In Ramon, near Voronezh, at the end of the 19th century, Princess Eugenia appeared: by her mother the Grand Duchess Romanova, by her father - the Duchess of Lichtenberg, by her husband - the Princess of Oldenburg.
This palace was built in the Old English style, which is rare for Russia. Traditional red-brick masonry and white-painted plaster and wood elements, tall brick pipes and finely vitrified windows with upward-framed frames added to the likeness of English halls and castles. From the palace, along the slope of the hill, there was a multi-flight staircase with viewing platforms - to a sugar factory built in the river floodplain.
Whether the architect Christopher Neisler (who, by the way, built the Moscow Main Post Office) consciously followed the Anglo-Scandinavian traditions, we no longer know, but the owners - the North German princes of Oldenburg, blood relatives of Charles XII and Paul I, clearly liked them.
What a haunted castle
According to legend, inhabited castles, especially those with a rich history, acquire something like their own soul. Here, too, the lovers of antiquity in some places refuse video cameras and cameras. Psychics and physicists assure that the strongest field of negative energy is to blame. Some of them even said that this is a zone with the most powerful paranormal activity, which helps to enter other dimensions.
Architect Alexander Rudnev, who worked here in the 80s, said: “When the renovation began, the workers spent the night right there, at their place of work. For this, two rooms were specially equipped on the ground floor, in the right wing of the building. But they complained that they had nightmares. Strange noises were heard, resembling the sounds of a ball rolling on the floor, sometimes muffled cries and groans, sometimes like the flapping of birds' wings, something clicked and beat …
The work of the restorers did not go well. And one day, on a beautiful sunny summer day, a dove flew into the open door of the building. And immediately something unimaginable began to happen to him. The pigeon fell on its back on the floor and powerlessly beat its wings, tried to rise, but in vain … I lifted the bird, carried it out into the street. There the pigeon calmed down, stopped beating with its wings, and after a few minutes it was able to take off.
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Once the workers brought a cat, but she jumped out into the street as if scalded. No food could lure her inside. Incomprehensible things happened all the time. One worker suddenly lost his legs. Before that, he felt completely normal. And three months later, when due to illness he stopped visiting the castle, he also suddenly recovered. Many of those who took part in the restoration over the years believed that the castle was really cursed, and claim that these ghosts interfere with the work."
Businesswoman
Emperor Alexander II presented his niece, Princess Eugenia of Oldenburg (nee Duchess of Lichtenberg), Ramon together with a sugar factory. The princess, showing an extraordinary business acumen, carried out its capital reconstruction, financed the construction of a railway from Ramon to Grafskaya (still operating!), And built a free canteen for the workers. A candy factory operated at the factory, the products of which were exported to other cities and even received an award at the Paris exhibition. A nursery for keeping beavers and sika deer and a horse yard were set up, and a central water supply was in operation.
Princess Eugenia took care of the Holy Trinity Community of Sisters of Mercy, in which widows and girls from poor families received a profession; maintained an outpatient clinic, where they treated and dispensed drugs free of charge, a correctional school for children with "bad tendencies." She led the community of Saint Eugenia, under which they organized nursing courses, worked as an outpatient clinic, and even engaged in publishing; patronized the capital's Society for the Encouragement of Artists. There, by the way, Nicholas Roerich served - first as a secretary, and since 1906 as a director of a drawing school, where up to 1500 people studied in the pre-revolutionary years, and half of them were free. But the princess was remembered for some reason not by this.
Sorcerer's love
In the district, they believed rumors that in the dungeons of the castle the hostess had set up either a dungeon or a black altar where people are sacrificed. And then the souls of the torn to pieces roam the castle. The appearance of this legend, perhaps, was influenced by the fact that the princess kept a menagerie under lock and key and the sounds made by animals could well be mistaken for the cries and groans of unfortunate prisoners languishing in dungeon or for the howling of spirits.
Rumor attributed such atrocities not only to the princess, but also to her husband, Prince Alexander Petrovich. Allegedly, he was associated with the order of sorcerers (which is really located on the Voronezh land) and was expelled from there, but clearly not for incompetence …
So, according to local legend, the princess of Oldenburg was diagnosed with hemophilia. Medicine was powerless. But there was a sorcerer in the Voronezh region who healed the mistress Ramon. He did not take money for the treatment, in exchange he began to seek her favor. The offended princess told her husband everything. He, himself not alien to secret affairs, using connections, concocted a criminal case: allegedly the sorcerer practiced black magic and mixed the blood of killed babies with drugs. The sorcerer went to hard labor, but Ramon and the Oldenburg family managed to curse.
And it began.
The lady under the black veil
When the owners lived in the capital, their manager Mosin was in charge of Ramon. And then one night the princess appeared at the estate, wrapped in a traveling cloak and a black veil. Hastily went up to her bedroom and locked herself. No talk, no orders - nothing. The next morning she did not come out, saying she was sick, but she refused the medicine and the doctor. The next day is the same. The servants became worried, but no one dared to do something. And in the estate, people suddenly began to die, one after another, in a matter of hours. They started talking about a pestilence.
… The son of the manager Mosin, Seryozha, one of the nights was awakened by strange sounds - as if someone was scraping into a window pane. And then the high window suddenly flew open, and the hostess floated into the room without touching the floor. Her face was covered with a black veil. Seryozha closed his eyes with fear, and when he opened his eyes, there was no one in the room. Then he got up and, stepping carefully, went to inspect the house. Looking into my father's bedroom, I saw a figure in black bending over my father's bed. The veil was thrown back … Seeing a dead, half-decayed face, Seryozha lost consciousness. And in the morning I found out that his father was ill …
On the same day, an old beggar woman came to the manager's house. “I know what happened,” she said. - Do you want to save your father? When you see the witch sleeping, tear off her veil. She can't do anything without her."
Seryozha went to the manor house, referring to an assignment from his father. He quietly entered the bedroom. It was cold there, as if in a tomb. The woman in black was lying on the bed and seemed to be asleep. The boy tore off her veil. The witch let out a terrible cry, stretched out her hands with claws on her fingers to him and … melted into the air. And then there was the clatter of hooves outside the window.
Seryozha parted the curtains and looked out into the yard. A carriage drove up to the porch, Princess Eugenia came out of it in a traveling dress, a hat without a veil, with a valise in her hand. The boy told her about the terrible incident. “I can't believe it,” the hostess smiled. - But I praise you if you were so brave. A great future awaits you."
The pestilence in the district stopped, the manager recovered, and the mistress's prediction came true: Sergei became a gunsmith, inventor of a three-line rifle that served our army until the middle of the 20th century.
A beautiful legend, but here's the trouble: in the 70s of the XIX century, Seryozha Mosin, born in 1849, had to change his third decade. And he hasn't lived in Ramon since he was 12.
There is another version that no one cursed the Oldenburgskys, and the palace was originally built on a "place of power", which now they simply do not know how to handle.
Cleopatra oil
The son of the owners of Ramon, Prince Peter Alexandrovich, while still a young man, tried to find an explanation for the mystical phenomena. He even established contacts with sorcerers, of whom there were quite a few, and in one of the basements of the castle he equipped a laboratory, in which a complex device was mounted, including two rubies and a system of mirrors. During the experiments, unexpected results were obtained - Prince Peter said that the door to another world, a world full of horror, fear and pain was opened for him. Parallel to our reality, only "below the floor"? Could it be from there that something like a mistress's double under a black veil could have escaped?
In 1909, the daughter-in-law of Princess Eugenia wrote in her diary about her husband: “He spends every free minute in a laboratory set up deep in the palace dungeons. Sometimes I remember the tale of Bluebeard, but, fortunately, none of those around us disappears without a trace … Sometimes Peter is absent for an hour or two - and returns with a week's stubble, emaciated, with eyes burning with happiness. But I am not the reason for this happiness, alas.
Recently he brought from the laboratory an earthen vessel with oil, its smell was attractive in its own way and incredibly persistent. Peter assured that Cleopatra herself used such oil. Perhaps he took up perfumery chemistry? On another occasion, he presented me with lotus flowers. All this is very touching, but I'm tired of mysteries and loneliness. At least write novels."
Prince Peter conducted archaeological excavations near the village of Chertovitsky, and he managed to find products of ancient Egyptian masters. In his opinion, Ramon was one of the dungeons of Amon-Ra: Ra-Amon. Ancient Voronezh and Egypt! Is it unthinkable? But it is not uncommon for historians to mention that the pharaohs were buried in wreaths of cornflowers and daisies, and witches in Russia were often called “Egyptian women”.
Prince's silence
Ivan Yegorovich Zabelin (1820-1908), historian and archaeologist, director of the Historical Museum in Moscow, corresponded with Prince Peter. Once Oldenburgsky sent him a letter with an opportunity, which said: “I believe that the sanctuary is still in operation! It may seem completely incredible, but I have, albeit circumstantial, but still evidence, which I still don’t dare to bring to you, a corrosive and meticulous person.
I can only say that when in the time of Akhenaten the persecution of the priests of the god Amun began, they returned here, to his main temple. The current priests of Amon-Ra, seemingly perfect inhabitants, Christians, visit the temple and fast on the prescribed days. They profess their ancient religion so secretly that only an accident opened me a tiny corner of the Veil of Mystery. And I don't know if this is good … Amon-Ra knows how to take revenge on those who are overly curious …"
In the next letter, the prince writes: “Ramoni is gone, she burned to the ground. Only three houses remained from the entire village. The price for idle curiosity is too high. Although I am transmitting this letter with a completely reliable person, I am afraid that it may also fall into the hands of the priests of Amon-Ra. If so, then let them know: neither now nor in the future I am not going to publicly report on the discoveries I have made."
Only in our time, archaeologists of Voronezh University have discovered in one of the mounds the products of ancient Egyptian masters - sandstone scarabs, faience beads with female portraits painted with paints that have not lost their shades until now. Scrolls with ancient runic inscriptions have also been found. It's up to historians.