Almost every brick numbered. That’s the Grifons tower for you. A peculiar sight isn’t it? Standing before us is a red-brick enigma an eleven-meter-tall slender structure only two meters wide. It’s nestled in a courtyard on Vasilyevsky Island a quiet contrast to the bustling city.
This isn’t just any tower. It’s the Grifons tower. Legend says it was once part of a 19th-century pharmacy owned by Wilhelm Poehl a pharmacist and alchemist of some renown. Poehl wasn’t just mixing potions. He supposedly used this very tower to incubate magical griffins. Invisible griffins mind you. Only visible at midnight reflected in nearby windows.
The numbers on the bricks? They’re not just for show. They’re a code a magical code according to the legend. Decipher it and supposedly you unlock the universe’s secrets. The truth is more prosaic. The numbering likely resulted from an inventory project in the 1990s a way to protect the tower from harm. It has a rather unique history.
In 1994 artist Alexey Kostroma added his own touch. He placed a giant egg on top. This egg a symbol uniting workers artists and religious people became a kind of monument. Sadly it was stolen several times and eventually disappeared.
The Grifons tower though remains. It remains silent. It remains mysterious. It remains a testament to the strange beauty found in unexpected corners. A silent guardian a mysterious monument and a legend in bricks. It is a part of St. Petersburg’s history. What secrets does it hold? That I leave to your imagination. But remember the numbers on the bricks. They whisper a tale.