds were dug for fish farming. However, the patriarchate was abolished and the residence was burned. In the 20th century, the place's mystical reputation was cemented by stories of a gang of hypnotists who, in the 1930s, would put passersby into a trance and rob them. Mikhail Bulgakov's novel ‘The Master and Margarita’ also played a significant role, in which the famous meeting between Berlioz, Ivan Bezdomny and Woland took place on Patriarch's Ponds.

3. House on the Embankment (Serafimovich Street, 2)

This place's poor reputation stems from the tragic history of its residents: in the 1930s, residents from the more than 250 apartments in this elite building were taken at night to be arrested and executed. The most famous legend is that the building is haunted by the ghosts of its former residents, who were subjected to political persecution. The central mystery fueling its mystical reputation is the absence of the 11th entrance (the 12th immediately follows the 10th). According to one theory, its premises were given over to intelligence agencies for wiretapping and surveillance; according to another, it housed secret rooms for agents. to top it all off, rumors persist that the house itself was built on the site of ancient burial sites and torture dungeons.

4. Golosov (Voices) Ravine (Kolomenskoye Park)

It was also known as Volosov or Velesov Ravine and was believed to be a shrine to the pagan god Veles, patron of livestock, wealth and the afterlife. The most famous legends claim that the ravine is a "gateway through time". Supposedly, due to a tectonic fault, a greenish mist sometimes appears there and people who wander into it can disappear for decades. However, the main objects of worship today are two five-ton boulders – the Maiden Stone and the Goose Stone – which, according to legend, are the petrified remains of St. George's horse, which died in battle with the Dragon or even the Dragon itself. A number of rituals against infertility are associated with them. Visitors tie bright ribbons to the surrounding trees as offerings to the spirits of the stones.

5. Beria's House (Malaya Nikitskaya Street, 28/1)

Legend has it that, on moonless nights, near the NKVD General Commissar's mansion, one can hear an invisible car approaching the gate – the rustle of tires, the roar of an engine, the slamming of doors, and the heavy footsteps of Beria himself, who supposedly still returns to his house. These rumors are based on stories of black "ravens" (black cars) that, on Beria's orders, drove around Moscow, snatching young women and bringing them to the mansion. The house itself, built in 1884, had a notorious reputation even before Beria's time: its first owner fell seriously ill shortly after moving in. The building now houses the Tunisian embassy.

6. ‘Izvestia’ newspaper building (Pushkinskaya Square, 3)

This famous constructivist building on the corner of Tverskaya Street and Pushkinskaya Square was built between 1925 and 1927 according to a design by architect Grigory Barkhin, next to the Strastnoy Monastery. The monastery was an Orthodox women's convent founded in 1654 by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, it was abolished, and all the buildings were demolished by 1937. Some editors-in-chief of ‘Izvestia’ were repressed, while others were executed. All of this combined gave the place an aura of mysticism. In any case, the security guards regularly reported seeing ghosts at night in the dark corridors of the editorial office!

7. Ostankino Pond and TV Tower (Akademika Koroleva Street, 15)

The most famous and frightening character in local legends is the ghost of Agafya, a hunchbacked old woman-fortune teller, who appears to residents and employees of the television center to warn them of impending misfortune. She is said to have been seen before the tragic events of the 1990s and the tower fire in 2000. Ostankino Pond has its own tragic legend: in the 18th and 19th centuries, serf actresses from Count Sheremetev's theater drowned themselves in its waters, unable to bear the harsh living conditions and their broken hearts. 

8. ‘Circle’ (Brown) Line of the Moscow subway

Legend has it that, once a month, after midnight, a sand-colored ghost train made up of cars from the 1940s and 1950s, carrying the souls of deceased construction workers, rushes along the Circle Line. And, if it opens its doors, you must never enter, otherwise you'll be trapped in a time loop forever. There's also an astrological belief: the 12 stations of the Circle Line correspond to the 12 signs of the zodiac, forming an underground zodiacal circle. Finally, there is a widely known myth that claims that the line came into being because Stalin accidentally placed a cup of coffee on the subway map, leaving a brown stain that served as the prototype for the Circle Line.

9. St. John the Baptist Monastery (Maly Ivanovsky Lane, 2s33)

The aura of mystery surrounding this place stems from the forced tonsure and imprisonment of women, who had fallen out of favor with the royal court. Pelageya Mikhailovna, the wife of Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich, was held there, as were the tsaritsas Maria Petrovna and Elena, who were forcibly tonsured as nuns for political reasons. However, the most infamous prisoner was Darya Saltykova, nicknamed ‘Saltychikha’. It was in this monastery's underground prison that she served a life sentence for the brutal murders of her serfs, spending over 30 years in complete isolation. In the 18th century, the monastery became famous as a haven for the mystical ‘Khlyst’ sect, known for their nightly rituals.

10. Bruce's Clock (Spartakovskaya Street, 2)

One of the city's darkest urban legends – about his "magic" clock – is linked to the name of engineer and scientist Yakov Bruce, whom rumor had it was Moscow's chief sorcerer and black magician. According to legend, enraged that the client's heirs refused to pay for his work, Bruce cursed his sundial, commanding it to "show only bad things" Since then, people have believed the curse is real: before the most terrible upheavals in the country's history, the stone slab on the house's façade (which many compare to a coffin lid) supposedly turned blood-red.