The most fantastic rumors have long been circulating about the forests near Pskov. And some researchers of anomalous phenomena are convinced that there is the "entrance to hell". What makes them say so? The fact is that strange, mysterious phenomena occur in the Pskov forests, which some explain by hallucinations that persecute them, and others - by the intrigues of "evil spirits" supposedly living here underground
For example, there is a Devil's Glade near Pskov, where you can see a huge black dog, from whose mouth fire bursts out. Such creatures appear in different parts of the world. Many times people caught in the path of the black dog were burned by fire. It is said that some of them even died.
The so-called “prodigal places” deserve special mention. So, in the area of the village of Malakhovo there is a forest of Tsigelna, where people often wander. In the neighboring forest Dubier in 1996, a pensioner Vera Vladimirovna Kuzko, who was staying with her mother in the village, saw trees broken by an incomprehensible force, a strange circular dent on the ground and some kind of “alien” stones. One of them lay under the spruce, not reaching the forest of Petrakov Lyadin.
It was split into four pieces. Its surface looked “scorched” - iodine-black, and in the middle the color was deep pink, with brown-beetroot interspersed. The insides of the stone seemed to be strewn with luminous sparkles. In the same way, the caps of the large fly agarics growing nearby were "shining". And above the forest, at a height of 4-5 m, there was a “black hole”, torn at the edges. It also seemed to the woman that some creatures were emerging from the hole … By the way, on the old road to Voteselovo, on the edge of a burnt forest, there is another strange boulder. Maybe we are talking about meteorites?
In the north-west of the Porkhovsky district, near the Udokhi River, there is the village of Dubrovno. This settlement has a very ancient history; it was first mentioned in chronicles in 1137. The ruins of an ancient settlement are still preserved there. All sorts of "oddities" often occur near such places. So, during the war years, two boys and a dog got lost there. We went into the forest to pick mushrooms, fell asleep in the sun under an oak tree, and woke up in a completely different place - in a dense pine forest, from where we got out only on the second day.
Another well-known "hellish place" in the Pskov region is "Devil's ravine" in the Plyussky district, near the village of Lyady. The ravine is overgrown with ferns, the path there is blocked by fallen trees. Another trickle breaks through. Since ancient times, this place has enjoyed a bad reputation.
Before the revolution, several peasants disappeared in the vicinity of the ravine. In 1928, a whole brigade of seven lumberjacks disappeared without a trace. And in 1931, the families of nine local kulaks disappeared. Some said that they were evicted to the Kolyma, and who said that they were "taken" by the Devil's ravine. It is impossible to test this hypothesis.
In 1974 a company of mushroom pickers from Leningrad disappeared in the "Devil's Ravine". Two of them left the forest a week later. But they were in a deranged state and could not really say anything about where five of their comrades had gone.
Amazing events happened in these parts a few years ago with the famous TV presenter Eugene. Together with his friends, he went mushrooming in the area of the village of Lyady. The mushroom pickers scattered in all directions. When everyone gathered, and Evgeny was not there, his comrades were not worried at first, since he was well-versed in the terrain.
Only on the tenth day, one of the inhabitants of the village of Rudno, on the edge of the Devil's ravine, found the disappeared in the bushes. It turned out, typing chanterelles - the place turned out to be really mushroom! - the TV presenter suddenly found that he could not find his way back. For a long time he wandered around the ravine in circles, but he did not see either the road or the people from whom he could inquire about which way to go. Gradually, Evgeny lost his sense of time. Day gave way to night, but he did not know how many days he had been walking along the ravine like this, eating raw mushrooms from a basket.
Then he began to hallucinate. One day I heard a timber truck rumble behind the hillock. Yevgeny moved towards the sound - in vain, only rested against the deaf thickets, and the noise died down. Finally, the strength left the unlucky mushroom picker, and he curled up into a ball and lay down on a moss pillow. Here salvation came in time …
