Ghosts exist not only in old European castles and Hollywood movies. There are mysterious houses in Russia, the inhabitants of which have become the protagonists of urban legends.
Houses with a mystical history are one of the favorite topics of locals and an exciting part of the trip for tourists. Most often these are old noble estates, the inhabitants of which were remembered by contemporaries for their strange behavior, tragic history or scientific experiments, which they took for witchcraft.
Here's where to go on a ghost hunt.
Secrets of the sorcerer: Glinka's estate
Monino (station of the Yaroslavl railway), the territory of the sanatorium "Monino".
One of the famous associates of Peter the Great, a descendant of the Scottish kings, Jacob Vilimovich Bruce, was also known as a magician-warlock and the first Freemason in Russia. In 1721, the "sorcerer" Bruce received the village of Glinkovo near Moscow as a reward for his assistance in signing the Nystadt Peace. An unknown architect erected a small palace estate in the baroque style for the count, equipping it for scientific studies: Bruce moved his observatory to the estate from St. Petersburg. Five years later, the Field Marshal retired and finally moved to the Glinka estate. In addition to astronomy and mathematics, he studied herbs, made medicines and treated peasants who considered the master a sorcerer. They said that iron dragons flew into the windows of the mansion, and in the summer a pond froze in the park and guests skated.
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After Bruce's death, the estate passed from hand to hand, as the new owners went bankrupt and were forced to sell the estate. In Soviet times, a gastroenterological sanatorium was opened on the estate. The building continues to attract fans of the “Russian Faust” image - in the late 1990s, enthusiasts explored the building's foundations using echolocation and discovered voids. According to legend, there should be kept gold, archaeological rarities and magic books of the sorcerer Bruce. It is believed that the keystones on the facade, made in the form of demonic masks, are able to wink, smile and make faces at those who look at them. The Yakov Bruce Museum is located in the western wing of the estate.
In addition, his name is associated with the story of the Sukharev tower destroyed in 1934, where a mysterious count once worked. It is believed that on Sretenka, on the site of a demolished building, you can see the ghost of a sorcerer who is waiting for the building to be rebuilt.
The curse of the princess: palace of the Oldenburgsky
Voronezh region, Ramon village.
In 1833-1837, the architect Christopher Neisler designed a brick neo-Gothic manor in the Old English style for Princess Eugenia of Oldenburg. After moving to Ramon, the princess took up charity work: she opened schools, canteens and hospitals, established a scholarship, and also built the first candy factory in Russia. Strange rumors circulated about her life - the locals believed that Princess Eugenia kept a menagerie in the basements of the house and fed the guilty servants to a huge bear. No less ominous stories were told about her husband, Alexander Petrovich Oldenburg, who was considered a sorcerer. The prince and his friend, artist and philosopher Nicholas Roerich, conducted esoteric experiments in the castle and its surroundings and summoned the souls of the dead. Magical practices in the castle ceased only in 1902, after a fire,almost completely destroyed the Oldenburgskys' factory.
According to visitors to the castle and restorers, today there are no photographic and video equipment, no pets, footsteps and voices are constantly heard. According to legend, three ghosts live in the castle. The most famous is the spirit of Princess Eugenie, which appears in the form of a female figure wrapped in a dense black veil. They also talk about the spirit of a sorcerer healer who once healed Oldenburgskaya and cursed her for refusing to become his lover. The third ghost is the shadow of a serf girl who died of illness when the Oldenburgskys lived in Ramon and were the owners of the house.
Since 2006, the castle has been under reconstruction, the duration of which is also explained by mystical reasons - allegedly, the diseases of the restoration team's masters are caused by the fact that the mistress of the castle is opposed to changes. As proof, they say that outside the estate, the sick are getting better, and once in one of the rooms of the palace plaster flew around and the silhouette of the late princess appeared on the wall. After the completion of the renovation, local authorities plan to open a new museum and registry office in the building.
Restless monks: a residential building in Kaluga
Kaluga, Lenin street, 100.
Five-storey house on the street. Lenin in Kaluga - the first example of constructivism in the city of the Stalin era. It was built in 1934 by the architect Mikhail Ilyenko on the site of the church of the Archangel Michael. Historian, journalist and ethnographer Alexei Urusov writes in his book "Secrets of Old Kaluga" that the residential building was erected on a temple foundation, and bricks from the walls of the dismantled church were used to build a kindergarten and other "Stalinist" houses in the city.
House No. 100 is associated with a legend about ghosts that are seen in the building every autumn, in late October - early November. The appearance of the spirits is explained by the fact that priests were buried on the territory of the destroyed church. Residents talk about dark figures in monastic robes in different parts of the house - in apartments and on staircases - and that they hear footsteps and knocks at the door when no one is on the landing. According to the inhabitants of the mystical building, pets behave restlessly and strange at this time of the year.
The spirit of a thief: the house of the merchant Zheleznov
Yekaterinburg, Rosa Luxemburg street, 56.
One of the most famous and beautiful historical buildings in Yekaterinburg. The estate was built in 1895 and is made in the pseudo-Russian style - a red brick house resembles a tower, and the stonework imitates graceful wooden carvings. The merchant Zheleznov bought the house in 1905 and settled there with his wife Maria and three children. The building owes its mystical reputation to Maria Zheleznova.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the merchant's wife was a very attractive woman with oddities. She collected exotic plants, spent most of the time in the local park near the fountain and rarely went out into the city, because she suffered from kleptomania. The husband, knowing about the disease, agreed with the merchants so that they would not pay attention to the loss, since he fully covered the losses. In 1914, Maria Zheleznova died suddenly at a performance of the ballet Romeo and Juliet. Three years later, during the revolution, the merchant with his children left Yekaterinburg for Omsk, and nothing is known about the further fate of the family. However, in Yekaterinburg there is a legend that the ghost of the mistress of the house is still wandering along the brick tower. Another secret of the mansion is the underground passages throughout the courtyard, the purpose of which has not yet been clarified.
The Mystery of the Queen of Spades: House of Princess N. P. Golitsyna
St. Petersburg, Malaya Morskaya street, 10.
The court lady of state, Princess Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna, is the most famous prototype of the old Countess Anna Fedotovna Tomskaya from the novel "The Queen of Spades" by Alexander Pushkin. According to legend, the secret of the three cards of the Russian maid of honor was discovered by her friend, the French alchemist and occultist Count Saint-Germain, when Golitsyna needed to cover the card loss. The family story was told to the poet by his friend, the grand-nephew of the princess Sergei Golitsyn, nicknamed Firs. According to Firs, once finding himself in the same position as Natalya Petrovna, he turned to her for help. The princess revealed to the young man the secret of Saint-Germain, and Golitsyn got it back.
The death of Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna also became a legend - the princess's acquaintances told that the ghost of a black officer appeared to her, who took her life, but left the soul of the superstitious princess to wander around the house. The story of the Queen of Spades is associated with a strange magic of numbers. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was killed in a duel three years after the publication of the story. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who wrote the opera of the same name on the basis of the story, died three years after its production.
Author: Julia Tsiruleva