The legends of the city of Barnaul are romantic and mysterious. They are closely related to the history of the city, and some of them even formed the basis of stories and mysterious stories written by great Russian writers. And all because not a single urban legend will appear from scratch. And the Barnaul legends confirm this.
The history of Barnaul: the legend of the Blue Lady
A mysterious and long-known legend to Barnaul residents, retold by the Altai writer Mark Yudalevich.
The modern administration building of the city of Barnaul is very old. Previously, the head of the Kolyvano-Voznesensky mining district lived in it. According to historical information, the name of the mining engineer is Pyotr Kuzmich Frolov. He lived in this house at the beginning of the 19th century. At an honorable age, he married a young girl. At one of the balls, the young wife danced with a visiting engineer.
The jealous husband rudely grabbed his wife by the hand and forcibly led her into the dungeon of his house. Where she was walled up on the orders of her jealous husband. Barnaul residents say that the Blue Lady - the restless soul of this unburied girl - appears at night both in the building and on the streets near the administration and waltzes at night.
The history of Barnaul: the legend of Demidov
The founding of Barnaul by the construction of a copper smelter was the work of Akinfiy Demidov, who in the middle of the 18th century received land on lease from the state. His life, of course, is not without conjectures and legends retold by the inhabitants of Barnaul.
According to the legend about Demidov, he secretly smelted silver in Altai factories. This was discovered by the state and all the confiscated wealth was transferred to the treasury. The enraged Demidov cursed his factories on his deathbed. Since then, in the month of May in the area where the factories stood, disasters periodically occur. In 1917, a massive fire broke out in this area, killing dozens of people, in the spring of 1973 due to a strong flood of the Ob, a flood occurred here, and much later, at the end of the 20th century, again in May, the Imperial Hotel and the BTI building burned down. built on the site of the old Demidov plant. Probably, this legend could have been invented by the people of Barnaul themselves, in order to somehow explain the misfortunes. However, the history of Barnaul contains many more interesting legends.
History of Barnaul: Dunkina grove
The beautiful legends about the deceased girls are probably very interesting for the people of Barnaul. In 1990, the Altai writer Vladislav Kozodoeva wrote a story about Dunka's grove called "We are from a legend, or the terrible secret of the Barnaul place-name." The grove, located from the former Upland Cemetery, the current VRZ park, to the village of Gonba, has long been cut down. And the legend is persistently repeated by the people of Barnaul from mouth to mouth.
The grove began to be called Dunkina after the misfortune - the peasant Evdokia committed suicide there in 1904. It is still unknown whether she voluntarily passed away or was helped. Since that time, residents of Barnaul, who live nearby or right on the site of Dunka's grove, have seen the ghost of a young girl. Today, only a couple of trees remain from that grove in the very center of Barnaul - near the building "B" of the Altai State Technical University. By the way, on the basis of this story, a television series in the West "The Hand of the Cheka" was even filmed.
The history of Barnaul: the cursed mansion on Gorky
The two-storey old brick mansion on Gorky Street is called “damned” in Barnaul. There you can still see a brick-built balcony door on the second floor of the building. According to the legend of Barnaul, during repairs during the demolition of the wall in the basement in 1929, the skeleton of a man was discovered. It immediately struck the eye that the skull was fractured, many teeth were knocked out.
At the end of the 19th century, two brothers lived in this very "cursed" mansion. They did not live very peacefully, since they constantly fought with each other for the love of the French maid. Once the younger brother allegedly went to a fair in another city and disappeared without a trace. The newspapermen accused Grishka Labeled's gang, which at that time was very dangerous for travelers.
But, most likely, it was different. On a dark rainy evening during a fight, the older brother brutally killed the guy, then walled him up in the basement wall.
After a while, the deceased began to appear to the killer: on rainy nights, his image appeared on the balcony with knocked out teeth, bloody and crippled. So the murderer brother went mad, could not keep the escaped love-Frenchwoman and died in agony from a severe nervous breakdown.
History of Barnaul: underground tunnels of Barnaul
As you know, in Barnaul there has never been and has never even begun to build a subway. The history of Barnaul contains only the construction of several underground tunnels. Famous buildings connected by numerous underground passages are the buildings of the Altai State Technical University. However, according to the legends of Barnaul, these are not the only buildings with tunnels. Although the legend actually has no confirmation and any grounds.
To this day, many are convinced that the building of the Wedding Palace and the neighboring building under the ground have a corridor in which people were shot at the beginning of the 20th century. In the very basements of these two buildings in captivity, the prisoners awaited their verdict. It is thanks to this that even today you can meet ghosts at night in these buildings.
There are many myths about the tunnels in Barnaul: some are sure that there is a tunnel under the Central Department Store - from the Railway Station to the River Station, but such a width that two trucks would pass. And some myth-makers invented a tunnel under the Ob River, which leads to the other side.
