Hello World! I have a story! Do you like spooky stories? Do you watch horror movies late at night and then you get scared to walk from your bedroom to the bathroom? Well, that's me! Sometimes I stay up and watch something scary and then I would jump in bed and wake my husband up ))
When I was a little girl we didn't have horror movies on TV, neither did we celebrate Halloween. When I tell somebody in the States that Halloween is a very recent thing for Ukraine they look at me with big eyes. In western Ukraine on the 1st of November, we have a commemoration of all departed which is called in Catholic church All Saints Day. There is no costumes, vampires or trick-or-treats on this day. But it doesn't mean that Ukrainians don't have scary stories or mysterious places with grim legends. My grandmother used to tell me a blood-chilling story that happened nearby the village she lived with her parents. During midnight Easter service in the church, the whole building with parishioners and priest fell underground. Nobody got saved. A couple of days later people found golden incense burner from that church in the stream that was coming out of local hills. Near the hole that formed on the place of the church, people could hear distant voices of prayers and church singing. But nobody was ever found. I remembered this story for my entire life and if the village where all this story took place was an easy trip to make I would definitely do it. Unfortunately, today this place is on the territory of Poland and most of the people that could remember that story or know where the church stood were resettled a long time ago. My grandma as a real teacher explained to me that most likely there was nothing superstitious about the church collapse. She believed that it simply stood in the place with very active underground waters and that in some point during the spring flood period they got very high and washed out too much soil underneath the building. She also thought that people were adding lies to their stories and most likely the church was empty. Otherwise, that would be too big of a tragedy for surrounding villages and there would definitely be more uproar. True or not this story is something I will always remember.
Since I used to travel a bit all around Ukraine and lived in a couple of different places, I always tried to learn more about their history. And believe me, each place had some interesting spooky stories. When I studied and lived in Chernivtsi I was mesmerized by a church not far from my apartment.
When I was a little girl we didn't have horror movies on TV, neither did we celebrate Halloween. When I tell somebody in the States that Halloween is a very recent thing for Ukraine they look at me with big eyes. In western Ukraine on the 1st of November, we have a commemoration of all departed which is called in Catholic church All Saints Day. There is no costumes, vampires or trick-or-treats on this day. But it doesn't mean that Ukrainians don't have scary stories or mysterious places with grim legends. My grandmother used to tell me a blood-chilling story that happened nearby the village she lived with her parents. During midnight Easter service in the church, the whole building with parishioners and priest fell underground. Nobody got saved. A couple of days later people found golden incense burner from that church in the stream that was coming out of local hills. Near the hole that formed on the place of the church, people could hear distant voices of prayers and church singing. But nobody was ever found. I remembered this story for my entire life and if the village where all this story took place was an easy trip to make I would definitely do it. Unfortunately, today this place is on the territory of Poland and most of the people that could remember that story or know where the church stood were resettled a long time ago. My grandma as a real teacher explained to me that most likely there was nothing superstitious about the church collapse. She believed that it simply stood in the place with very active underground waters and that in some point during the spring flood period they got very high and washed out too much soil underneath the building. She also thought that people were adding lies to their stories and most likely the church was empty. Otherwise, that would be too big of a tragedy for surrounding villages and there would definitely be more uproar. True or not this story is something I will always remember.
Since I used to travel a bit all around Ukraine and lived in a couple of different places, I always tried to learn more about their history. And believe me, each place had some interesting spooky stories. When I studied and lived in Chernivtsi I was mesmerized by a church not far from my apartment.
The official name of the church is St. Nicholas Church, but due to its twisted towers it has a nickname A Drunk Church. My mom told me that according to the legend the architect that built it walled up his disobedient daughters into the towers and while the mortar was still fresh, they were trying to release themselves and that's how the towers got twisted like that. Of course, it's just a legend and according to my father, who happens to be an architect, the towers are built "normally" and the twist is just an optical illusion. But the story is pretty cool as well as the church itself.
Another place that I always admired and almost believed the legends about it is a medieval castle not far from Chernivtsi, located in a small town Khotyn.
The fortress itself is simply amazing. It has a gorgeous inside yard, underground passages and back in the times it was under reconstruction I was lucky to get into a couple of towers. The views are breathtaking. But every time I would come to the fortress, whether it was in summer, spring or fall I would see one and the same thing on the side of it.
This big wet spot is always there. It never dried out no matter what season it is. During one of the excursions, I heard a legend from the guide that explained its origin. Guess what! Another crazy architect walled up his disobedient daughter that fell in love with some peasant with no money or name and wanter to marry him. So instead of a wedding, she ended up being walled up and keeps crying till today making one of the walls wet. Don't start thinking that Ukraine is someplace of unhappy women that at any occasion get walled up! It's not true!!! I promise! However, strangely enough, the archaeologists couldn't figure out the reason why that wall is constantly wet. They had a theory about an underground spring but never could find it or were afraid to damage the fortress walls in the search of the answer.
Another stop we will make in Kyiv. I lived in this city for over 5 years and I can tell you it has a lot of interesting and mysterious places. Like any old city that went through a lot of turmoil, it collected everything it could from each epoch. Unfortunately, you will not find a big gorgeous castle in Kyiv. I believe many fortifications built there at different times were mostly wooden and therefore didn't survive till nowadays. However, in the 17th century when Ukraine, unfortunately, was part of the Russian Empire, it was decided to construct a gigantic fortress in Kyiv. By "gigantic" I mean huge, humongous, gigantesque!!!! And... they succeeded! If I'm not mistaken it still remains the biggest earth-and-rock fortress in Europe.
This is a computer reconstruction of the fortress I found on the boundless Internet prairies. From my personal experience, the buildings of the old fortress are scattered all over Kyiv. And if you don't know much about its history you might just walk past them and not pay much attention. I was lucky to be shown the Fortress by my good friend that was gracious enough not to laugh at my face when I said that Kyiv is boring and doesn't even have a castle or a fortress. So he walked me through some labyrinths of streets and eventually we ended up next to mighty walls of the fortress. That's what I saw.
(photo was taken from https://rest.guru.ua/ua/kiev/places/447-kievskaya_krepost_/)
Of course, it doesn't look as impressive as the Khotyn Fortress but there are definitely very interesting things to learn about it. For instance, the Fortress stretches all way to the Dnipro river and to stabilize its steep hills, there were built tall walls and tunnels that allegedly lead up to the main buildings of the Fortress. Of course, with time the tunnels got ruined and in some places, they are simply blocked. But it doesn't mean that there are no dark, creepy legends about them. One of the places I want to dwell on nowadays is called Green Theatre. On this photo taken at the beginning of the 20th century, you can see a big wall in the hill.
In Soviet times that wall was used to build an open-air theatre. Here is its photo.
However, the theatre didn't operate for a long time because of the devastating fire that broke out there after a lightning stroke it. They say there were a couple of attempts to restore that place but every time something would happen and it would stay closed for a long time. At some point, a legend started circulating the city that a tall man in a long dark coat with a hood on his head was seen on the half-ruined stage of the Green Theatre. People started calling him the Master believing that it was the Devil himself. If you didn't want to get into any trouble walking the slopes of Dnipro near the Green Theatre you were supposed to say to yourself "I greet you, Master". You can believe it or not, but once my friend and I went for a walk down those slopes. It was pretty late and very dark, we didn't have any pocket light or even a box of matches. At some point on one of the serpent-like paths, we bumped into a big wooden cross standing in between the trees. I don't know who put it there or why, but it was quite a spooky find. At some point, a guy on a bicycle went past us. Now when I think back I find it very strange because it was pitch dark and I don't quite understand how he navigated in the darkness with no light on him. After walking downwards for a while we reached a big round area which turned out to be a dead-end. So we had to turn around and head back. The funny thing is that back then I knew nothing about the Master legend or any other story about the Dnipro slopes that hosted an old cemetery of suiciders and stillborn babies, or a legend about a nunnery that got cursed. I learned all these spooky stories later on and now I wouldn't agree for a walk like that in the middle of the night ))
There are a lot more places that carry the memory of strange and sometimes tragic events, but they will be a subject of my other stories. Right now I will finish writing and will go to watch something spooky since I can hear a storm coming and watching something scary to the sounds of a thunder is the best thing!
Have a great time of the day and BEHAVE!
Sincerely yours!
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