Mysteries of Ostankino tower

Ostankino TV tower is one of the main highlights of Moscow, standing in the row with Kremlin and “7 sisters“. It represents magnificence and greatness of Russian capital. And for sure it keeps number of secrets and mysterious stories.

10 Mysteries of Ostankino TV Tower

1. Name “Ostankino” derives from russian word “ostanki” which means “remnants”. From long times ago suicide cemetery was situated there. So muscovites consider this place as a place with negative vibes. During the construction of the tower, pupils from nearby school had found bones that were dug out of the ground.

2.The chief designer of the Ostankino TV tower was Nikolai Nikitin, honored Soviet architect who designed the construction of the main building of Moscow state University and the monument “The Motherland calls” in Volgograd.

The idea to use a small foundation with a depth of only 4.6 m was progressive for Soviet 1960-ies. Nikitin conceived the design of the tower so that it had to almost stand on the ground, while its stability was ensured by massive tapered base. It is noteworthy that the tower project came up to Nikitin during a night.

3. For Soviet times the Ostankino TV tower became the tallest building in the world. Its height is 540 meters. Nowadays the height of the tower can’t exceed the famous Dubai skyscraper Burj Khalifa (828 meters), the Tokyo Skytree (643 m), the Shanghai tower in China (632 m) and some other towers. This tower is among the ten highest and free-standing structures, occupying the eighth place in the world and the first place in Europe.

4. Like other similar structures, Ostankino tower has a certain amplitude of rocking. It is constructed in such a way that automatically reduce speed of elevators at velocity 4 to 7 m/s if the amplitude of rocking of the tower exceeds a certain figure.

5. As already mentioned, the Ostankino tower fluctuates because of winds. The deviation of its top from the vertical position can reach 10 meters, so visitors of the highest observation deck could even feel the vibrations.

6. The restaurant “7th heaven” has occupied three floors at heights of 328-334 m. The restaurant has become a popular tourist attraction of Moscow. It worked continuously for 33 years before the fire on 27 August 2000, that eventually was the largest of industrial accidents, which happened in Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union. During the fire all three floors burned out and the restaurant had to close for a long reconstruction. Today it is still non-operational.

7. The Ostankino TV tower became famous as a sports facility. Races on the stairs of the tower were conducted at the height of 337 meters. The speed record was 11 minutes and 55 seconds. Since 2000s the tower also began to attract fans of extreme sports. Daring and desperate based jumpers leap with parachutes from the antenna tower.

8. The Ostankino TV tower is an observation deck, the highest of which is 350 meters. Being on this site, you can see the incredible scenery — all of Moscow and parts of Moscow region. Floor on the observation deck is constructed from special strong glass, so the impression is as if floating in the air.

9. During the year, on the top of Ostankino television tower, lightning can strike up to 50 times. However, lightning strikes almost do not cause damage to the tower due to good defense.

10. According to the old legend, in times of Ivan the Terrible, one of his favorite guardsmen called Orn, owned Ostankino land. He was interested in sorcery and had a book of Secrets, which told him to build a tower on that spot. Later Orn was executed. But nowadays, if you take a closer look at tremendous TV tower, that captured minds of millions of people, you may think that he finally embodied his cruel plan to life.