Houses with evil spirits on Tverskaya

“Moscow and Muscovites” invites you to take a fascinating walk through the places of Vladimir Gilyarovsky’s immortal labor “My Home Moscow”. Today we will visit the very heart of the capital – on Tverskaya Street, where we will learn the history of two houses in which, according to rumors, evil spirits lived.

One of the mansions that has survived to this day was the palace of Zinaida Volkonskaya, later the Pushkin Theater of Anna Alekseevna Brenco, and then a store of elite wines and delicacies, which was visited by the capital’s elite. Opposite was another mansion that had been empty for many years. Rumors circulated around the city that an evil spirit lived in it. At some point, evil spirits moved into Volkonskaya’s house, which was then occupied by an old landowner with servants and serfs. Having learned about the rumors, the lady, along with the serfs and servants, left the mansion. Many male serfs fled.

Secretly, they settled in an empty house. It was they who were mistaken for devils and ghosts.

In the house at number 14 on Tverskaya Street in Moscow, life is still in full swing. Now it houses one of the catering establishments, and in the old days this house was one of the largest and best in the city. Built in the classical style, with a coat of arms on the pediment and two stylish balconies, it was an example of Russian classical architecture.

The palace was built by the order of Grigory Kozitsky, secretary of state of Catherine II, for his beautiful wife, a Siberian, gold miner Ekaterina Kozitskaya. The neighboring lane began to bear the name of the famous Muscovite and is still called that.

After the death of the mistress, the house passed to her daughter, Princess Anna Beloselskaya-Belozerskaya. In the twenties of the century before last, then representatives of art and literature gathered here.

In the middle of the century before last, an old princess, a relative of the owner, settled in the Beloselsky-Belozersky palace, and occupied half of the building with her numerous servants and hangers-on. The palace was plunged into quiet darkness. Only once a week, on Sunday, the servants led the old woman up the white marble stairs and put the elderly woman into a carriage driven by an old coachman.

After returning from mass, the gates were again locked for a whole week, which did not prevent the household from climbing over the fence and disappearing for whole nights, for which they were severely punished by the German manager.

On the other side of Tverskaya stood a huge empty house behind bars, built under Catherine II and in the forties of the XIX century, found itself in the hands of a wealthy landowner Guryev, who completely abandoned it. The house stood with broken windows and a collapsed roof. And they also lived in it … devils.

Such rumors stubbornly circulated around Moscow. At night, passers-by heard howling in the house, the rumble of rusty iron, and sometimes bricks flew out of the house into the street, and through the broken windows many saw a white ghost.

But now an evil spirit appeared in the Beloselsky house! The rumor about the ghost went from the yard; from the human room he spread to the lady’s hangers-on. This rumor was preceded by a commotion in Guriev’s house.

The lower floor was rented by the menagerie keeper, the famous tamer Kreutzberg, while the upper one continued to stand with broken frames and a rotten roof. The animals frightened off the evil spirit, and she found a new home. Finally they saw a white ghost walking up the stairs. They reported to the mistress, and the next day the old woman left the house. Many male serfs fled. Later it turned out that a gang of former servants of the lady who wanted to evict the hostess from her house in order to settle there themselves pretended to be evil spirits. The ghosts were punished.

In the late nineties of the XIX century, house number 14 on Tverskaya was acquired by St. Petersburg millionaire Grigory Eliseev. He rebuilt the building into a shop of elite wines and delicacies, which was visited by the capital’s elite. Despite this, Muscovites continued to be afraid of evil spirits. It gets a little dark, the townspeople ran across, just in case, to the opposite sidewalk, first to one side, and then to the other. Away from evil.

Julia Smagrinskaya, photo and video by the author.

Based on the materials of the work of Vladimir Gilyarovsky “Moscow and Muscovites”.

Based on materials “My House Moscow”