For most of us, Count Cagliostro is familiar from the film "Formula of Love" and is perceived as a fantastic character.

Meanwhile, the man known as Cagliostro is a completely real figure. In Russia, or more precisely in St. Petersburg, Cagliostro visited twice. The first time – under the name Count Phoenix in 1778, and the second – under the name "Spanish Colonel Cagliostro" in 1780. In total, he spent about nine months in our country.

His first visit was apparently connected with Masonic affairs, as Cagliostro stayed with Ivan Elagin, at his house on Bolshaya Morskaya, 38, as well as in his palace on Elagin Island.

The second time he arrived in Russia, Cagliostro and his wife (he arrived with his wife Lorenza) settled on the embankment, which was then an extension of the Palace Embankment, now Kutuzov Embankment, house 24. This house is near the Summer Garden and is still low-rise, while at the end of the 18th century it was only two stories. From here, it was within arm’s reach to the Marble Palace of the Most Serene Prince Potemkin, which had certain significance in the events that later happened to the count…

There is no consensus on the purpose of the famous adventurer’s arrival. Some say that Cagliostro planned to seduce Catherine II, others claim he was an ordinary charlatan who wanted to "pluck" the wealthy St. Petersburg public under the guise of a doctor. Still others write that the magician was an ambassador of European Masonic lodges and was supposed to establish connections with Russian Freemasonry.

According to the most widespread "charlatan" version, Cagliostro, upon arrival, presented himself as a Spanish military medic and immediately began healing the suffering. He treated for free, quickly gaining fame at court. Nobles flocked to the house on Kutuzov Embankment. That’s where it all began…

The count’s flourishing wife — Lorenza — in conversations with the spouses of capital dignitaries, claimed that she was actually 70 years old. And her youth was the result of taking a magical elixir invented by Cagliostro. Need we say how quickly St. Petersburg ladies spread this news across the city?

Apparently, the count actively "toured" St. Petersburg, repeatedly conducting his magical sessions in public. One of the addresses was Nevsky Prospect, 2. At that time, this building belonged to the Free Economic Society and was rented out to artists.

There is a legend about the count healing the son of Prince Gavriil Gagarin. All doctors had refused to treat the little prince. Cagliostro agreed, but on the condition that during the treatment the child would move to his house and not meet with his parents. Gagarin agreed — the situation was hopeless… And after a month, little Pavel was returned to his father healthy. Cagliostro strengthened his financial position, while ill-wishers spread rumors that the child had been switched.

Drawn by the rumors, the all-powerful Prince Potemkin repeatedly visited Cagliostro’s house. Officially — to familiarize himself with alchemical experiments.

After this, Potemkin went to Catherine to ask her to receive Cagliostro. But ultimately, Potemkin’s patronage backfired on the count. Mother Catherine quickly realized that her favorite was fascinated not by secret sciences, but by the charms of Mrs. Lorenza, Cagliostro’s wife. Moreover, Cagliostro’s foremost enemy became the Empress Catherine’s personal physician, Rodgerson, who shouted everywhere that the count was a charlatan and a swindler. Then Cagliostro proposed a competition. Each doctor would prepare their own poison and give the opponent a pill to taste. After swallowing the pill, an antidote had to be prepared. Whoever survived would win! Rodgerson got seriously scared and refused to meet with Cagliostro, meanwhile telling the Empress something so incredibly terrible that she not only refused to receive the count but even wrote a play called "The Deceiver," where she portrayed Cagliostro as the swindler Caliph Lagerstone. The high society laughed heartily at the comedy to please the Empress.

Nevertheless, there is information that Cagliostro also offered Prince Potemkin to triple his entire gold reserve, and in this case, the plan succeeded. Potemkin, despite being one of the richest men in Europe, agreed; firstly, out of curiosity, and secondly, out of sympathy for Countess Lorenza. After Cagliostro’s manipulations, the gold was weighed and analyzed — it had tripled, and Cagliostro received a third of the gold for his efforts. Potemkin also turned to Cagliostro as a chemist; the fact was that the Russian army had a problem. In the arsenals where ammunition was stored, all the buttons for soldiers’ uniforms mysteriously disappeared. Instead, only handfuls of gray dust were found. At that time, few knew that tin, from which buttons were made, could suffer from tin plague and turn into dust. Cagliostro studied the tin and suggested to Potemkin to make buttons in the future from an alloy of zinc and copper called brass. Since then and until today, buttons on military uniforms are made of brass. Potemkin was so grateful to Cagliostro that he paid him 25,000 rubles from the army treasury — a huge sum at that time.

And Cagliostro himself paid return visits to the prince and even healed someone at a distance while sitting as a guest of Potemkin in the Marble Palace.

The "Masonic" version of the count’s stay in St. Petersburg is also quite plausible. In any case, Cagliostro quickly gained access to the homes of famous masons — in particular, Senator Ivan Perfilievich Elagin, whose house, greatly altered, still stands at Bolshaya Morskaya, 38. Today this building is known to us as the exhibition hall of the Union of Artists:

Cagliostro also visited the senator’s suburban residence on Elagin Island. According to legends, here the count conducted his experiments in the basement of the Rotunda:

Later the rotunda was also rebuilt and is now called the Pavilion under the Flag. It is said that during restoration work in our time, shards of a ceramic vessel made in the 17th century in Sweden were found in the basement of the Rotunda.

What caused Cagliostro to leave St. Petersburg? Catherine’s anger, displeased by Potemkin’s affair with Lorenza? Intrigues of St. Petersburg doctors losing the competitive struggle to the foreign guest? The collapse of the count’s plans or, on the contrary, their completion? One way or another, one day an announcement appeared in the appendix to the "Vedomosti" that "Count Cagliostro, Spanish colonel, living on the Palace Embankment" was leaving.

The count remained true to himself — he left simultaneously from all the gates of St. Petersburg, was seen everywhere, and left his signature everywhere.

Sources:

1.       Weidemeier, "The Court and Remarkable People in Russia," part 1.

2.       http://www.gorlib.ru/links/cat1.php?ds=p

3.       https://agesmystery.ru/rubriki/lica-istorii/kaliostro-v-peterburge/

4.       http://22sobaki.livejournal.com/69476.html

5.       http://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_Buks/History/masony/5.php

6.       http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/tv/vs/cast/528/

7.       https://parkmonrepos.org/novosti/graf-kaliostro-v-peterburge

8.       https://history.wikireading.ru/220630

9.       https://www.citywalls.ru/house790.html?s=lpv68sfvf4p50atqepju3mkp80