There are places that beckon with legends, an aura of mystery. The Veretyev Pogost tract is one of those. Located on the border of the Ivanovo and Vladimir regions, it has been attracting those who like to tickle their nerves for many years.
Recently, researchers from the "Cosmopoisk" group went to the ancient church, around which the old cemetery is located - Veretyev Pogost. The place is truly mystical, there are many "horror stories" and ancient legends around it.
An abandoned village on the border of the Ivanovo and Vladimir regions. There is only one path leading to the old church, overgrown with bushes. According to legend, the temple was built in a deserted place specifically to consecrate the land, where devilry has always been happening. There was a so-called bearish corner. Streams flowed into the river, forming a triangle. The hill served as a place for pagan games on numerous temples.
“Upon arrival at the place, everyone had a headache - pressure on the temples and forehead! From the very beginning, there was a certain heaviness. The trunks of the trees around were dead, as if dried up,”- describes the beginning of the hike, a participant in the research group Yulia Zhulinskaya. According to her, the feature of the abandoned church is that the altar is directed not to the east, as in all Orthodox churches, but with a significant bias to the north. The frescoes were also amazed.
“The ominous look of animal snouts and strange faces of saints. The thing is that there is not a single image on which the eyes would be preserved: someone scraped them out to all the saints, angels and animals. By the evening, at about 21.30, a shadow was observed in the depths of the church, but personally I was afraid to go there, while I was twice convinced that there was definitely someone walking there. Looking at the church, I constantly saw a priest with a gray beard,”the girl describes her feelings and“visions”.
According to her, when the twilight began to thicken, a white ball appeared in the windows of the second floor, similar to a ball that smiled. However, Yulia notes that the electromagnetic field sensors that had been standing in the church all night did not register any bursts.
So what are the secrets of abandoned temples and churches? Why do people see or hear some otherworldly signs? Representatives of the Orthodox Church agree: he who seeks will always find.
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“Often, long before going to an abandoned church, people are already beginning to wait for something otherworldly and supernatural. Even entering a dark room, a person subconsciously begins to fantasize - any breath of wind or rustle turns into ghosts. But there is also another side. After all, there are psychics, magicians and sorcerers who can cause dark forces. They do this in order to lead a person away from God. Usually, communication with such people does not lead to good,”says Deacon George, Secretary of the Regional Diocesan Administration. But, in his opinion, ghosts and "smiling balls" are only a figment of human imagination.
Below is a story from researchers from another group of seekers of the unknown who have visited here earlier
“Veretyevo has never been a big village. Since ancient times it was a secluded settlement, where a cemetery and several houses of ministers were located around the church - what in our area is usually called a "churchyard". The Veretyevsky temple was at first wooden, and in 1802 a new, large, brick one was consecrated, with the main altar in the name of the icon of the Smolensk Mother of God. A priest from a neighboring village said that the vicinity of the churchyard is a “blessed” place, a sacred spring beats there. True, we never found the key to this.
According to legend, the temple was built in a deserted place specifically to consecrate the land, where devilry always took place. There was a so-called bearish corner. Streams flowed into the river, forming a triangle. The hill served as a place for pagan games on numerous temples, and they, as a rule, were dedicated to Mokoshi in this area. This hypothesis is confirmed by the name of the Vozikh-Ma river (“Ma” is the abbreviated name of the goddess Mokosha). Orgies were organized on these temples - for the continuation of the race, for its increase. They also made sacrifices. Special days of worship were May 10, current style, the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox.
Yes, that is why in this place, as a sign of continuity, one pagan Mother was replaced by another Orthodox one: Makosh - the Mother of God. Instead of a temple, a temple was built. This structure was erected on the site of a wooden one that existed earlier. How many centuries before that he was there is unknown. I dare to suggest that, as in most cases, the pagan temples were dismantled, the stones were pulled from there into the foundation of the Christian temple; pagans, and they, according to local ethnographers, lived on the territory of Central Russia until the 18th century, began to worship the old god in a new church. When paganism ceased to exist, they did not stop laying stones in the foundations of churches - the churchmen did not disdain that energy of these against the prayed stones. According to legend, these stones, even if a person does not believe, act on him like a magnet.
Life in Veretyevo died down 40-50 years ago. The most likely reason for this is that the churchyard was located at a distance from other settlements. After the church was closed, the already small population began to leave. In the end, only the teachers of the local school remained, and the last inhabitant of the churchyard was a certain grandmother-nun. Information about this place is complex and contradictory, but almost all sources agree on one thing: in the early 60s, a gang came there and destroyed the entire churchyard. To cover their tracks, the bandits burned down the buildings and allegedly killed (burned) the only inhabitant of Veretyev - a nun; since then, no one lives there.
So the legend says. But then rumors spread that the icons and church utensils had not been stolen, the nun hid them some time before the unpleasant visit, as if she had a vision warning of danger. That is why they killed her - they tortured her, hoping to find out where what was hidden. But she never said. Only cursed them and the very place before death.
Other people said that the bandits hid everything themselves to make it easier to leave the crime scene through the swamps. They took only a part, and set up a cache in the church. As an illustration of the popular belief in this legend - a cemetery dug up and down. The graves and the church itself are in ditches, potholes and pits. Some scum smashed the crosses on the tombstones, dug up two-thirds of the cemetery, painted faces and scraped out their eyes.
I, not inclined to believe any mysticism, checking everything with a scientific ruler, I will say one thing: the place catches up with fear. Panic. Spooky. In some minutes you cannot even say a word. The place is like testing you. In some places, a terrible dizziness sets in, and you are ready to faint. It was not only with me, but also with my companions. There are many curved trees around the temple, which testifies to a tectonic fault in the earth's crust and to the fact that some kind of "bad" energy is coming down from there. The anxiety goes away only after you pass the gat. As if you are returning from the other world.
Marina and I studied the interior of the church for a long time until we got to the altar part. We went in, the atmosphere was kind of very uncomfortable. It is on the mental, emotional level. It was stuffy and echoing. Marina went out and I was left alone. She stood for a long time in the middle and examined the vault, when suddenly everything was quiet: voices, the noise of the forest, the wind. Complete silence, vacuum. And suddenly, at first, an indistinct rumble begins to go from the walls, and then church singing is guessed, several voices, male and female. The singing seems to be getting louder, and suddenly - a cliff. All familiar sounds come back. Then I went to this place several times, stood alone for a long time, but I never heard anything else.
There is another legend about an expedition of researchers that disappeared within the walls of the temple. They say that several years ago, young scientists came to these places with huge trunks of all kinds of measuring equipment. We studied the temple and the surrounding area all day. We decided to stay at the church for the night, setting up a tent there. And in the morning everyone was gone. All but one. He was met at dawn by one of the villagers in the forest.
He looked pathetic and terrible. His nose was bleeding, his clothes were torn, and the young guy's hair was gray. From his confused, hysterical story, the picture of what happened looked like this. By midnight, everyone began to settle for the night. Suddenly a strong wind rose, turning into a hurricane. Leaves, branches, clods of earth flew into the temple. Everyone looked with horror at what was happening. There was a terrible hum in the church, and the tent fell. It felt like the walls and the ground were in motion.
And then it was as if huge hammers began to hit the walls outside from all sides. The panic began. The surviving member of the expedition said that he himself managed to crawl to the altar zone on koryachki and lay there, pressing himself into the ground and covering his head with his hands. Then, apparently, he lost consciousness. And when he woke up, dawn was already dawning, no one was in the temple. Only a torn apart tent with the remains of things.
Whether this actually happened, or this story is another horror story, where people went, why a full-fledged investigation was not carried out - remained in question …"