Ghosts in the museum
More than one film was made about what can happen in museums at night: "The Phantom of the Louvre", "Night at the Museum" and "Night at the Museum-2" … Of course, their plots are the fantasies of the authors. But not only. At night in museums, in reality, very strange things happen that cannot be explained from a scientific point of view and yet are quite real. And we are not talking about the popular night excursions lately, but about mysterious phenomena and visitors. Scientists, so as not to be accused of obscurantism, comment on such facts with reluctance, or even completely deny. But if you manage to get the old caretakers to talk, you can hear a lot of curious things. The palm in ghosts in museums, however, as in ghosts in general, is held by Great Britain and the Czech Republic, more precisely, its capital Prague. Here are some ghost stories.
Woven from light
Not so long ago, 30-year-old BBC journalist Chris Sandis photographed the famous 19th century immunologist Edward Jenner - an English doctor who became famous for the invention of the smallpox vaccine. There have long been bad rumors that ghosts live in Jenner's house, where he lived from 1785 to 1823. And although the journalist himself did not at all intend to hunt for mystical sensations, he still had the opportunity to meet with something inexplicable.
This happened in one of the rooms of a museum in Berkeley (Gloucestershire, Britain). The famous doctor stood in the doorway of the house from where he moved out in 1823. Amazed Chris Sandis told colleagues: "It was a bizarre creation, as if woven from light … I am convinced that this phenomenon was not caused by sunlight or dust in the air … I value my reputation too much to create fakes …".
Troublemaker
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In the countries of the former USSR, there are also plenty of legends about museum ghosts. For example, employees of the Maxim Gorky apartment-museum in Nizhny Novgorod seriously believe that the ghost of the late writer lives there. True, no one saw him, but at night you can hear someone walking up the stairs. Sometimes furnishings and books move by themselves to other places. In particular, this often happens with a bouquet of wildflowers, which the writer gave to his wife, Ekaterina Pavlovna Peshkova.
Night watchmen, frightened by an incomprehensible noise, often called the Ministry of Emergency Situations and riot police. But the rescue services were unable to neutralize the invisible troublemaker.
Especially often the ghost is disgraceful on the days of various solemn events that are held in honor of the proletarian writer. Nizhny Novgorod parapsychologist Eduard Ermilov believes that these days the museum is visited by many people who feed the ghost with memories of Maxim Gorky. In addition, the museum has many personal belongings of the writer, which keep the memory of him. As the researcher noted, it is not worth fighting with a poltergeist, because with too much interest, it can pose a danger to people. It is better to leave everything unchanged and come to terms with the appearance of an entity from the other world.
Ghosts of the Hermitage
Rumor has it that in terms of the number of ghosts per square meter, the St. Petersburg Hermitage confidently takes the first place. In its dark corridors you can meet Nicholas I - erect posture, golden epaulettes, gaze. The ghost is considered uncommunicative - at least for the entire time of its existence, he has never tried to talk to someone.
Another ghost of the Hermitage is a cute young phantom in overalls, who was named a drunken plumber. As a rule, he appears at three in the morning, approaches the water pipe and begins to misbehave. There are also funny, cheerful old women: they run around the halls, stomping loudly, lowering and raising the curtains and pulling the door handles. Sometimes they arrange performances - they play “living pictures”, bringing old exhibits to life. For some reason, they love the paintings of Rubens and Rembrandt most of all.
Another representative of the other world in the Hermitage is a daytime ghost, though quite harmless: he walks through the halls, pestering foreign tourists, asking for money in broken English. But more often than not, he just sleeps in different parts of the museum and snores loudly.
The most exotic ghost is the "keeper" - a fat old man who looks like a satyr. At night he wanders the museum, steals paintings and exhibits, hides them in secret places. Sometimes his face appears in the form of a mask on the walls: the old joker amuses himself by imitating visitors.
Many legends are associated with the hall of art of Ancient Egypt. There is a story when one of the caretakers complained to another: “Mine went again at night. In the morning I came, began to wipe the dust, I saw: the lid was moved. That means she was walking again at night. It was about one of the statues of the great ancient Egyptian goddess Mut-Sokhmet - the lion-headed goddess of war and scorching heat. Once a year, on a full moon, a reddish puddle similar to blood appears on the goddess's basalt lap. By morning, shortly before the first visitors appear, it disappears.
Legends of Ostankino
There are many legends about the estate museum in Ostankino. 1558 - the owner of this village was the noble boyar Alexei Sytin. When he decided to build new mansions, a hunched-over old woman came to him, banged her stick three times on the threshold of the boyar's house and threatened: “Don't disturb the land, don't open it. It is on the remains of ancient people, and that is why it is called Ostankino. The boyar did not listen to the old woman, and a few days later, by order of Ivan the Terrible, was captured and executed.
In the 18th century, Count Nikolai Sheremetyev came into possession of the estate, and he built the palace, which now houses the museum. But Ostankino did not bring him happiness either. After the sudden death of his beloved, actress Praskovya Kovaleva-Zhemchugova (she died three weeks after the birth of her son), a series of suicides began in the famous serf theater of the count. As a rule, the actresses drowned themselves in the nearby Ostankino ponds. They say that their ghosts can still be found in the halls of the museum - they glide along the luxurious parquet floor, as if performing some kind of intricate dance.
Restless and in the nearby television center. At night, the guards hear strange sounds there, and employees more often than in other places complain of fatigue and headaches. And sometimes, late in the evening, a sinister old woman appears with a stick, who tries to sneak past the guards. They say that it was after her visits to Ostankino that incredible incidents happened - a fire and the storming of a television center.
But in the museum of the inventor of radio Alexander Popov, the ghosts of long-dead people simply guard their earthly dwellings. It is home to the spirit of the scientist's sister Maria Levitskaya, who was married to a priest and died at the age of 20. The ghost rustles a silk dress, shifts objects from place to place, plays with a children's clockwork tank, the remote control for which is in a locked cabinet. Sometimes, if you look back sharply, it is even possible to see her: Maria waves her hand in greeting and disappears.
Vision of a Lady in a White Dress
On the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, there is a museum of theater, music and cinema, called Theatrical. In its halls, caretakers and night keepers often meet the ghost of a Lady in a white dress. Who she is, no one can say for certain, but there is an assumption that this is the actress Linetskaya, whose lace dress is displayed in one of the windows. Even those who have never met the ghost of the White Lady feel uncomfortable, especially being alone in the hall.
The staff and funds of the museum - the premises in which not exhibited exhibits are kept - are no less fearful. These are several rooms located in the basement of the building of the former Lavra hospital. During the years of Stalin's repressions, there were torture chambers there, and groans and screams can be heard from there at night. And in one of the rooms a whole family was allegedly shot. The keepers of the fund have repeatedly experienced the chilling horror of the soul and blood, which seems to come from the confined space of the vault.
Pushkin's spirit
The next story is connected with the A. S. Pushkin Museum, opened in Gurzuf in 1989. Within a month and a half, an exhibition was created in a completely empty building, which some time ago was a hydrotherapy center of a nearby sanatorium, which told about the poet's stay in Crimea. And in early June, on his birthday, the museum was solemnly opened. And after a short time the night guards began to complain that at night on the second floor of the building … someone was walking. At the same time, he walks quite loudly, and the alarm, which should react to strangers, does not work. What's more, sticky jam stains and wet marks from a cup of tea were found on one of the work tables. Everyone was at a loss: who could drink tea in an office locked for the night and handed over to the security console?
Despite the highly materialistic upbringing of the employees, the version of the ghost was one of the first to emerge. The fact is that during its long history the house has belonged to different owners. At one time, the estate was owned by the Novorossiysk governor, Duke Armand de Richelieu (he built the house), Prince Vorontsov, Kiev mayor Ivan Funduklei, railway tycoon Gubonin, as the legend says, smearing his boots with black caviar … So anyone could be a ghost. But everyone agreed that this was probably the spirit of Pushkin. Moreover, there is a direct indication of this in his poems written after a trip to Crimea:
So, if you can remove
Ottole where eternal light burns
Where happiness is eternal, immutable
My spirit will fly to Yurzuf …
Phantom art lovers
The St. Petersburg Academy of Arts is not a museum, but an institution related to art. It is housed in an old building dating back to the 18th century. And of course, there are enough mystical legends about him. One of them is associated with the teacher A. M. Kozlovsky, a famous sculptor, author of the monument to Suvorov and the composition "Samson tearing the mouth of a lion." The sculptor died in 1802, and was buried at the Smolensk cemetery.
According to legend, on the night of large floods, when water gets into the basements of the Academy, you can hear a loud knock at its gates, and then a cry: “This is me - Kozlovsky, I came from the Smolensk cemetery, all wet in the grave and icy. Open up! In the 1930s, M. Kozlovsky was reburied in the Necropolis of Artists in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. But his ghost continues to come to the Academy of Arts, especially on rainy nights - the night watchmen of the venerable institution still tell about this.
Wax ghosts
However, the largest number of anomalous phenomena are associated with wax museums. So, during the exhibition of these items, brought from St. Petersburg to one of the cities of Russia, the guards suddenly heard the sound of the heels of Princess Golitsyna, the prototype of the Countess from Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades". They even summoned a psychic to rid the museum of otherworldly sounds. But after a short trial, he said that he could do nothing about the invisible visits of a high-ranking guest.
During the next exhibition of the museum in Miass (Chelyabinsk region), the director of the local museum of local lore could clearly hear steps on the stairs, although no one came down it at that moment. And when the figure of actress Marlene Dietrich fell and shattered without outside interference, the director of the museum suggested that perhaps the exhibition was not to the liking of the former owner of the house in which the museum was located - Yegor Simonov, a gold miner and philanthropist, an honorary citizen of the city of Miass.
Y. Pernatiev