Long gone are the days when people's lives were saturated with medieval superstitions about the existence of devils and evil spirits who sent sickness, grief and misfortune to people.
Despite this, against the backdrop of all scientific achievements and the rapid development of computer technology, there are still mysterious places and objects in the world around which implausible rumors are born and mystical stories are composed. People still believe in devils, and our city is no exception.
Not indifferent to otherworldly trifles, Stavropol residents have about ten anomalous places in their city and its environs. Photos are regularly posted on the Internet, forum discussions are held on mysterious buildings and unusual events taking place in them, and local youth gathers whole raids to visit abandoned places.
What do we know about anomalies?
According to the explanatory dictionary of the Russian language by S. I. Ozhegov, the term "anomaly" is interpreted as a deviation from the norm and general pattern. Abnormal places are called places where unusual phenomena occur that do not lend themselves to scientific explanation. A person's stay in such a territory, according to psychics, is accompanied by a number of characteristic signs: the perception of the passage of time is distorted, the state of health worsens, a feeling of anxiety and fear arises. Rarely are there animals or birds in such zones, which, being more sensitive, try to avoid such places altogether.
But what brings an area, a building, or just a thing into a supernatural state? Among people who are passionate about this topic, there is an opinion that everything on the planet has its own energy. Positive emotions endow our soul with joy and happiness, while negative ones throw us out of balance. The same applies to premises - events such as killing people, inflicting pain and violence, which caused someone's suffering, can leave a trail of negative experiences on them that will persist even after many years. Therefore, when a shroud of mystical fables begins to envelop any city building, it is worth turning to the history of the unfortunate place.
Promotional video:
Ghosts in the city
Residents of Stavropol have long been accustomed to the fact that in the very center of the city there is an unusual building with narrow windows in the Gothic style - a haunted house. The eerie-looking building on Komsomolskaya Street has a rich history due to its disrepair.
According to local historian German Belikov, at first it belonged to a merchant, later it was rented out to guests and monks from Transcaucasia, who frightened those around them with black cassocks with hoods and their bearded faces. Since then, rumors have spread throughout the city that something strange is happening in the house on Komsomolskaya Street. The locals began to hear sounds: now laughter, now sobs. During the Russo-Japanese War, the building served as a hospital for soldiers and officers from Manchuria. And later, during the Civil War, mountain officers from the "wild division" further increased the notoriety of the house, cutting the throats of more than 30 wounded Red Army soldiers here. But his story doesn't end there.
This is what a participant of the Stavropol forum with the nickname Delta reports about the castle house.
- After the Great Patriotic War, a tuberculosis dispensary was placed here. And in the 60s, if I am not mistaken, the building served as a hostel for medical students, who claimed that the spirits of killed soldiers could not find rest and wandered along the corridors.
“There are two more houses on Oktyabrskaya Street, which have been standing with boarded up windows for many years,” another member of the mystical forum, the Bad Man, enthusiastically says. - About one of them, I heard that its foundation was made of gravestones from a cemetery, which was demolished at the same place. And in the second, according to stories, the watchman hanged himself. Now neighbors often hear strange voices and sounds in it.
Such amusing fables are born around the mysterious places of Stavropol.
Drowned cemetery
There is one small lake in the vicinity of Stavropol. Only at the beginning of the nineteenth century, researchers became interested in this place, the first of which was Ivan Stefanovich Kravtsov, whose name is now the reservoir.
The territory, unique in its flora and fauna, has led to the fact that the lake has become a state nature reserve of regional significance. And everything would be fine, but in its history the reservoir has carried away and continues to claim the lives of people having a rest on it. Most often, the victims of the killer lake are young desperate guys and lovers of a good drink before going swimming. So the reservoir is overgrown not only with algae, but also with legends that all evil spirits are found in it, which entangles the bathers with their threads and draws them to the bottom. For example, they say that algae in the lake feed on insects during flowering, and that they are very tenacious and any victim can get entangled in them at one moment.
In fact, according to Sergei Grigorievsky, an employee of the Stavropol Rescue Service, swimming in this lake has been prohibited for more than five years. No more people drowned in its waters than in any other body of water. And this is not connected with mysticism, but most often with indifference to one's own safety. The need for restrictions on bathing arose in order to preserve and protect the unique territory. A high scientific assessment of this natural site is given due to the floating island, of which there are only four in the country, as well as the rare plant "sword-grass", listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation.
Despite the fact that swimming in the lake is no longer allowed, in hot weather you can still see cars parked along the shore and smoke from bonfires. For those who like to break the rules, local divers, who have explored the reservoir up and down, report that the bottom of the lake is muddy and uneven, one wrong step - and you can fall up to the waist. Therefore, swimming here is really undesirable, so as not to aggravate the already mystical reputation of the place.
The virtual reality
Everything unknown and inexplicable has always attracted people. We sometimes miss the thrill and something unusual in real life. This is how virtual computer games appear about superheroes and monsters that must be exterminated. About ten years ago, a Ukrainian computer game development company launched a project called STALKER, a shooter with RPG elements. The storyline of this game took place against the background of the Chernobyl events in the so-called "exclusion zone".
Three years ago, an anomalous "exclusion zone" appeared in the vicinity of Stavropol. Fans of computer shooting have moved from the graphic world of the game to the real one. Not far from the city, a place was found, the landscape of which strictly corresponded to the gaming legend. The guys turned into hunters for artifacts, playing the role of military men, bandits and zombie mutants. As part of their hobby, young gamers used plastic machines, equipped themselves in characteristic costumes, depending on the chosen role. The event attracted the attention of the NTV channel, which filmed a report about young Stavropol stalkers. You can see how this happened on YouTube video hosting.
Now "stalkers" are called ghost hunters and all those who are not too lazy to climb the dilapidated buildings of the city. Such activists organize flash mobs and regular trips to abandoned places. Later, they post photos of their adventures on social networks, where they actively discuss everything they saw and heard.
In Stavropol there is a whole group of guys who regularly visit abandoned places, "StavroStalker". It turned out that young people do not always go there to meet with ghosts. One of the members of this team, a 10th grade student of school №35 Snezhana Shkerina, spoke about the intricacies of her hobby.
- We have formed an invariable backbone - several quite experienced guides and masters of their craft. We visited many abandoned facilities in Stavropol: the Krasny Metallist plant, the Guliyev mill, a haunted house on Komsomolskaya, a trailer plant, an infusion solution plant, JSC Anilin, etc. Unfortunately, most of the above buildings are in disrepair and the question of their elimination for the sake of safety for city residents. We carefully thought out sorties to each such object, choosing the safest paths. We select the best equipment, and, of course, a lot depends on our well-coordinated team. Whenever possible, we try to take beginners in our hikes. Many people think that stalkers are vandals. But this is not at all true! One of our laws says: “Walk carefully, do not destroy anything,may the memory of the past be preserved as long as possible. We are interested in this type of extreme tourism, as it provides an opportunity to get acquainted with what life was like many years ago. During the raids, we study the internal structure of factories and enterprises. We are interested in history and want to know as much as possible about our native land and city. It is the craving for the past and the unknown that beckons us, forcing us to visit abandoned objects again and again.
Anomaly rating
In general, we have a lot of things that citizens want to somehow associate with the supernatural. Either they see a UFO, then they notice on a surveillance camera how an alleged ghost cleared the car of snow, or they shoot a video about the mysterious glow of lanterns in the city. And as soon as a vigilant city dweller sees an abandoned building, of which there are many in Stavropol, a new exciting legend about ghosts, curses and evil spirits is immediately born.
Not so long ago, activists of the Stav. Aktiv group (lovers of travel across the Stavropol land) held an online vote, in which about 300 people took part. As a result, a rating of mysterious places was compiled:
1. Haunted castle.
2. German bridge.
3. Cold spring.
4. Manor in the Central Park.
5. Former Ekran cinema.
6. Abandoned railway station buildings.
7. The building of the former children's hospital on Ponomarev street.
8. Concrete plant.
9. Kravtsovo lake.
Even in our region, exactly as in the city itself, accidents very often occur, and in the same places. For example, one of my acquaintances from the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Stavropol Territory said that, according to his personal observations, the flat section of the road behind the Izobilnensky circle, for some unknown reason, is characterized by frequent accidents.
What could all this be connected with? Surely with the carelessness of drivers, speeding, rich human imagination and other factors. Or maybe the truth is influencing something that we do not know, do not see and cannot feel? After all, there are in the world the Bermuda Triangle, the Paris Catacombs, Stonehenge, the mysterious Easter Island and many other similar places. Likewise, Stavropol looks like a city like a city, but there is something unusual, mysteriously attractive in it.