There are many legendary treasures in the world, which everyone knows about, but no one can find them. Ancient chronicles mention them, their existence is confirmed by legends, stories about them are passed from mouth to mouth. These treasures include the treasures of the Polish prince Jeremiah Vishnevetsky, hidden by him in the city of Lubny (now the Poltava region in Ukraine).
GRANDFATHER AND GRANDSON
The Vishnevetsky family is ancient and very noble. The protagonist's grandfather, Dmitry Vishnevetsky, was a truly legendary figure. For the first time in Ukrainian history, he received a mace and a crown from a Polish king as the ruler of Ukraine and Moldova. However, Dmitry was looking not towards Europe, but towards Russia. In 1552, using his own funds, he built a fortified town on the island of Khortitsa - the future Zaporizhzhya Sich and, together with the Cossacks, began to set the heat for the Crimean Tatars. He returned many times from campaigns to the Crimea, Don and the North Caucasus as a winner, and in 1558 he went to serve the Russian Tsar. In 1563 he was taken prisoner and handed over to the Turkish sultan, on whose orders he was brutally tortured.
His grandson, Jeremiah, was born in 1612. At the age of 19, he returned home from Europe and took possession of the family lands. In the first half of the 17th century, his treasury was one of the richest not only in Ukraine, but also in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Jeremiah's "state" numbered 228 thousand souls, and the ambitious prince turned his capital - Lubny - into a prosperous city with a castle, a town hall, a church, a Bernardine monastery, an Orthodox Trinity church, with two and a half thousand houses and an annual fair attended by merchants even from Moscow, Crimea and Astrakhan …
Traitor and arsonist
It would seem, live and rejoice. But Jeremiah Vishnevetsky, apparently, was not looking for easy ways. After studying with the Jesuits in Lvov, Italy and Spain, he, inspired by Catholicism, adopted a new faith, thereby changing Orthodoxy, for which his ancestors suffered. In Poland, they took it with a bang, but in Ukraine they considered it a betrayal. Jeremiah's mother, Raina Mohilyanka, a passionate zealot of Orthodoxy, built Orthodox churches and monasteries in Ukraine, and suddenly who? - her own son! - became a ruthless persecutor of the Orthodox. In the Mgarsky monastery, which she also founded, she imposed a terrible curse on her own son, who disgraced her family.
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For the time being, it did not manifest itself in any way, moreover, Jeremiah was on horseback. He took part in the Smolensk war against the Russian troops, albeit unsuccessfully, but received the nickname "Pyro" for the fact that he mercilessly burned everything in his path. After the war, the active prince went headlong into the economy, and after him he needed eye and eye. Vishnevetsky's ancestors accumulated untold wealth - income from the Dnieper latifundia, military booty, gifts from the Tatar khan and Moldovan rulers. With these funds, Jeremiah maintained his own six thousandth army, numerous officials, built churches, fortresses, roads … There was enough money - only for his wedding Vishnevetsky spent 250 thousand zlotys.
THE CURSE BEGINS TO WORK
Everything collapsed overnight in 1648. The army of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who opposed the Polish rule in Ukraine, did not leave the gentry any chance. Especially long ago the Cossacks sharpened their teeth on Jeremiah Vishnevetsky - the first traitor of Ukraine. The detachment of Maxim Krivonos quickly approached the Vishnevetsky castle, and the prince, abandoning all the riches and using a secret passage, fled to Poland. And the good in his estate was really countless, only tableware and silver sculptures were kept several carts. According to an ancient legend, the prince hid them in underground caches. The Cossacks left no stone unturned from the castle, but they did not find the treasure.
So Jeremiah was left without a family nest, and without treasures. He never forgave the Cossacks for this. In 1651 he defeated the troops of Bohdan Khmelnitsky near Berestechko and suddenly died in his prime (39 years old!). Either he was poisoned, or he was hit, is unknown. One thing is clear: he took the secret of his treasure with him to the grave.
UNDERGROUND KINGDOM
Few doubted that the treasure existed. His richest master left the castle very hastily, but he could not take so much good with him. Therefore, treasures are hidden under the ground. But where? Vishnevetsky's castle was huge, and its above-ground part was only the tip of the iceberg: underground tunnels, passages, labyrinths take up much more space. If desired, an elephant could be hidden in the "underworld", but not one. And it, the underground, is still poorly explored. Every now and then, during construction work and in the sinkholes that periodically occurred in the city, previously unknown passages and cavities were discovered.
At the beginning of the 19th century, during the arrangement of the market square, a vast underground was discovered with seven human skeletons in it. And in the place where the church used to stand, they found a gallery 2.5 meters wide and 3.2 meters high. The gallery was divided into two branches: the first led to Cathedral Square, but after 30 meters it was blocked by a blockage. On the second turn we walked twenty paces and came across a half-rotten oak door. It was broken, but it was impossible to move on because of the too stale air. Here they found several silver coins, a fragment of a sword, some half-rotted documents and medieval tiles.
In the 60s of the XIX century, on the site of the prince's castle, a deep underground corridor unexpectedly opened, which was not previously known. The daredevils descended into it and at the end of the passage saw an iron door locked with a large padlock, but, fearing a landslide that soon occurred, did not dare to break the doors.
THERE IS NOT GIVEN
Once the time has come: we must search! Even the city council was involved in the case. Archaeologist Ignatius Stelletsky, a major specialist in the search for underground treasures, was summoned from Moscow. But the First World War began, and the work had to be curtailed. In 1922-1923, the restless Stelletsky returned to Lubny. With the help of local history buffs, he managed to find an underground passage leading to the side of the river, along which Vishnevetsky once fled from the Cossacks. Stelletsky discovered a spare - wooden - passage from the castle and was able to prove that at first Jeremiah and his comrades fled along it, but the Cossacks cut their way - set fire to the passage. The wooden vault caught fire, and the fugitives turned back, but new masses of fleeing pressed against them. As a result, the vault collapsed and buried many victims, the remains of which were discovered by Stelletsky. But the treasure itself was not there!Ignatius Yakovlevich did not lose heart, according to his confession, he was literally a few steps from the very underground passage where the treasures are hidden. However, local authorities opposed the underground work.
Since then, who has not tried his luck in Lubny! The treasure, as if bewitched, was not given to anyone. In the end, the treasure hunters have a strong belief that the treasure will never be found. And all because the curse of Princess Vishnevetskaya, which she imposed on her son and his treasures, was very strong.
Lyubov SHAROVA