A merchant's estate, an abandoned hospital, a Chekist town and five more places covered with urban legends.
In Yekaterinburg, you can find many places surrounded by scary and mysterious rumors. It is believed that on Friday, the 13th, the mysterious aura of such places becomes stronger.
Ghost in the estate of the merchant Zheleznov
The house of the merchant Zheleznov stands at 56 Rosa Luxemburg Street. The building was built at the end of the 19th century; its most famous resident, the merchant Aleksey Zheleznov, settled with his family in the house in 1905. Zheleznov grew rich on the trade in gunpowder, dynamite and gold mining, he was known as a generous horse lover who did not look for a soul in his wife Maria Efimovna.
Maria Efimovna was a beauty, but she had not the best fame: she was a nervous, withdrawn, ambiguous person, who, moreover, was prone to kleptomania. Maria Efimovna often stole things in shops, and the merchant Zheleznov paid the merchants to compensate for the losses. They were silent in response, not expanding on the inclinations of Mary.
The death of Maria Efimovna occurred under unusual circumstances: presumably, the merchant's wife died of a cerebral hemorrhage during a ballet at the theater in 1914. Three years later, the merchant Zheleznov and his children left Yekaterinburg for Omsk together with Admiral Kolchak. Zheleznov's son was shot in 1937.
They say that Maria Efimovna can still be seen in the rooms of the Zheleznov estate - the ghost of the mistress of the house wanders in search of her husband and children.
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The Kharitonov-Rastorguev estate
The estate belongs to the architectural monuments of federal significance. It was built in 1814 especially for the merchant Lev Rastorguev, who, according to legend, ordered a French convict from prison to build a house. The Frenchman was promised freedom for his work, but the merchant did not keep his promise - after the completion of the construction, the foreigner was sent to Tobolsk, where he hanged himself in prison, having sent a curse on the estate before his death.
Soon after this, Rastorguev's daughter drowned herself in a pond, not wanting to marry the groom chosen for her by her parents. The second daughter of Rastorguev married Pyotr Kharitonov, to whom she gave birth to five children - they all died as babies. The death of Lev Rastorguev himself is shrouded in secrets: having starved his first wife to death, he married a gypsy. Having learned about the infidelity of his young wife, Rastorguev gave the order to kill her lover, and that very night he threw himself out of the window.
After the death of Rastorguev, his daughter had children who were not affected by the curse of the family, and the estate passed into the possession of Pyotr Kharitonov, who was known as a cruel man. After his exile for cruel treatment of workers in 1837, the family left the damned estate and moved to St. Petersburg. Since then, no one has settled in the house, and the legend says that ghosts still roam the park next to the estate.
Chekist town
This residential quarter near the intersection of Lunacharsky and Lenin streets was built in the 30s especially for the NKVD officers. Residential and administrative buildings in the style of constructivism were erected directly on the cemetery, which was located on this site until the middle of the 19th century. According to legend, under the Chekist Town there is a network of underground tunnels and rooms where interrogations took place.
Several tunnels run from the Township to the House of Industry and the District House of Officers. There is dampness from the doors leading to the basements - some of the tunnels are flooded, it is almost impossible to get into them. All this gives rise to rumors of ghosts and strange phenomena that can be seen in the Town, standing on bones.
Unfinished television tower
The construction of the tower began in 1983. It was planned to make it the second highest - after Ostankino, but in 1991 the work stopped. Since then, the tower has been overgrown with rumors of dozens of suicides that were thrown down from a height of 291 meters. However, official statistics report only three cases of suicide. They say that once worshipers of the satanic cult gathered in the tower, and now, on a quiet night, you can hear the groans of unfortunate souls next to it.
Abandoned hospital in Green Grove
There is perhaps no place in Yekaterinburg more sinister than an abandoned hospital building in the very center of the city. The hospital is located deep in the park, hidden by trees. In 1999, it was closed for a major overhaul, which was never carried out. According to rumors, a cage and an electric chair were once found in the basement of the hospital - according to legend, doctors kept lonely patients here, who either died or were executed in a chair.
The hospital is home to three ghosts at once - a female watchman who was burned to death, a little girl who suffocated in an elevator during a fire, and the head of one of the departments who hanged himself on the cornice of his office window a month after the hospital closed.
Underground passage under the 1905 square
One of the urban legends says about a secret underground passage that runs under the 1905 square and connects the mayor's office with the grandstand on which there is a monument to Lenin.
Library "Malaya Gertsenka"
The library is located on the territory of the Oshurkovs' estate on Chapaev Street. They say that in the library you can see the ghosts of the past, hear footsteps in the evening, and even the sounds of a piano at night.
Mansion on Lunacharsky
In the 19th century, the head of a gem-cutting factory lived in this mansion. Once, miners found a very large emerald with unusual transparency near Yekaterinburg. The director of the factory sent the stone to the emperor, but the jewel did not reach the addressee - as if the emerald drove the cutter crazy, who could not give the stone. The emerald was sought, the cutter was tortured, but the confession was not knocked out of it. The cutter completely lost his mind and died. They say that his ghost can be seen at night - he wanders in search of that very emerald.
Masha Shmurygina