The legends of the city of Astrakhan are full of mystery and romance. All of them are directly related to the history of the city itself and its environs. Many of them formed the basis of mystical stories and stories, because none of the available legends ever appears from scratch. The Astrakhan legends are a vivid confirmation of this.
"Bad" houses
Probably, every city has its own "bad" houses and apartments. As realtors say, they had to deal with the sale of such real estate. Houses with mystical fame are, of course, much more difficult to sell. The neighbors' gossip that someone in this apartment once "wrongly" passed away and now his soul haunts new tenants, wandering and scaring at night, quickly reach potential buyers.
As a result, they refuse and are looking for a quieter place with a better reputation. Although there are cases, on the contrary, the client is ready to pay extra for such an unusual neighbor. It's so romantic.
In our city, there are also many such houses and apartments that are rumored and legendary. That only there are merchant mansions of Shelekhov and Budagov, famous for their secrets and terrible stories, located on the Kutum embankment.
From 1880 on the left side of the Kutum embankment there was a stone house number 45, which belonged to a certain Skornyakova. Built in a pseudo-Renaissance style for a villa, the mansion attracts attention with its asymmetrical composition and high observation tower. If you look closely, you can see the monogram "M. Sh." under the mezzanine canopy.
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These are the initials of the owner of the estate, the wealthy merchant and fishmonger Mikhail Shelekhov, the head of the Shelekhov Brothers trading house, which in 1904 owned the household. The mansion is decorated with a sculpture of a young girl installed on the roof slope. It is believed that it was installed by the merchant himself in memory of his beloved and only daughter who died of tuberculosis. It is thanks to this statue that the house of the merchant Shelekhov gained its fame and reputation as a ghost house.
It was said in the city that the merchant's daughter Maria Shelekhova was of indescribable beauty, but she refused to all her fans and potential suitors. The father did not want to part with her. Nevertheless, one can never escape fate, and at the age of seventeen, Masha Shelekhova fell ill with tuberculosis and soon died. From the inconsolable pain, the unfortunate father abandoned all his affairs and went to Italy, where he ordered a statue of his daughter, exactly repeating all her facial features. In the same place in Italy he found a medium or a sorcerer who, according to legend, was able to instill in this statue the soul of a dead girl.
For this Shelekhov gave him all his fortune. And he spent all the days with the statue. After the revolution, Shelekhov did not leave the house, he remained to live in the basement as a stoker. Since that time, they began to notice that the man communicates with someone for a long time. Although he did not hide it and even told himself that his daughter came to him. Since 1927, a tuberculosis dispensary was located in Shelekhov's house.
There is a version that Mikhail Akimovich Shelekhov himself bequeathed his house to a medical institution in order to treat with what his daughter died from. In the dispensary, there is often a silhouette in a beautiful attire of the 19th century. the patients themselves saw. Only to see him was not good, because the ghost usually stayed at the bedside of the one who was about to die.
A similar story happened with a neighboring house belonging to the fish merchant Budagov. They say that in the thirties, a woman with many children died during childbirth in a maternity hospital, located in a mansion after the revolution. She was so attached to her children that even after death her soul could not leave this light.
Medical workers often saw a woman who stood and watched them from the side with reproach and resentment. Apparently, the soul of the deceased could not forgive the doctors for those childbirth, after which her children remained orphans. However, she turned out to be so attached to the orphaned children that she could not leave this world completely. The building now houses the city's family planning center.
There is a house with its own ghost in the village of Solyanka. There is a three-story cottage, but no one is in a hurry to move in because of the notoriety of the ghost walking around the house. The ghost and students of the hostel of the Astrakhan cooperative technical school, located on Yablochkov street, are also frightening. Students allegedly often encounter the ghost of a pregnant girl who once hanged herself here. The ghost of a pregnant student who allegedly hanged herself there is regularly noticed.
The ghost of the Museum of Local Lore and the Kremlin
The Astrakhan Museum of Local Lore and the Kremlin also have their own ghost. A similar woman in long white robes, walking after closing, was seen in one and another place. The myth of the existence of a ghost woman in the Local History Museum is familiar to almost all employees.
Therefore, staying at work for too long, and then walking down long corridors and halls is always somehow creepy, they admit. They say that several years ago the guards heard the doors of the locked expositions creak and open, someone saw her ascending the stairs.
A similar story was told by the Kremlin watchmen. It even happened that lovers of horror stories sneaked into buildings that were under restoration in Soviet times at night, and then waited for a meeting with a mysterious stranger. And some say they saw her. All as one claimed that she was very beautiful and had a shivering look.
By the way, a woman in long white clothes is still seen by drivers on the Nachalovskoye highway. What is this image, so widespread, by the way, not only in our city, we can only guess. A figment of a rich imagination or a real object?
About Bigfoot
Bigfoot has been seen in our region more than once. The last case took place in 2011. However, in our region the word “snowy” somehow does not fit. Therefore, here they call him simply "wild man".
Indeed, the Caspian lowland as a meeting place with such a creature does not fit into the circle of traditional ideas. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note by I. Kravchenko to one of the editions of Kalmyk fairy tales, where a certain mus is found, reminiscent of the description of Bigfoot: "According to the beliefs of old Kalmykia, mus is a humanoid monster covered with wool."
Mount Bogdo
In the early 2000s, in one of the expeditions to the area of Mount Bogdo, traces of a “wild” man were found, or rather, two individuals walking next to each other. Experts on anomalous phenomena are sure that the place located with Lake Baskunchak and Mount Bogdo is very interesting, anomalous phenomena are periodically observed here.
Therefore, it is not surprising that you can see a snowy or "wild" man walking around here. A few years earlier, cases of a real meeting with a "wild" person were also described. This was in the late 90s. And here just recently. Just a few years ago. "Wild Man" was spotted in the Astrakhan steppes.
Abnormal areas
It has long been noticed that almost every city has its own abnormal sections or roads, where, for unknown reasons, unusual phenomena and patterns occur: people disappear, accidents happen. Such local areas, where earthly laws seem to cease to operate, are also in our city.
For example, the old settlement, which is located across the river from the village of Samosdelki. Circles often appear on the ground here. And the place where incomprehensible depressions remain is never covered with vegetation.
Cemetery near the village of Samosdelki
A lot of traffic accidents happen on the road near the village of Selitrennoye. Rumor has it that this is all for a reason. Allegedly, this road was built from the bricks of a destroyed temple. The old cemetery on Sofya Perovskaya Street has become a large anomalous zone.
Especially popular among fans of mysticism is the statue of Maria Schmidt - the young wife or bride of a major Astrakhan industrialist, who died from cholera in 1912. This statue, like the statue of Masha Shelekhova, was made by an Italian sculptor. The tombstone of a young beauty made of snow-white stone supposedly emits unusual glow at night, which frightens the night watchmen. One day, someone poured resin over her. Either the frightened watchmen themselves, or someone else.
Then the monument was cleared. Until now, it stands out very much against the background of other abandoned graves with its grace and grace. They say that young Maria, even during her lifetime, had a rival several times older than her and in love with her husband. Even the girl's death could not destroy their unearthly feelings, Schmidt did not marry anymore. Therefore, the offended jealous woman allegedly rubbed the statue's eyes with phosphorus to make them glow at night.
Many phenomena, inexplicable at first glance, occur in the area of the Baer Hillocks, formed after the final stage of the Ice Age under the influence of melting ice plates, although there is no unequivocal opinion about the mechanism of formation of the hillocks. The approximate time of their formation can be determined by the framework from 10 to 6.5 thousand years ago.
Karl Baer himself suggested that they were formed as a result of a sharp drop in the level of the Caspian Sea. These places have always been famous for their mysteries. Sometimes, in the area of the Baer Hills, one sees events that took place many centuries ago in a completely different place. Now there are some kind of military battles, then riders in chain mail gallop. In science, these phenomena are called temporary anomalies.
According to the theory of the American physicist Hugh Everett "… at each fork of events, two new Universes are formed, two new worlds, which are almost identical, with the exception of small details, however, the significance of the details depends on the significance of the event that occurred or did not occur." Hypotheses for the occurrence of time anomalies are different and are usually associated with ideas about time and its course.
Both scientists and science fiction writers, and, of course, mystics ponder over hypotheses. By the way, the general theory of relativity also admits the possibility of the existence of some time tunnels connecting different time intervals.
Much of the above attracts someone, but instills fear and horror into someone. How to explain local anomalies? The Orthodox Church treats all anomalies, mysticism, and ghosts very categorically. The priests say: “We live once, and then either the Kingdom of Heaven or hell, which God forbid.
As a rule, there are demons in the form of ghosts, and after consecration, all such phenomena disappear. There are also those like Dante's, between heaven and hell, but before the Last Judgment they are not by themselves, but in a certain place. Save the Lord! The most terrible thing is that a person thinks that he is addressing the souls of the dead, but in fact communicates with demons, which can appear to a person in various forms, including human ones. There are many references and warnings on this topic in the Bible.
Natalia Loseva, MK-Astrakhan
