Gothic novels about shadows wandering through ancient abbeys are popular with both romantics and convinced materialists. This is why the ghosts of many castles in Europe have become travel brands. Having studied the rumors around the noble nests and their famous owners, we were convinced that Russian ghosts are no less inventive than their foreign "colleagues". We present five mystical estates in Russia.
Manor Mikhailovka
Petrodvortsovy district, Saint Petersburg
The abandoned palace, never recovered from the ruin by the Nazis, remembers a lot. Located in the suburbs of St. Petersburg between Strelna and Peterhof, Mikhailovka is named after Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, the son of Emperor Nicholas I. However, many owners knew the surroundings: since the time of Peter, there were country houses of the emperor's associates - personal doctor Robert Areskin, chief cook Johann Felten, shipbuilder Tikhon Lukin and Alexander Menshikov himself (his estate was called ingenuously - "Favorite"). Later, there were the dachas of Field Marshal Minich and Hetman Razumovsky (in his honor, the area was called the Hetman Manor). In the 1830s, all the plots were united, and after a couple of decades, a grandiose palace of the Grand Duke was erected here. Today the vast territory is partially occupied by the SPbU campus, and the rest of the premises,including the old palace - abandoned. The spirits of the great figures of the past live here: only their presence can explain the anxiety and even panic that often grips those who are brought here by curiosity.
Glinka's estate
Promotional video:
Schelkovsky district, Moscow region
The owner of this estate was the famous scientist and statesman Jacob Bruce, who was called a warlock during his lifetime. Contemporaries recalled that Bruce liked to show guests different "devilry". For example, he could freeze a pond in the middle of summer or melt it in a harsh winter. According to rumors, giant dolls walked around the estate and iron birds flew. It was argued that Bruce organized a huge network of underground passages in Glinki for practicing witchcraft. In addition, many visitors notice that the eerie masks that adorn the main house smile and wink at anyone who stares at them for a long time.
Baker Filippov's estate
Moscow region
The fabulous and solemn appearance of the mansion is very deceiving. The son of a famous baker Dmitry Filippov hid in this estate one of the main secrets of life - his extramarital hobby, the gypsy woman Azu. Here she led a secluded life, content with rare meetings with her beloved. Realizing that Dmitry Ivanovich fell out of love with her, the girl decided to take her own life and threw herself from the tower of the estate. Local residents and patients of the medical center, which was in the estate for a long time, admit that they have repeatedly seen the ghost of the unfortunate gypsy woman in the park.
Oldenburg Palace
Settlement Ramon, Voronezh region
It is believed that the palace in Ramon was cursed by a powerful sorcerer many centuries ago. So he took revenge on the owner of the estate, Yevgenia Maximilianovna Oldenburgskaya, for her rejected feelings. Since then, strange events began to take place on the estate. That's not all: the son of the Oldenburgsky couple, Peter, was feared in society and considered, to put it mildly, unusual - allegedly in the dungeons of the palace he conducted experiments on people, and in its vicinity he was looking for traces of ancient Egyptian civilization. It is believed that three ghosts have been living on the estate for over a hundred years. But the most surprising event happened in Ramon not long ago, when the museum staff discovered that plaster had collapsed in the “bad” basement. The crumbling fragment formed a female silhouette on the wall, in which many recognized the first owner of the estate, Evgenia Maximilianovna Oldenburgskaya.
The Vasilievskoye Estate
Smolensk region
The Povalishins' estate can be safely called an encyclopedia of Russian Freemasonry. The layout of the alleys, the location of buildings, the decor of the facades of the main house - everything in this estate is associated with the symbolism of "free masons". The most remarkable objects of the estate are two earthen pyramids, a classic one and an inverted one. It is believed that the owners, inclined to mysticism, wanted to leave hidden messages to their descendants, which they encrypted in Masonic signs. Leading experts in the field of the study of symbols and cultural studies still cannot figure out these signs. And among the locals, the Vasilievskoye estate is notorious - they say that uninvited guests begin to feel bad from the first minutes of their stay.
Vadim Razumov, Andrey Strelnikov