The Ulyanovsk region is full of secrets and mysteries, the further you move away from Ulyanovsk, the more interesting it becomes. And so, having collected our things, we went to the village of Kezmino, Sursky region, as we found out that there is a real castle with a ghost.
The weather did not want to please us at all: it was raining in Ulyanovsk, and snowfall in Surskoye. But if we moved along the highway freely, then after we passed the village of Ust-Uren we did not see the road any more, because, one might say, it is not there. About 12 kilometers from the track, we made our way through blocks of ice and snow off-road, but it was worth it. Half an hour later, a sign "Kezmino" appeared, and behind it was a stunning view of a small village and the same Kezminsky castle. However, despite the fact that the village was clearly visible from the mountain, we still had to stray to find the way to the castle.
It is impossible to describe the beauty of this building: art connoisseurs will appreciate the successful combination of different styles of architecture. The castle, 12 meters high, is an almost medieval massive structure with stone carvings. The gates were open, so we easily entered its territory.
And suddenly the door of the building itself opened before us - either from the wind, or by magic, it began to slam loudly, as if warning us that there were ghosts in the castle. But a minute later the laughter of children was heard, and a man appeared on the threshold, as it turned out later, the headmaster.
Hand to hand
Promotional video:
More than three hundred years ago, near the Krasnaya Sosna river in the Simbirsk district, where a Mordovian village was located, the brothers Matvey and Vasily Kezmins settled with their serfs. These lands were granted to the nobleman Matthew by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov for his good service. In 1693, a wooden church was built in the village in honor of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, which was later destroyed by fire.
The estate in 1796 was bought from the Kezmin brothers by a representative of a well-known old family, Count Pavel Krotkov. And already in 1827 the new owner opened a cloth factory there, and on the site of the burnt church he erected a new stone one-domed church. After his death, the estate went to his daughter, but the woman could not pull this estate on herself and sold it to the merchant Vasily Petrovich Krylov.
Krylov was a fairly famous and wealthy man, he served at the royal court with Catherine Dolgorukova, wife of Alexander II. However, for unknown reasons, Krylov soon moved to the Simbirsk province. Having bought the estate, he immediately set to work: first he rebuilt the stone temple, and then decided to build a castle in the "Victorian" style. To implement his idea, the landowner invited Vladimir Bryukhaty, a well-known mining engineer in the Simbirsk province, who agreed to design and build a castle for one hundred thousand rubles.
The two-story mansion was built by hand for five years by the best stone craftsmen. The mortar for the construction was mixed with egg whites, which is why, despite the time, the castle is still in good condition. The territory of the estate was surrounded by a stone fence of 500 meters, inside there was a park with a linden alley. In addition, at the request of Krylov, secret passages were made under the castle. One led to the nearby temple, and the second to the pond, since Vasily Petrovich was a fisherman.
After the death of Krylov, his wife Maria again married the nobleman Alexander Seletsky, who turned out to be a connoisseur of art and opened the first people's theater in the Simbirsk province in the estate. During his reign, a parish school for peasant children was built, a cloth factory was illuminated with electricity, and the first telephones were installed.
After the October Revolution of 1917, the estate was nationalized. The temple was destroyed, for a long time it was used as a granary, and the castle became a school.
Arranging balls
Guests are always welcome here and are ready to tell about all the wonders of the castle. The history teacher Gennady Dmitrievich Zotov told us about the legends of the estate. He arranged a tour and told about the mysterious ghost.
Now the estate looks different than in the time of Vasily Krylov. The front part with a wrought-iron balcony is greeted with a commemorative plaque and a sign that the building is a secondary school. Inside the premises are decorated with rich stucco moldings, each room has its own story and a unique plot, which dilute school desks and blackboards. Gennady Dmitrievich first showed us the school museum. The small room contains the entire age-old history of the castle: there are photographs and children's drawings, as well as the first wooden telephone set by Erickson, which the schoolchildren discovered in the pond.
Then we proceeded to the hall, where balls and performances for guests were once held. The ceilings and walls of this room are decorated with unusual stucco moldings, and a small but active fireplace in the corner of the hall adds atmosphere to this place. The school administration even tried to revive the tradition of balls. Relatively recently, they hosted "Natasha Rostova's Ball" and "Ilyushin's Name Day". A string orchestra from Alatyr played, couples in costumes danced in the center, and pages with trays walked among the guests. We would also like to drop in at such a ball, but, unfortunately, such events are rarely held at the school.
The ghost is the master of the castle
Then we proceeded to the second floor, climbing the steps of a staircase made of the most expensive varieties of trees: beech, hornbeam and oak. It is on it that the ghost of the merchant Krylov, the owner of the castle, walks at night. Local residents believe that the ruined crypt was to blame. In Soviet times, the temple where Krylov's body was located was plundered, all the jewelry was plundered, and his remains were simply thrown into the street. So now the soul walks around the castle, not finding peace for itself, walking through the rooms, climbing the stairs, creaking floorboards.
“However, this ghost does not accept everyone,” says Gennady Zotov. - Once a professor from Kazan came to us with his granddaughter and said: "Come on, take me through the main halls of this mansion of the world-eating merchant!" And I explain to him that you cannot say that. The owner of this castle was engaged in charity work: he built a school for the peasants, brought teachers and paid them. However, he insisted on his own. He examined the castle, took photos, and then wrote us a letter that, they say, all the photos were overexposed and he asks to send others. On another occasion, he had already arrived with a whole delegation, and again no one got the photos. Therefore, you need to be more polite.
We were not going to swear with the ghost, since the photos we got are quite good, although the owner of the castle himself was not on them. We did not go down the secret passages, the weather is not the same, and it will not work to walk along them as Krylov once walked, most of the passage is filled up. But tourists can see another attraction of the palace - this is a piano presented to the daughter of Krylov by the empress herself. It was made by German craftsmen by order of the royal court, it still bears the coat of arms of the company and the inscription: "Supplier to the court of Her Majesty." Surprisingly, the piano is in excellent condition, although now you can play something, except that first you need to tune the instrument.
On the territory of the castle, there are still those very old linden trees, which once represented a whole alley. The stone wall has been partially preserved. Most of all, of course, went to the temple. Once upon a time, its walls were decorated with paintings in the classical Byzantine style, made by masters from Greece. In the early forties, the bell tower was dismantled into bricks for the repair of the distillery. And in the eighties they wanted to demolish the temple at all: the workers began to pull out the columns with tractors, but one of them fell from the roof, having received a fracture of the spine. It was not possible to save the young guy. After this tragedy, the temple was no longer touched.
Of course, time played a role, but we should pay tribute to the director, teachers and students of the school - they tremble with trepidation the history of this castle, the history of their native village.
Yulia EMELYANOVA