True stories about ghosts that bother the residents of Vladikavkaz, Pyatigorsk, Stavropol and Makhachkala for more than a century
Oddly enough, in the North Caucasus, full of legends about how girls and boys threw themselves down from a cliff or tower out of unrequited love, they do not like to talk about ghosts. It is believed that they are not here and cannot be. But still, we managed to find five bad houses, from the sight of which the blood freezes in our veins. And if you know their history …
Art Museum Vladikavkaz, Prospect Mira, 12
The mansions of old Vladikavkaz to this day keep stories about the life, love and tragedies of their inhabitants. And some of the old houses still harbor special residents. Yes, it's about ghosts. They are sometimes met here.
One Vladikavkaz ghost, for example, has excellent taste, is always neat and behaves delicately. It lives in the Tuganov Art Museum. This interesting lady has defined for herself the role of the curator of the museum and is in charge of five thousand units of painting, graphics, sculpture … True, she died many years ago.
In fact, the museum staff, intelligent and educated people, do not like to talk about a ghost. But they do not deny its existence: they are afraid to spoil the relationship with the guardian lady. She is said to have a good character.
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“I met a female shadow in the corridors and halls of the museum at night,” says the technical manager of the museum, Petr Zhukov. - And once, it was late in the evening, a six-year-old child got scared in the exhibition hall. He claimed that the aunt in white wanted to pat him on the head, and he ran through it.
People from Vladikavkaz, familiar with the legend of a ghost woman, sometimes smuggle into the building of the animal museum and watch with bated breath as they rush into the void in the secluded corners of the old mansion.
Who was the museum ghost during his lifetime?
This two-story Art Nouveau mansion was built in 1903 for his son by the merchant Bogdan Oganov. The younger Oganov married a Parisian woman. Soon, his chosen one wished to return to France. The couple moved, but the legend says that the owner of the house regretted very much that she had exchanged Vladikavkaz for Paris. And she returned back - now after death. So it serves here to this day.
By the way, despite the fact that the museum ghost has French citizenship, they agreed on a peaceful cohabitation with him using national Ossetian methods. To make friends with the lady, a black chicken was slaughtered in her honor: this is how it was customary in Ossetian houses to appease brownies.
After the ceremony, the ghost ceased to frighten the museum staff, but it does not give itself offense: if someone decides to be ironic about the afterlife, a mobile phone may immediately pop out of his pocket, for example. Another proof of the existence of a ghost!
House of the Castle Vladikavkaz, st. Ballaeva, 7
In the city registry office and the republican Union of Architects, who are in the old mansion of the Zamkovs, ghosts are treated no less seriously than in the museum.
Kommersant Zamkova came to Vladikavkaz at the beginning of the 20th century to fulfill his dream of his own home. But he could not immediately buy a house: housing prices in the city suddenly jumped. Then the couple left for Grozny. And quite by accident they bought a piece of land where they found oil. This was the beginning of a short, successful period in the life of the family. Returning to Vladikavkaz, they also accidentally met the famous architect Vladimir Grozmani at the rink. A friendship struck up, and Grozmani designed a mansion for the couple, which to this day is considered an adornment of Vladikavkaz.
But the wealth that fell on Zamkovyi led them to a tragedy. At night, a thief climbed into the house, craving for the shares of the head of the family. It was a local resident, Lieutenant Colonel Makayev. The owner of the house noticed a sneaking intruder - and he killed Zamkovoy right in his office, took the body and threw it into the Terek … In the morning Makayev was arrested.
Years later, when the mansion was occupied by the NKVD, a man, a department employee, was again killed in the same office.
And, according to legend, the spirit of the murdered man joined the spirit of Zamkovy, and together they roam the building …
Employees of the registry office and the Union of Architects of the Republic do not like to talk about their ghosts. But the few residents of the house, whose apartment is located in the courtyard of the mansion, claim that for many years they have not been bothered by ghosts, but by their hunters.
House of Elsa Pyatigorsk, st. Lermontovskaya, 15
A luxurious but abandoned three-story mansion with 62 rooms in the resort area of Pyatigorsk is famous for the ghost living in it. At the beginning of the 20th century, this house was built by businessman Alexander Gukasov for his bride, daughter of the German merchant Elsa.
The marriage broke up a few years later. According to legend, Elsa turned out to be childless, Gukasov divorced her, abandoned his successful business, the castle and left with another woman. But in the city he is still remembered as the owner of the "Gukasov's coffee shop", famous throughout the district, in a mansion at the entrance to the Flower Garden Park. Now it is "Art Cafe".
- After the betrayal and departure of her ex-husband, Elsa organized a hotel in the house. Although things were going well, the woman went through the drama hard, began to go crazy and eventually committed suicide - she drank poison. They say that her death was painful, so her soul remained in the house, - says Sergei Ivanov, a native of Pyatigorsk.
All residents of the city know this legend, but suicide is not the only version of Elsa's death. Some say that the woman was killed by a lodger in a drunken brawl, and the body was walled up in one of the walls, others - that the Bolsheviks shot her. But all the stories end with Elsa's ghost still living in the house.
It is only known for certain that after the revolution the house was nationalized, in the Soviet years it was the building of a sanatorium, first one, then another. In the early 90s, the Lermontov sanatorium sold this building. The house was in desolation, began to decay, and local mystic lovers called it "a place of power."
- In the 90s, many were carried away by the teachings of Castaneda. Romantic couples and impressionable people came to Elsa's House. Photographers were looking for good shots here. Informal Satanists conducted spiritualistic seances: they evoked the spirit of the former mistress, and then frightened their friends with scary stories, - Sergey lists.
Then the mansion burned - traces of that fire are visible on the house now. They say that angry Elsa set it on fire, although it is officially believed that the culprits are homeless people who burned fires in the old building.
- Do I believe in the spirit of Elsa living in the house? Why not? I am generally an impressionable person. Once I noticed a shadow out of the corner of my eye: either the door was shaking from the wind, or maybe it was a ghost. I think it was Elsa's spirit that accompanied me on my walks around the house. And we found a common language: she walked with me, but in a good, kind way … Perhaps she is waiting for her soul to free itself and go to a better world, - Sergei comes up with his finale of the mystical story.
The castle has recently received the status of an architectural monument. The new owner took him under protection, surrounded him with a fence and does not let anyone inside. They say restoration will begin soon. If Elsa doesn't mind, of course …
Bad estate Stavropol, st. Komsomolskaya, 100
There is a house in Stavropol that the locals bypass. This is house number 100 on Baryatinskaya, now Komsomolskaya street.
A beautiful mansion in the century before last was chosen by a Georgian princess (in the legend she is unnamed). The person was distinguished by her love for art and men. She took care of the beauty of the house, but the crowds of young lovers whom she brought there cold-bloodedly treated them to poisoned wine. And buried her right behind a beautiful fence. The restless souls of deceived men still appear in the full moon … So they say.
- According to another version, this house was built by the “bread king” of the Caucasus Guliyev for his mistresses. Unfortunately, the archival documents have not survived, - says the local historian, author of books on the history of the Stavropol Territory, German Belikov.
Legends are legends, and the official version is as follows: the estate was built by the merchant Ignat Volobuev for his daughter. There is no information about lovers in the archives - the girl chastely settled in the castle with her husband, an influential person in the city, Sergei Derevshchikov. True, after the death of her husband, she had to sell the house.
The new owner of the house on Baryatinskaya rented out furnished rooms. The upper floor of the house was to the liking of the monks from the Transcaucasus, and sometimes they frightened the inhabitants of the area with their mournful singing. The monks left, but the glory of the strange house remained.
“Since that time, rumors have spread around the city that incomprehensible demonic acts are taking place in the castle house, accompanied by strange sounds that resemble either laughter or sobs,” the local historian says.
The nineteenth century has passed. During the Civil War, the castle housed a hospital.
“Here, several mountain officers from the Wild Division cut the throats of more than 30 wounded Red Army soldiers, further increasing the notoriety of the house,” Belikov says.
Under Soviet rule, the estate turned into dungeons, where interrogations were conducted. And they began to bypass it … And after the Great Patriotic War, the image of a "dangerous place" only strengthened - the tuberculosis dispensary moved there.
But the mysterious castle ended the century banally, becoming a hostel for doctors, and decayed completely. In the early 2000s, the building was closed for restoration.
It is closed to this day - but behind a flimsy fence, nothing says about restoration. The castle has long become a squat for the Stavropol homeless. In a couple of rooms on the first floor - extremely dilapidated, but habitable - they made themselves sleeping places.
Broken glass, a broken wooden door and treacherously creaking floorboards … It seems that the ghosts of the dead in this house are hiding somewhere and are waiting for an opportunity to scare the intruders.
House-ship Makhachkala, st. Buinaksky, 28
Makhachkala is not at all suitable for the mystical. Ghosts, as subtle entities, should be very uncomfortable among all these too loud, too recklessly gesticulating, too hotly arguing people. Probably, at some point, the ghosts themselves felt it, yearned and, shying away from the passing cars, ran to the bus station, got on the bus without a ticket and so, squeezed from all sides, to the downhole rhythms of the song "Crocodile's Mouth", rubbing the bruised ghostly ribs, drove to some quiet town. But there is still one ghost in Makhachkala.
There were many rumors about the Ship House. Built in 1901 by a captain yearning for the sea, this house seems to rip up the unhurried flow of Buinakskiy Street with its nose, letting Emirov Street on its starboard side. And everything inside the house is arranged strangely. Not apartments, but some kind of cabins, ladders everywhere and a common inner covered gallery, like a deck. It is not surprising that different stories themselves stick to the house.
So, they said that back in the early 70s, a ghost could be found there. Rather, at first they talked about linen. Like, there is such a strange thing: every year in August, the hostesses complain that the linen hung in the gallery does not dry out overnight. And then the ghost stories began. It appeared at the end of August, wandered around the absurd house for a week and a half and disappeared for a year. Sleepy tenants who got up for some need in the middle of the night supposedly saw a female figure that floated along the corridors, went up and down the stairs, went out to the "deck" where the clothes were dried, and walked between sheets, men's shirts and children's tights. And then she dropped the handkerchief down, went down after it and disappeared. And no traces remained, except that the linen, despite the summer heat, did not dry out overnight.
Someone said that this is the daughter of a fisherman. They say that a fisherman and his daughter lived in this house even before the revolution, and she was very pretty and happy, she was going to get married, and then she lost two of them overnight - both her father and her lover. The canoe overturned, and both left for the country of the Big Catch, leaving the girl alone. And she, they say, at this time sewed a dowry and boasted to the girlfriends who had come to visit with the groom's gift - a luxurious scarf in roses. And having received the terrible news, she wrapped herself in a kerchief, went ashore, entered the water and walked on like this until the sea - the great comforter - closed over her head.
Some cynics, however, argue that this was not entirely true. That the father and the groom really drowned, and the girl was really killed, but quickly consoled herself with a visiting fellow and with him departed for the city of Pyatigorsk. Where she died many years later, surrounded by sobbing children and grandchildren.
Ekaterina Filippovich, Anastasia Stepanova, Madina Sageeva, Svetlana Anokhina