The area with the name "Bald Mountain" is not only in Ukraine, but also in Russia and Poland. The fact is that Bald Mountain is not only a geographic or topographic concept, but also an element of Slavic folklore, which is associated with witchcraft and supernatural powers. According to legends, witches and other mythical creatures regularly gathered on the "bald mountains", where they held sabbaths.
References to the Bald Mountains can be found in numerous historical and literary sources, including in the works of Nikolai Gogol and Mikhail Bulgakov (who used the image of Bald Mountain in The Master and Margarita as the site of Yeshua's crucifixion), as well as in the works of Modest Mussorgsky. However, there is no reliable information about the origin of the Bald Mountains cult.
In Kleve, for example, there is not one Bald Mountain, but as many as 5. But unofficially, the “main” and most famous of all such mountains is the one located south-west of Vydubychi, on the right bank of the Lybid River. Now this area is usually divided into three parts: Rusalkin Yar (a lake where you can meet a mermaid), Witch Yar (a favorite place for both witcher sabbaths and Satanists) and Dead Guy (an abandoned cemetery where excavated graves are found). They say that taking pictures on Bald Mountain is useless - all the same, the film will be overexposed. But scientists tend to deny the influence of otherworldly forces, instead convincing us of the existence of a strong negative energy field on Bald Mountain.
They say that several times this place was consecrated, but there is no sense. To all sorts of epithets of Bald Mountain was added one more: "black place". It is curious that before it was literally black - it served as the abode of pagan cults. Rare travelers to this day see the glow of bonfires there and hear unfamiliar speech. But, according to researchers, three and a half centuries ago, the mountain looked completely different.
She herself was dark, people bypassed her. The top of the hill, called Bald Mountain, was completely black. They say that the reason for this is the many bonfires that were burned at the top. The earth is so saturated with death that nothing can grow here. Over time, the mountain "calmed down" - now there you can already find rare withered grass, the sand got rid of blackness and became sometimes light yellow and sometimes white.
It is no secret that Bald Mountain is known primarily due to its unkind fame as a favorite gathering place for various evil spirits. No matter how many refutations are written, it is still considered a cult place of all Slavic witches. If the Western European witches on Walpurgis night arrange sabbaths on Mount Brocken, then the Slavic "warlocks" chose this very mountain, devoid of vegetation on the crown. There is no doubt that all sorts of "bad" things have been going on here for many centuries.
So, archaeologists on Bald Mountain discovered a pit with burned church books. Several headless cock skeletons were found nearby, the so-called "dead pubs", which witches allegedly use in sacrifice. It is no coincidence that women on Bald Mountain are trying to commit suicide by jumping from the top. More than 70 cases of this kind were recorded in the Soviet period alone. But no one succeeds in bringing the matter to the end, because the mountain is not steep enough. And it all ends with severe injuries.
Where does the multitude of legends about witches' covens and other horrors occurring on Bald Mountain originate from? What is true and what is fiction in them? There are many assumptions about this.
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For example, there is one ancient legend that tells about the history of the appearance of Bald Mountain. Once people believed that the earth was surrounded by a snake, biting its own tail. The place where she bites herself is just above Klev and is called Bald Mountain. However, the name "Lysaya Gora" appeared later, during the time of Peter the Great, when the fort of the outer ring of the Klev defense was being built here. The defensive lines of the city at that time consisted of two rings - internal and external. The Lysogorsk Fort was also part of the Klev defense system. The top of the mountain was cut down for construction, which is why its name went - "Bald".
There is another explanation of the secrets and mysteries of this place. At the beginning of the 19th century, the territory on which Lysaya Gora is located belonged to the Pechersky Monastery. The monks fed on honey from apiaries and fruits from the orchards on the mountain, and plowed under the mountain. But a century and a half ago, the city authorities bought these lands, deciding to build a fort here. At that time, the military had a plan: to cover the entire Russian Empire with a network of fortified areas. Klev, like many other cities, was to become a walled city. In the western part of the city, it was planned to build forts on the Baikova and Batu mountains. In the north - in the area of the present Observatory Street. And in the south - on Lysaya Gora and part of Bagrinovaya Gora. In total, it was planned to build 24 forts around Klev.
But at the same time, the military was silent about small details: in order to build forts, you will have to cut down ancient forests, and in some places, demolish buildings. After all, in front of the fortress, everything should be visible to the horizon. The townspeople were agitated. History has preserved the message of Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov (brother of the famous Decembrist Sergei Muravyov) to the Minister of War: “The strange fate of Klev. Already the fourth fortress has been erected to protect him for 160 years, and not a single one of them managed to use it. Such a defense is more terrible for the city than the attack itself."
They listened to the voice of the people, but the military still managed to beg permission to build one fort - on Bald Mountain.
It was a complex system of earth embankments 10–12 m high and deep ditches. The ramparts cut through the porches - long, up to 40 m, tunnels lined with bricks and closed on both sides with gratings. Several thousand soldiers could be accommodated in the barracks. The plan of the fortress was kept in the strictest secrecy: anyone who revealed it to the enemy was threatened with exile to Siberia, and in wartime - with execution. They built the Lysogorsk fortification according to the last word in the art of fortification, but as soon as the construction was completed, it turned out to be morally obsolete.
This is because rifled tools were invented, for which earthen ramparts are not an obstacle. Therefore, in 1897, the fort received the status of a "fortress-warehouse of the III category". At one time, pyroxylin, an explosive, was stored here. The locals did not even know that they were living "on a powder keg."
In the end, the fort was adapted as a place of executions. From 1906 on Lysaya Gora they hanged those sentenced to death, who were brought from the prison "Oblique Caponier" at night. According to researchers, about 200 people, mostly political prisoners, were executed in the Lysogorsk Fort. They were not supposed to be buried according to Christian tradition, so the executioner buried the bodies of those who were hanged near the gallows.
There is nothing surprising in the fact that even today there are people who claim: on Bald Mountain at night you can hear plaintive groans. More and more often dug graves are found there. These acts of vandalism are attributed to both Satanists and human bone hunters who sell their "booty" to museums.
From the gates of the "Oblique Caponier" in the summer at 4 o'clock in the morning, and in the winter at 7 pm a black carriage pulled by a black-maned horse departed. Hearing the ominous clatter of hooves, the townspeople hid their children: it was considered a bad omen to meet a carriage with a suicide bomber. And the guards avoided meeting with the townspeople: what if they beat off the prisoner? Therefore, each time they got to Bald Mountain along a different, changed route. On September 24, 1911, a black carriage carried Dmitry Bogrov, the killer of Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin, on his last journey. After the execution at the place where Bogrov was buried, they drove out a company of soldiers.
Due to the fact that Bald Mountain was considered a "bad place", the head of the fortress issued an instruction that read: before going on guard, an officer must warn the soldier not to be embarrassed by incomprehensible noises - that is, they say, just gusts of wind and cries of night birds. And yet, standing on the clock of any patern was rather creepy. With nothing to do, the sentries scratched their "business cards" on the bricks - who, where and when he served. They can be read in our time.
But Bald Mountain is not only a place of execution. Therefore, one should not look for the reason for the notoriety of this place only in the fact that executed criminals were buried here 100 years ago. The famous Kiev amateur historian V. Yanovich believes that at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. e. at this place was located an ancient Roman trading base. This is confirmed, in particular, by numerous finds of Roman coins of that era.
Later, this tract acquired a different status: pagan rituals were held here in ancient times. Bald Mountain was of great spiritual importance for our ancestors. Therefore, after the introduction of Christianity in Russia, this place began to be called nothing less than satanic - after all, it was on Bald Mountain that those who continued to secretly worship the pagan gods converged.
Prince Vladimir personally organized raids on pagans here. They say that the legendary underground passages on Lysaya Gora were dug by the ancient wise men who were hiding from the raids of the princely army. In the dungeons, they kept their holy books, ritual objects, etc.
But over time, part of the Lysaya Gora went, as mentioned above, to the Pechersky Monastery. And now Christian monks were in charge here. This continued until it was decided to build a fort here. What came of this - we already know. An interesting detail: the construction of the fort was supervised by General and Engineer Eduard Totleben, whose surname, loosely translated from German, means “Death Lover”. According to rumors, the construction was kept in such strict secrecy that everyone who took part in it was drowned. As you can see, one way or another, Bald Mountain was associated with death.
The entrances to the dungeons were blown up by the Germans, who, during the occupation, placed the Tiger tank base on Lysaya Gora. They say that the remains of the equipment abandoned during the retreat are found underground to this day. And after the war, a missile military unit was located here. It is curious that by the middle of the 70s of the XX century, Lysaya Gora lost its strategic value and ceased to interest the military. But even a quarter of a century ago, there was a so-called radio facility number 7 - the famous "jammer", which did not give anyone an opportunity to listen to foreign radio voices. 1982 Bald Mountain received the status of a nature park.
According to another widespread legend, Bald Mountain has a double - Golgotha. Due to the complete absence at the top of anything other than "black sand", Bald Mountain was called the Skull for some time, that is, just like Golgotha. The death penalty is also remembered by analogy.
Romans and pagan Slavs in both places carried out the death sentences. Therefore, there is an assumption that Bald Mountain was just a place of execution, where the warrior-priests carried out the sentences of Veche and the priests, for example, they burned them, which is why black sand appeared on the mountain.
But let's return to the mystery of the so-called witches' sabbaths, which supposedly take place here once a year. By the way, the second, unofficial name of Lysaya Gora is Shabashnaya. The places of witches' gatherings are easy to find out. At least in Russia, places associated with magic, witchcraft, as a rule, from ancient times were distinguished by some unusual phenomenon - a "witch's circle" of mushrooms in a meadow, twisted ears of corn in a field, a "bald" hill.
The most common fairy tale about witches has many different variations, but its main essence is as follows: the witches who flocked to the Sabbath, fought among themselves, dragged each other by the hair, shouted, knocked pots and pans. The "event" was run by an old witcher, and the oldest witch flew here. As a rule, they gathered after sunset and walked until the "third roosters".
But besides witches, other representatives of evil spirits like to gather on Bald Mountain. For example, mermaids and pratchats, which, according to legend, can be found on the day immediately after Palm Sunday. Or devils.