Palaces from hell

I visited Moscow about two years ago and while travelling I can't remember where we passed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (seen on the left). The car was moving rather slowly as we were stuck in the usual Moscow traffic and I thus had a unique opportunity to take a look at the place from the window. I felt like there is something occult about the architecture and ever since that rather insignificant experience I dubbed the building "The Palace from hell".

There are other buildings from Stalin's reign, built in simmilar style around Moscow and so I used a plural in the title. Russian sentry has a nice gallery of them (in fact the illustration to this post comes from there). Furthermore the blog links to a site which has all the answers on things occult, mysterious and simply weird in Russia and elsewhere. I do not take Pravda to be in any way authoritative or trustworthy but since my perceptions coincide with the claims in their article I am more than happy to quote some interesting bits.

Rumor has it that Stalin planned to re-build Moscow to make it look like a Zodiac table. The metro loop line with 12 stations and nine skyscrapers representing planets were designed for these purposes. The Exhibition of Economic Achievements and the Ostankino TV Tower were to represent an asteroid belt. The metro loop line and the skyscrapers were built concurrently.

The project is thankfully not complete:

The Soviet Palace was to take the central place among the skyscrapers. The Palace was to be built at the same spot where the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is located now and where Alekseevsky Convent used to be located. A legend says that the convent’s hegumeness cursed the place and promised that no building erected on that spot would last long.

Thanks God the monks cursed it, the rebuilt Christ Saviour Cathedral surpasses any of these buildings in beauty. I don't say I have anything against the presence of these Stalinist palaces. They have their 'magic' and together with the golden domed Churches make Moscow what it is.

Read the entire article here.

Comments

[Sublime Oblivion]

Say what you will about them, but totalitarians certainly have a thing for aesthetics.

[Leoš Tomíček]

I feel it the same way. ;-)