The rich history of Ladoga has given rise to a myriad of myths, legends and tales, some of which I decided to collect in this article, providing it with my own photographs, since I know very well and love these places.
Legend 1. About the origin of mermaids
In one village on the banks of Ladoga there lived a guy from a poor family and a girl from a wealthy one. Of course, they fell in love with each other, but the trouble is that families, especially the rich, were categorically against their love and potential wedding.
The girl's parents built various obstacles to their love, but nothing helped - the Ladoga Romeo and Juliet were inseparable and, it seems, invincible. Then they turned to the terrible Lapp shamans, who bewitched the guy, and he turned into an animal, and after a while disappeared forever.
The girl, unable to bear the separation, ran away from her father's house at night, where she was locked, and jumped off the cliff into the water … But she did not die, but turned into a mermaid - an impi. Since then, the impi occasionally showed itself to people at night, playing in the water near the coast and plaintively calling someone, but no one dared to respond to this call - and the impi again hid in the depths of the waters.
In memory of these events, there is still a settlement of Impilahti, on the banks of which there really are sheer granite rocks.
Promotional video:
Legend 2. Ladoga monster
There are a large number of scattered stories and tales of varying degrees of reliability that a huge monster lives in Ladoga that breaks fishing nets or simply swims in the twilight among the waves, occasionally trying to seize someone's boat.
Personally, for 16 years of water trips across Ladoga, I have never seen anything like it, but if you scour the Internet, new stories appear every year. Either someone is dreaming of something in the dark on a drunken case, or something really is there.
Legend 3. The sword of Alexander Nevsky and Oleg's grave
There is a legend that Alexander Nevsky, preparing for the battle on Lake Peipsi, consecrated his sword in the Church of St. George the Victorious, located in Staraya Ladoga. This is what ensured the victory for the Russian army, and the church, by the way, exists and works to this day.
According to the chronicles, Oleg, the same one from the "Song of the Prophetic Oleg", died in Staraya Ladoga, where he was bitten by a snake. Now there is a mound left by his comrades-in-arms at the place of Oleg's burial.
By the way, this legend, as well as all subsequent ones, have a real historical basis, there are records in the annals and other historical documents.
Legend 4. Barrantida
Barrantids is a mysterious underground rumble, similar to thunder, cannon fire or the sound from the fall of huge stones, rarely but regularly heard from under the water on Ladoga, mainly in the Valaam region. It is difficult to determine the source of the sound - sometimes the sound comes as if from the depths, and sometimes - as if from under your feet.
The archives of Valaam contain data on almost one and a half hundred observations of Barrantids in the mid-19th - early 20th centuries.
Alexander Dumas, traveling on the lake in 1858, also witnessed this phenomenon.
There are no scientific explanations for barrantides yet, which is due to the fact that recently the phenomenon has been observed much less often. Local seismic stations did not record earthquakes in the Ladoga area, accompanied by any sounds, so so far there is too little data to explain what it is, but this is probably due to seismic fluctuations - according to scientists, over the past 3500 years, Valaam has experienced at least one earthquake greater than 7 points.
Legend 5. The sudden appearance of a mysterious church
In 2014, sailing past the deserted tiny island of Yesusaret, I could not believe my eyes. There was a church on the island. “And what is it?”, You ask, “well, they built a church, this is not prohibited”.
View of Yesusaret from the shore.
Yes that's right. But there is one caveat. There was an old church on the island. From a tree that has obviously been exposed to the sun for decades.
How can this even be? A year ago there was a deserted island - and today there are buildings that are clearly at least half a century old. Unrealistic. Fantastic.
I had to disembark and go to see what it is. It turned out that everything is correct. The church is really new, but old. That is, a newly built church made to look old.
Infrared chapel on Ladoga on the island of Yesusaret.
“What nonsense?” You ask. And not at all nonsense. It turns out that the film was filmed here, and the church with the buildings is the scenery created on the island for filming and left as a local landmark.
Unfortunately, the film “Forbidden”, filmed here, turned out to be so-so, and the sights did not work out - already in 2018 the chapel practically collapsed.