1. LEGENDS OF THE SMOLENSK FORTRESS WALL
The Smolensk fortress wall is the third longest fortress in the world! The largest number of legends is associated with this cultural site of federal significance. According to one of them, during the construction of the Smolensk fortress wall, the skull of a horse that once belonged to Saint Mercury of Smolensk, the patron saint of Smolensk who lived in the 13th century, was embedded in one of the walls. According to legends, when our city on the Dnieper was in danger, an alarming horse neighing could be heard from the fortress walls …
In addition, another legend about the Smolensk fortress says that a terrible curse was imposed on the fortress walls, according to which a terrible retribution awaits anyone who tries to destroy its walls or towers. Be that as it may, but the Poles, and the Napoleonic army, and the Nazis, indeed, received punishment for trying to destroy the walls of Smolensk …. But the fortress of the XVI century to this day, despite the wars, earthquakes, and the human factor, adorns our city.
It is also curious that we know very little about the architect who created the "necklace of the Russian land". According to chronicles and fragmentary references in various sources, Fyodor Kon was either a native of Dorogobuzh or had Italian roots. We know little about his other works, only information has survived that he was the author of the famous White Kremlin in Moscow. The fact that there is practically no information about his further activities or even about the circumstances of his death adds to the mystery of the personality of Fyodor Kon. Quite strange, isn't it?
2. LEGEND ABOUT THE TOWER OF FUN
Separately, we decided to highlight the legends associated with the Veselukha tower. By mistake, many people call the Eagle Tower Veselukha, but since ancient times this was the name of a completely different tower of the fortress wall - Luchinskaya.
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One of the legends of Smolensk has preserved to this day an eerie legend associated with Veselukha. Tradition says that the builders did not manage to erect the Eastern section of the Smolensk fortress wall: either the soil will sink, then the piles will disperse, or even the finished masonry will suddenly crack. Then the inhabitants turned to the witch, and she advised to brick the most beautiful girl in the city in the tower. And so they did. The first beauty of Smolensk, the daughter of one of the landowners, was immured alive in the Luchinsky tower, which towered over the city. Legends say that for a long time the maiden doomed to death did not cry about her fate, but … laughed. In memory of this story, residents began to call the Lucinsky Tower Veselukha.
3. UNDERGROUND OF SMOLENSK
An interesting fact is that there is still a developed network of underground passages near Smolensk. They were founded back in the 16th century, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, for additional defense of the city. During the 20-month siege of Smolensk by the troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the world's first cases of underground battles are described!
Unfortunately, in our time, when the city is rolled into asphalt, it is not possible to find the entrances and exits of these dungeons. However, in Smolensk, no, no, but a piece of soil will suddenly collapse somewhere: on the Eastern section of the fortress, in the Heroes' Memorial Park, on the embankment, etc. It is known, for example, that the Thunder Tower was connected by underground passages directly with the governor's house.
The most famous dungeons are, perhaps, the casemates of the Royal Bastion in the Lopatinsky Garden Park. Under Peter I in 1708, Iskra and Kochubei were kept and tortured in one of the bastion's casemates, trying to warn the tsar about the betrayal of the Ukrainian hetman Mazepa. There is a legend that in 1743 the monk and emperor John VI Antonovich who were caught in Smolensk and who fled from Rannenburg were kept here. At various times, Polish confederates were detained here. Up to 10 thousand people passed through Smolensk into exile. And under Nicholas I, there were Polish rebels and schismatics here. A prison for those unable to follow to Siberia existed here in 1841 as well.
According to another legend, in a small dungeon near the Eagle Tower, counterfeiters have been doing their black deeds for a long time. To discourage people from this place, at night criminals arranged "games of evil spirits" in the tower. Based on this story, Ettinger's famous story "The Tower of Merry" was written. In addition, similar motives can be found in the story of Alexei Tolstoy "Count Cagliostro", which deals with the adventures of a famous illusionist in the Smolensk region. Probably, it was the Smolensk legend that became the basis of Mark Zakharov's beloved film "Formula of Love".
4. GHOSTS IN SMOLENSK
Considering how many times Smolensk was destroyed and reborn again from the ashes like the Phoenix bird, it is not surprising that sometimes you can hear stories about ghosts or even poltergeists here.
So, at the end of the 20th century, a ghost allegedly appeared in the abandoned building of the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which has housed the State Archives of the Smolensk Region since 1954. Archive workers complained about strange sounds and creaks, and some even saw “dark translucent“something”on the upper tiers of the church. The ghost entangled the lift cable several times, so that people could not get to the upper floors of the building.
We saw ghosts in the building of the children's art school. In the 19th century, it was the governor's residence. Old-timers talk about a woman in white wandering the halls of a historic building in the dark.
5. "KETTLE" OR COMMUNE HOUSE
One of the most mystical places in Smolensk is considered to be the seven-story House of the Commune near the Ascension Monastery.
This building was built in the early 30s on the site of a cemetery. This residential building was conceived for living by families-communes, which the new government saw as an enlarged unit of the society of the future. There were no toilets or bathrooms in the house, and there was no elevator either, despite the decent height of the building. Until the 1980s, people lived in it, but after a strong fire, the house was resettled and today this place is abandoned.
Rumor has it that some demonic entity lives in the "Teapot", as this building is called. A gloomy and abandoned high-rise building has repeatedly become a site of suicide. However, the creepy stories associated with this place do not prevent young people and ruffers from occasionally arranging informal gatherings at the top of the teapot.
