The history of Dnepropetrovsk, formerly Yekaterinoslav, is closely connected with the names of Empress Catherine II and her favorite, the local governor Grigory Potemkin.
There are many historical sights in the city, and some of them are covered with mystical legends …
Warlock's wife
There is a two-storey stone house on Orlovskaya street. Its windows are tightly boarded up with boards, and the yard is surrounded by a high fence. The building has been in disrepute for several decades.
According to legend, the house was built at the beginning of the 20th century. They say that its first owner was a merchant who, moreover, was engaged in witchcraft and warlock. He married a very young girl (apparently, bewitching her) and constantly kept his wife locked up. From time to time she helped him in witchcraft.
It so happened that one of the clients of the merchant-sorcerer, a local landowner, fell in love with the beautiful merchant's wife. He seemed to have turned to the sorcerer about his unhappy love for another woman, but when he saw the mistress of the house, he immediately forgot about his former feelings. The landowner found more and more new excuses to come to the house of the warlock. In the end, he was able to win the heart of the sorcerer's wife, and they became secret lovers. But the merchant-sorcerer, of course, found out about everything. A scandal erupted, and the wife announced that she was leaving her husband …
The sorcerer could not endure this. The day after the showdown with his wife's lover, misfortune happened. On the way from the country estate, where he was going to settle with his beloved, his horse carried, the gig rolled over, the rider fell out of it, unsuccessfully hit his temple on a stone and died on the spot.
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A few days later, during a night thunderstorm, a fire broke out on the top floor of the merchant's house. The neighbors heard screams and saw human figures rushing about in the reflections of the flame, but they could not help: no one dared to throw themselves into the raging fire …
The fire was extinguished only in the morning. The walls of the house survived, but the second floor and the attic were burnt to the ground. The charred corpse of the owner was found in the building, but the body of his wife was never found.
The cause of the fire was never established, although many versions were put forward: who said that the warlock inadvertently handled flammable substances that he used for his witchcraft purposes, who blamed the lightning strike for everything, and who claimed that it was arson.
Soon there was a rumor that the sorcerer cursed his house before his death (although no one personally heard the words of the curse). It was also argued that the painful death was the price for a magical gift given to the merchant by the devil. Like, the hour of reckoning has struck, here is the devil and appeared for the soul of the sorcerer …
Since then, the ghost of a sorcerer allegedly lives in the house, who prowls around the attic at night in search of a drug that can help him return his wife.
The inhabitants of the second floor constantly heard some creaks, rustles and sighs at night. Sometimes footsteps were heard, as if someone was walking in the attic, and in the morning they found scattered things there. Gradually, the frightened tenants left the house. Nobody wanted to rent apartments here either.
In the early 70s, a local policeman moved into an apartment on the top floor. They say that he specifically asked for housing in this particular house in order to dispel rumors of ghosts. However, a month later the district police officer had to move out: all the rumors turned out to be true! He saw with his own eyes how in the middle of the night some shadows moved along the walls, as if someone alive was wandering around the room … Before moving out, the policeman tightly hammered the windows of the second floor with boards.
In the 90s, a company moved in here, equipping a warehouse on the second floor. But the very next day after the goods were brought to the warehouse, the boxes were broken open, things were scattered, a complete mess reigned around … At the same time, the locks were not touched.
Secrets of Monastyrsky Island
The most legendary place in the city is Komsomolsky Island, formerly called Monastyrsky. Its history supposedly began in the 1st century AD, when Andrew the First-Called stopped on the island, making his way along the Dnieper from Tauric Chersonesos to Kiev. Having erected an Orthodox cross on the island, he was the first to preach Christianity among the local population. In the IX century. there a Byzantine monastery appeared, destroyed in the 13th century by the Mongol-Tatars.
According to local researcher Oleg Sopelnyak, the island is a continuous anomalous zone: under the Shevchenko monument, time changes its course and oscillations of the electromagnetic field arise, under a flowerbed in the churchyard there is a plate of gold and silver, inside which is a mysterious biomaterial, and in the very center the islands hidden blue Crystal of knowledge, which stores global information about the world. Oleg learned all this from Viktor Vorobyov, who led a research group that studied these places in the 90s. last century. The group included psychics and scientists who worked with various equipment. Research has been carried out regularly for several years. But they had to be completed when the team of psychics decided to conduct a ritual at night, which was supposed to help them get in touch with the otherworldly entities living here. After that, no one else saw the people - they disappeared without a trace …
Hell on Popova Spit
To the north of Komsomolskoye lies another island, the existence of which many residents of Dnepropetrovsk do not even suspect. On hot summer days, when the water level in the Dnieper drops, you can see ripples on the water. A small sand spit of oval shape was flooded back in 1932 during the construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station. Today it can only be seen on old maps. But, what is most interesting - everywhere this object is designated under different names. Until 1917, it was listed either as Popova Spit, or, less often, as Devil's Island. But if you look at the plan of Yekaterinoslav for 1792, you will see a completely different name - the island of Hell! In the 20-30s. of the last century in the area of the island at night there were mysterious glow. And people often drowned here. So the name is quite justified …
