Griffin Tower
Mystical St. Petersburg Our great writers wrote about him about poets, Balzac talked about him, there are many legends about him today.
Griffin Tower is one of the places in St. Petersburg that few people know about. That is why few tourists saw this unique building in the courtyard of the pharmacy of Dr. Peel. According to legend, it was here that the famous pharmacist bred griffins and looked for the elixir of eternal youth.
The history of the house surrounding the tower dates back to the XIX century. There was a tenement house, workshops, and a meeting place for the Decembrists. The Bestuzhev family, members of the secret society, held meetings here to discuss the plan of the uprising.
At the end of the XIX century, the pharmacist Wilhelm Pehl settled in the building, who, in addition to his alchemy, was engaged in quite practical things. For example, he created a prototype of Viagra, which earned the attention of not only the Emperor of Russia, but also Western birthed persons. In connection with early marriages, the male power of the apothecary’s clients left much to be desired, and he offered a simple way to solve the problem.
When Wilhelm’s son Alexander Pell was awarded the title of Master of Pharmacy, he accepted the right to a pharmacy from his father. The son did not lag behind his father - he introduced all kinds of innovations. So, he was the first in Russia to use glass ampoules for storing medicines. Alexander was not only a professional in his field, but also an excellent interlocutor. Mendeleev himself periodically visited him to drink tea and talk about free topics. Records have been preserved that scientists saw a large red brick pipe from the window. It is the Griffin Tower, in which the apothecary bred unusual winged creations with the bodies of lions.
Today, you can see griffins only in photographs: like all spirits and mystical creatures, they exist only in the reflections in the glass of the pharmacy building. The tower itself is another mystery of our time. As the adventurers did not try to track down who was updating the numbers on the bricks, they could not establish the reasons for their mystical appearance. It is only known that during the time of Pel and Mendeleev, a simple number series from 1 to 9 existed on the tower.
Today, the Griffin Tower is a mystical mystery of Vasilievsky Island, to touch which I offer you on one of the unusual excursions around the Northern capital.
Author - private guide Anna Veliko
Photo from http://lady.webnice.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8293&start=675