Ghost in a white dress. White Lady Ghost White Woman Ghost

They climbed Elbrus. A small group who decided to conquer one of the most beautiful peaks in the world. The penultimate in the chain was a 28-year-old climber, who had conquered more than one peak. They had already reached the snowfield when the girl suddenly felt an irresistible urge to turn around...

200 meters from her stood a dazzling beauty in a shining white dress. Long hair fluttered slightly in the wind, bare feet and bare arms up to the shoulders seemed to not react in any way to the piercing cold... The girl was overcome by a feeling of incredible, unearthly, stunning happiness “such happiness simply does not exist,” she later recalled. There was, however, a slight feeling of something tricky, but somewhere far away, on the periphery of consciousness, it flashed like a light haze and disappeared, as if it had never happened... Meanwhile, the woman raised her right hand and beckoned her to her.

And she went. She went, like a somnambulist, straight into the abyss. And she stopped only after calling out to her husband, who realized that his half was wandering somewhere clearly in the wrong direction. Waking up from the eclipse on the edge of the abyss, into which her legs had already begun to slide, the climber fell on her back and slowly crawled away from the edge... The moment she woke up, the girl heard her own broken cry at the bottom of the hole.

The climber was immediately expelled from the group and taken down, accompanied by a guy: the one who was dating White Woman, should no longer go to the mountains, the next ascent will result in death for him, says the unwritten law of the mountains.

...An experienced 30-year-old climber was descending from the mountain. A blizzard began, and in the clearing of the snowy swirl he suddenly saw a blond woman in white dress, sitting, hugging her knees, right in the snow. She was young and beautiful, and at the same time old and decrepit, she gave off a feeling of unearthly happiness and at the same time menacing danger... Not for a moment, according to the climber, did he lose control over himself, all the time, analyzing what was happening. True, this analysis, as it turned out, was in itself, and reality in itself. His climbing comrades suddenly saw that he had deviated from the route and went somewhere in a snowstorm... Only after a loud call from the climbers did he wake up and return to the “bosom of the detachment.”

According to researcher Dmitry Gromov, who collected many cases of observation White Woman, their plot does not shine with variety. The woman is clearly acting according to a well-worn pattern: she attracts attention, evokes a state of unearthly bliss, and then lures her into the abyss. The Two-Faced Woman of Speleologists operates according to a similar plan: upon meeting, she turns to the explorer with her young and beautiful face, leads him into some trap and immediately turns old and ugly. Some of her colleagues, however, act more honestly: scary old women took upon themselves the responsibility of leading speleologists out of traps, and young and beautiful maidens, on the contrary, lure them there. So to speak, division of labor...

There are a lot of similar characters in hiking folklore: Black and White climbers, Crying Boy, Calling Old Man... And in the mythology of different nations they are found with suspicious frequency. These are Greek sirens, who with their own voices deprive sailors of a sense of reality and direct their ships to the rocks, and Russian mermaids, luring swimmers to the bottom, and Romanesque vampires who bewitch their victim, and she goes under his fangs with great pleasure...

In my opinion, the most important thing in these descriptions, says Dmitry Vyacheslavovich, is that the phenomenon simultaneously occurs both in reality and, so to speak, in the observer’s head. In reality, apparently, there is a certain object that is the source of the event, but it also feels quite comfortable in the human mind, manipulating it in strict accordance with its script. Which is very significantly different from the description of “ordinary” anomalous phenomena: most descriptions boil down to the fact that someone is observing something, while experiencing some feelings that do not at all dominate the consciousness of the observer... That is, we are talking about some kind of a phenomenon that goes beyond our picture of the world.

However, it fit very organically into the picture of the world of our ancestors. From the point of view of Russian old witches, we live in a certain field that is made of the same “substrate” as the human soul. And many of the phenomena that we observe do not just occur in the material world or in our consciousness, they must be considered as a consequence of some (subjective and objective) complex within the framework of this special field.

WHITE (BABA, GIRL, WOMAN) - the phenomenon of death in the form of a woman, girl, deceased, harbinger of misfortune, water spirit, vision, ghost threatening human life.
“A white woman in a white shroud appears to one of the family who will soon die” (Raven), “After the bath it grew dark - she appeared white and tall. I read the resurrection prayer, and everything disappeared” (Murm.), “There is a white man standing with a sheet thrown over it like this” (Novg.).
“The Harbinger in White” (in white robes, a white robe, most often very tall) is one of the most popular characters in superstitions in the 19th and 20th centuries. In a story from the beginning of the 20th century. from the Arkhangelsk province, the appearance of a woman in white in povet precedes the death of a girl. In a modern narrative, a woman dressed in white goes out onto the road and predicts the future: “Someone started a rumor... As if one driver was driving, suddenly the car stopped abruptly, he sees: a woman is walking. Dressed in all white. She came up and asked him to buy half a meter of white material.
- When you buy it, come here. Then we'll pay it off. He went and bought it.<...>And as we passed that place, the car stopped again. Asks him:
- Bought? — He gave the material. “Now ask whatever you want, I’ll do it.”
He got scared and doesn’t know what to ask. Then he said the first thing that came to mind:
— Will there be war?
She answers:
“There will be no war” (East Sib.).
A tall figure, “covered with all white,” appears to a father and daughter on the way to the fair: “A woman stands... and reads everything in a voice. Tall - oh-tall this woman is! That's how she cried in her voice. And then two years later the folder died. Mom kept saying that it was Death that came to him” (Novg.).
The image of a tall white woman seems to combine the personifications of death and fate in the guise of a white, wavering figure, similar to a deceased person in mortal clothing. The deceased, according to legend, can come for the living and “take away”, destroy them - he brings death with him, embodies it.
White color in one of its main meanings is the color of death, non-existence; it characterizes the inhabitants of another world. The personification of “death-fate” in the guise of a woman is also traditional: she gives life and can take it away (the image of a woman in a black or red robe sometimes acquires a similar meaning).
In the beliefs of the 19th-20th centuries. the figure in white is named not quite specifically (“white”, “tall”) and is directly called death and, for example, in modern stories from the Novgorod region it is interpreted as “a dead man wrapped in a sheet.”
The image of a white woman also suggests slightly different interpretations. In the beliefs of a number of Russian provinces, it is associated with the element of water. The white woman in the stories of Vologda peasants resembles a mermaid: “In rocky rivers, she sometimes comes out of the water, sits on a stone and combs her hair.” A woman in white appears at the ice hole: “...We just approached - there’s a woman standing there!” All in white, like a snow maiden. Everything around her head is on fire. The horse stands at this ice hole and wags his finger: “Do you know that you can’t go to the ice hole at twelve o’clock?” At least ask your neighbor for a ladle of water, but don’t go” (East Sib.).
In a story from the Kostroma province, a white woman is a dead sorcerer, the “river friend” of a half-crazed girl: “...we had already gone to bed, I heard someone knocking on the window, she got up, looked,<...>and she was frozen with fear: Aksinya was standing at the window, all wet as she was, and there was something missing in her hem: crayfish, and frogs, and some kind of water grass...<...>I woke up my man little by little, told him what was the matter, he took the stick, and I took the icon, a parental blessing, and we went with him out of the hut to see what would happen. As soon as we approached the corner, a woman, all in white, rushed towards us, yes, that’s right, my blessing got in the way - she turned back and disappeared around the corner. Only the enta disappeared, out of nowhere Aksinya turned around, lashed out with her teeth, looked at us and said: “Graffenushka, let me spend the night, I’m so cold.” And I say: “Why are you coming to me? After all, your hut is over there, nearby.” And when she started laughing, she started running down there, to the river, and wailing: “Marya!” Marya!“ “It was she who called this guy, her friend, and this guy from the river... well, it was he who turned into a white woman and was waiting for her around the corner...”
A white girl can also appear in the forest, driving out the peasants who have come to tear their tusks: “Come on, I say, Lavrush, let’s fight that tusk!” He walked away from me, cut down a birch tree, picked a bast, and so did I. Suddenly he screams at the top of his lungs! He barely came to his senses and said: “A girl came to me, she said, tall, white, her braids were loose, and she grabbed my tie (scarf) with her hand and tore off the tie.” I looked, and there was a huge purple spot on his neck... “Well, I say, Lavrush, let’s run home quickly, this devil is joking with us, so that he doesn’t do something bad, apparently, the birch forest is his”” (Volog. )
In the vicinity of Semipalatinsk they said that, according to legend, a treasure was hidden in one of the mounds near the Irtysh: “Sometimes at night a white woman on a white horse appears above this mound. None of the people used the treasure.”
Women in white often represented illnesses: “There are people who claim to have seen a woman in white clothes enter a hut at midnight and, walking through the hut, disappear to God knows where, or stop in front of someone from the family and stare intently for a long time. looked at him. The next day this man fell ill" (Raven.)<Селиванов, 1886>.
It is obvious that the polysemantic (like the entire circle of characters who “seem” and at the same time take on a female form - MARA, MERMAID) image of a white woman is still most consistently correlated with the omens of fate - failure, illness, death.
In the beliefs of Russian peasants, a man in white can also be a harbinger of misfortune. On the Tersky coast of the White Sea, a story was recorded about the appearance of a tall man in white, with a ribbon over his shoulder, in the forest. He predicts imminent war and death to a peasant he meets in the forest.
In peasant stories of the late 20th century. a white woman more often than not does not pursue a person and does not even enter into a conversation, but cries or laments, or simply stands motionless, as some kind of manifest sign of impending trouble (sometimes the appearance of the Virgin Mary, who also predicts disasters and changes, is described in a similar way).

Marina Vlasova. // Marina Vlasova. Russian superstitions: Encyclopedic Dictionary. St. Petersburg, 2000.

The Spanish-speaking population of the southwestern United States calls her La Llorona (la-yo-ro-na) - the Mourner. They say that the ghost of a tall young woman of extraordinary beauty with flowing black hair has been ringing the banks of rivers and lakes with her screams almost since the time of the conquistadors.

According to legend, during her lifetime the Woman in White was named Maria, and she was a loving wife and mother of two sons. Her husband was also crazy about her and surrounded her with constant attention and showered her with gifts. But soon after the birth of his children, he left her and returned to gatherings with friends over a bottle of wine or chasing another skirt. It seemed that he had completely lost interest in Maria and even talked about leaving her for the sake of a woman from his circle. When he returned home, he only interacted with the children, and Maria began to feel hatred towards her sons.

One evening, Maria and her children were walking along the shady bank of the river, and a carriage stopped next to them, in which her husband was sitting with an elegantly dressed lady. The man started talking to the boys, but didn't pay any attention to his wife, and then he hooted and didn't look back.

In terrible anger, Mary grabbed the children and threw them into the water. But when they disappeared into the waves, she realized what she had done and rushed to the shore, trying to save them, but it was too late. She wandered along the riverbank for days, hoping that her children would return to her, her white dress torn and soaked in mud, but all in vain, until she finally died.

Soon after her death, her restless spirit began to be seen at nightfall on the banks of the Santa Fe River or floating along its course in flowing white robes. Her screams and crying did not stop all night, and people began to be afraid to leave their houses. Gradually everyone forgot her name and called her La Llorona.

The story of La Llorona is told with minor variations. The Woman in White's husband leaves her either for another, or in search of work, or simply abandons his family. She kills her own children, almost always drowning them, either to lift them out of a life of poverty, to find another husband, or to take revenge on their absent father. Usually, her restless spirit wanders at night, looking for her lost offspring. Those unfortunate enough to see or hear the Woman in White are marked for imminent death. The differences are found mainly in the way the heroine is dressed. "She was dressed up like a whore, and this guy picked her up in El Paso, down by the river. He just gaped!" "She was wearing a nightgown, long and white." “She was wearing a wedding dress and a long white veil covered her face.” She always cries and sometimes her eye sockets are empty, sometimes her mouth is twisted like a horse's. There is also no consensus on the choice of her victims, some say that she kills only children, dragging them under water, others that men who were unfaithful to their families.

Hispanics in America believe that the Mourner follows them everywhere, wandering along the rivers and lakes, all the way to Montana and the Yellowstone River.

In the film "Frida", which tells about the life of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, the song "La Llorona" is heard. Here is her text:

La Llorona

Salias del templo un dia, Llorona,

Cuando al pasar yo te vi;

Hermoso huipil llevabas, Llorona,

Que la Virgen te crei

Ay, de mi!, llorona,

llorona de azul celeste.

No dejare de quererte, llorona,

Y aunque la vida me cueste.

Todos me dicen el Negro, llorona,

Negro, pero carinoso.

Yo soy como el chile verde, llorona,

Picante pero sabroso.

and translation:

Mourner

You were leaving the temple one day, Llorona,

When I was passing by I saw you.

You were wearing such a beautiful shirt, Llorona,

That I took you for the Mother of God

Oh my God, Llorona,

Llorona from the blue sky.

I will never stop loving you, Llorona,

Even if it cost me my life.

Everyone calls me Black, Llorona,

Black, but gentle.

I'm like a green pepper, Llorona,

Two very different versions of this song :))

Woman in white

One of the plots of the popular series "Supernatural" is dedicated to a woman in white - a ghost that appears on the roads of Europe and America and sometimes causes the death of unlucky motorists. It is based on legends that claim to be authentic.

Although extremely popular in the United States, the legend of the ghost traveler may have originated in Europe, as do legends of ghost travelers. In Asian folklore, a ghost companion appears in the form of a young woman whom a man escorts to her parents' house. She follows him, but when they arrive at the place and the man turns around, the woman has disappeared. In America, the legend of a ghost companion arose at the end of the 19th century. It occupies a prominent place among American lore because of the role played by the automobile and the romance of the road in American culture, especially since the mid-20th century.

There are several versions of the story about the ghostly stranger.

One of them tells the story of a young man returning home from a party late at night. On the way, he notices a young girl in a long white dress on the side of the road and gives her a lift. Noticing that the stranger is trembling from the cold, the young man invites her to put on his jacket. Having reached the girl’s house, he opens the door to help her get out, and then notices that his companion has disappeared. In the end, our hero decides that she just ran into the house. The next day, the young man remembers that his new acquaintance forgot to return his jacket. He goes to her house and meets the girl’s mother there, who says that her daughter died in a car accident 10 years ago. She shows him her daughter's grave. His jacket lies on the tombstone...

Another variant. At night, a young man, very drunk, returns home from the bar. He tries to hail a car, and eventually some girl offers to give him a ride. The stranger calls his name and brings him to her home... The next morning he comes to his senses at the grave. On the tombstone is the name of that same girl...
In some variations, the girl suddenly disappears from the car near the cemetery, and the driver notices his jacket, which he just lent her, on one of the tombstones... Sometimes he ends up at the house of the deceased's parents and sees photographs of her in which she is depicted in the same dress where he met her...
Another option. A group of youngsters go on a car ride in a car that belongs to the father of one of them. On the way they come across a girl and they offer to let her down. A stranger sits in the back seat between two guys. At one of the intersections, she asks to drop her off, but the idiots have other plans... The girl starts screaming and suddenly begins to decompose right before her eyes... The unlucky adventurers jump out of the car in horror. There is no corpse in it, but everything is saturated with the smell of decay...

Does the “woman in white” have real, non-folklore prototypes?

In the 60s last century, Maria Rua and her fiancé were driving in a car to the house of the girl’s parents, they were in a hurry to inform their relatives about their engagement. Along the way, the young man lost control. There was an accident and both died.
A short time later, another young man drove along the same road. He saw a girl in a white dress on the side of the road, stopped and offered to give her a ride. The girl silently sat down in the back seat. At some point, turning around, the guy discovered that there was no one behind him... Deciding that the passenger had somehow fallen out of the car and was now lying wounded on the road, he went to the police station for help. Together with the officer on duty, they searched everything around, but there was no girl on the road. And then both noticed that the car door opened and closed by itself...
In most cases, the stranger in white does not cause much harm to drivers, only frightens and puzzles them. Although from time to time such ghosts cause accidents.

So, in the mid-70s, on a steep mountain road near the American city of Klamath Falls, a young girl was hit by a car. Now from time to time her ghost votes on the road. If one of the drivers stops, the phantom beckons him along and leads him into the abyss... Sometimes the ghost suddenly appears in front of the car, and it swerves sharply to the side, falls into the abyss or crashes into a rock...

But legends about women in white are not always associated with the road...

Woman in White
NY

At the beginning of the 19th century, on the site where Durand Eastman Park is now located, the White Lady lived with her daughter. One day the girl disappeared. The White Lady was convinced that the girl had been raped and killed by a neighboring farmer. The unfortunate mother took two shepherd dogs and went in search of the child’s body. She walked around all the surrounding forests and swamps, but nowhere did she find even a trace of her daughter. Distraught with grief, Lady threw herself off a cliff into Lake Ontario and drowned. The shepherd dogs followed their beloved mistress.
After death, the mother's spirit returned to find the child. People say that on foggy nights a Woman in White emerges from little Lake Durand near Ontario. Accompanied by her dogs, she walks through the park and is still looking for her lost daughter.
The Woman in White is a hostile spirit. She hates men and pursues them, avenging her child. Sometimes she tries to push their cars into the lake. However, she never touches the women accompanying these men.

Mourner
California

They say she was a poor young girl in love with a noble man. She bore him three children. The girl wanted to marry the father of her children, but he refused. He said that he would have married if not for illegitimate children, whom he considers a disgrace.
Then the girl drowned the children to prove her love for their father. However, soon after this, the unfaithful lover married someone else. Mad with grief, the girl rushed back to the river. She walked on the water, crying and calling for her children. But it was too late. Then she climbed onto the bridge, jumped into the river and drowned.
Her spirit is doomed to wander forever along the river, crying and looking for her children. They say that every time a crying woman appears, someone dies.
They say that one day two young people were driving late on a summer night when they heard a terrible scream. It sounded like the desperate cry of a child or a wounded animal. Suddenly, the white roadside fog began to thicken. He soon took on the shape of a beautiful young girl, dressed in a white dress, her long black hair loose. She cried and wrung her hands. The young people realized that they were seeing the ghost of the Mourner. Frightened, they tried to pass by as quickly as possible, fearing that the rumors about her were true. However, nothing happened to them that night. They stopped at the nearest bar and drank to calm down. By morning, the young people were sure that they had just dreamed the ghost and laughed about this incident.
The next night the young people returned home along the same road. At the very place where they met the Mourner, the car suddenly lost control, they left the road and crashed into a tree. Both died on the spot.
However, the Mourner only predicts death, but never kills herself.

“Women in White” are seen not only on the roads of America. Here are the stories that changed the way some motorists think forever.

One spring night in 1977 in South Africa, a young man stopped on the side of the road near Uniondale. An attractive woman stood alone on a dark road. The man decided to give her a lift, and the woman climbed into the car. He drove about seven miles, then stopped at a roadside gas station. Only then did the man notice that his companion seemed to have disappeared into thin air. It was impossible to get out of the car unnoticed, since the driver had not made any stops since he picked up the mysterious companion. Shocked by what happened, he immediately reported to the police.
The police told the man that a similar situation had occurred several years earlier with another driver. To solve such unusual cases, an expert in the field of the supernatural, Cynthia Hayend, was invited. She recognized the ghost on the road as a certain Maria, who crashed to death in the spring of 1968 exactly where both drivers saw her for the first time. Later, these witnesses recognized the late Maria from the photograph provided. However, that's not all. It's funny, but the ghost of the deceased reappeared on the road. This happens exactly once a year and approximately coincides with the date of the girl’s death. Approximately - this means that the ghost may appear on the road a few days earlier, or it may appear a few days later. But it only comes across to young unmarried men driving around in cars.

Take the A229 south of Chatham in the UK. Notices of inexplicable and mysterious incidents began to appear from here as early as 1968. The root cause of this was probably the death of a woman in an accident near the foot of the mountain three years before the first news of a ghost on the road. Now she constantly slows down cars at the site of her death, asking drivers to give her a lift along the way.
After some time, the girl disappeared without a trace, puzzling gullible drivers. However, it happens that a ghost, instead of voting on the road, appears half a meter from a car rushing at full speed. For example, M. Godunau, driving past the ill-fated mountain in the summer of 1974, suddenly saw the silhouette of a woman appear in the headlights, and then disappeared under the wheels of his car. Beside himself with fear because of the impending responsibility for what he had done, Godunau slowed down and slowly walked out into the street. The bloody body of the woman he had hit lay on the road, completely motionless. The poor guy wrapped her in his jacket and dragged her away from the roadway. He then drove to Rochester, where he visited the first police station he came across.
Here he confessed everything. However, the police officers who went to the indicated place found nothing. The dead girl disappeared, but the same jacket in which the frightened driver wrapped her remained. And the blood at the scene of the collision seemed to evaporate. Surprised law enforcement officers went back for lack of evidence of a crime. There was no reason for them to detain the shocked driver.

Similar to "Women in White" White ladies- in the folklore of the Germanic peoples, supernatural creatures who are often identified with ghosts and forest spirits. The White Ladies treat people quite friendly - they lead lost travelers onto the road, turn ordinary stones into miraculous ones, point them to deposits of gold and silver, help women give birth and take care of the house, predict the future, calm storms, and so on. However, they are very easily angered by ingratitude and cruelty, and then they severely punish offenders.
People do not see them: only a person born on Sunday, or one who has an elven talisman with him, can see the white lady. Then a young woman of dazzling beauty with long blond hair, in a white dress with lace, will appear to him.

In the north of France there is a legend about "white ladies", sometimes called fairies, lying in wait for lonely travelers near bridges after dark. Having waited for such a traveler, the “white lady” asked to dance with her. If the person agreed, after the dance he was safely released. If he refused, the “white lady” threw him off the bridge or ordered her owls and cats to attack him.

The insidious ghost of a girl in white is found near the German town of Deggendorf, in the place where the railway passes through a tunnel. Late in the evening, it lures random passers-by into the tunnel, and they get hit by a train rushing at high speed...

What do all these episodes have in common? The ghostly stranger is always very beautiful and dressed in a white dress. When confronted with the living, she either disappears or, somehow influencing people’s consciousness, sets up accidents...

Many noble families of Europe can boast of stories about the ghost of the White Lady. Many stories have been told about the appearance of the Woman in White in the castles of the Czech Republic, Germany, and France. I decided to make a selection of the most famous legends. The first story is about the White Lady from the Czech Republic. (Among the illustrations my photos of the town of Cesky Krumlov).

From the notes of Nikolai Verbin, 189*
This happened during my trip to Poland. The weather suddenly deteriorated sharply, the road to the nearest town remained long, and I decided to stay at a roadside hotel. I was not mistaken, a blizzard soon arrived. It was already evening when I settled into my room. Suddenly the door of my room opened slightly due to a draft. When I went up to close it, to my surprise I saw on the stairs the white silhouette of a female figure, which, slowly going downstairs, disappeared into the darkness of the hallway.

Thoughts flashed through my head: “I hope I’m not falling into madness? Did I really see a ghost?” It is curious that the mysterious figure did not cause me fear or any other unpleasant sensation that people who saw ghosts mentioned. Having settled down at the table, I tried to read in order to drive away obsessive thoughts. I couldn't concentrate on reading. In the shadows of the candle I began to imagine all sorts of devilry, and the howling of the storm outside the window only intensified my excitement. I decided to go down to the living room, hoping to find company for conversation.

White Lady of the Rožmberk family
In the living room I met the military man Michael von Rosemberg, about whose noble family I had heard a lot (he descended from the wealthy Czech aristocrats of the Rožmberks). Mikhail was smoking a pipe, sitting in a chair at the coffee table. The captain's face looked thoughtful. Not afraid to seem crazy, I told him about my recent vision.
- And have you seen the White Lady? - the interlocutor perked up.
His question gave me hope that I was not the only witness to the supernatural.
- Yes, she came down the stairs... Did she come to you? - I suddenly realized.
The interlocutor nodded.
“She was wearing black gloves,” he added sadly and thoughtfully.

Castle "Rožnberk nad Voltavou", where the ghost of the White Lady appears. 19th century drawing

Not wanting to guess what "black gloves" means. I asked my interlocutor to tell a story about the ghost of the Rožmberk family. Fortunately, the situation was conducive, the illuminated living room seemed like a special safe place, and the dark corridor seemed like a gloomy road to another world. How darkness intensifies children's fears!

Modern view of the castle, photo from the guidebook

My new friend happily began the story.
The White Lady of the Rožmberks, more often called the White Lady, usually appears in the places of the former possessions of the Rožmberks, but sometimes she comes to the representatives of the clan regardless of the distance.
She is kind and does not instill fear. Although sometimes it is a sad message. If she comes wearing black gloves, it means death awaits one of the family members; if she wears red gloves, beware of fire. But if there is a smile on the ghostly face, it means there will be good luck.
Now I understood Mikhail’s excitement; he was clearly worried about one of his relatives. Seeing me as an understanding interlocutor, Rosemberg continued the story.

Perchta Rožmberk (lived around 1429 - 1476) - White Panna.
According to legend, her soul will be freed by the one who can decipher the mysterious inscription on the portrait.
As a reward to the savior, the lady will indicate where the treasure is kept

Curse of the Villain
Her name is associated with the sad story of the Rožmberk family of Czech nobles, which occurred during the wild Middle Ages, in the 15th century. The noble girl Perchta from the Rozhmberg family was forcibly married to the evil aristocrat Jan Lichtenstein, who had influence in the royal court. The husband turned out to be a villain and in every possible way mocked his young wife, who turned 20 in the year of her marriage. He also dared to have orgies in the castle without being ashamed of his young wife. Liechtenstein's evil sisters also humiliated their new relative.

Perkhta tried to escape from her husband, but the wild customs of that era did not allow her to return to her father’s house. The unfortunate woman was forced to stay with her husband. She lived with him for more than 20 years, enduring tyranny. Before his death, her husband asked her for forgiveness, but the honest, proud wife refused to forgive the bullying. Then the scoundrel cursed Perkhta: “may you have no peace after death,” after these words his black, sinful soul fell into Hell.

Drawing in the interior of the castle, 17th century

Alas, the curse came true. After death, Perkhta's soul did not rest. She appears in a white dress with keys in her belt.

Guardian of the family
The lady was always kind to the Rožmberks. She came to nurse the children of the family and protected them from all evil. The maids knew that the lady visited the children at night, and were not afraid of her. One night, while the ghost was lulling little Peter Vokov to sleep, the nanny, recently hired, woke up. The foolish woman screamed and the White Lady slid through the wall and disappeared. She did not visit Peter again. He became the last owner of Rožmberkov Castle. Perhaps a careless servant angered the keeper of the clan.

Portrait of Peter Vokov (lived 1539-1611) as a child

Treasure of the White Panna
The grown-up Peter Vokov was told about his childhood meeting with the White Panna. Out of curiosity, he ordered the wall through which the ghost had passed to be broken down. A treasure was found in the wall. Since then, foolish treasure hunters have been roaming the former possessions of the Rožmberks, wanting to meet the White Lady and find out from her about the treasure. Some people think that the treasure should be looked for where the ghost disappears. You can only laugh at human stupidity.

Coins of Rožmberk

Funny case
One day, the White Panna scared a group of students staying in the castle. After drinking too much local beer, they started making stupid jokes about the ghostly mistress. One said that he was ready to hug the lady and confess his love to her. Perkhta came to teach the impudent man a lesson, who, out of his stupidity, decided to do what he was told, and tried to hug the ghost. He got off lightly; the noble lady only knocked him unconscious. They say that there are ghosts more severe to such antics, and he could not avoid madness.

Interior of the castle "Rožmberk nad Voltavou", photo from the guidebook

White Panna in the town of Cesky Krumlov
In addition to Rozmberkov Castle, there is another favorite place for the appearance of the White Lady - the town of Cesky Krumlov. After the death of her husband, Perkhta remained in this city for the rest of her life. She was remembered by the townspeople for her kindness and mercy. When Perkhta died, the whole city mourned her. They say that the White Panna often visits her beloved town. There were stories of eyewitnesses who encountered a white figure leisurely walking along the narrow streets.

City of Cesky Krumlov, My photos are from 2005 (enlarge when clicked). Note

Rozmberkov Castle in the town of Mikulov, where the appearance of the White Panna was also noticed

The alleged narrator is Michael von Rosenberg, a military engineer who received the rank of major general (life 1861-1928). Representatives of the Rožmberk family appeared in Russian service in the 18th century under Tsarina Anna Ioannovna

A few days later I received a letter from Rosemberg in which he wrote that a close relative of theirs had died. The death of a relative occurred on the very evening when the White Panna appeared to him.

Addition to the story. The appearance of the White Lady was noticed during World War II in 1944. The Nazis set up a Nazi school for girls in the castle. One day, schoolgirls raising a fascist flag saw a ghostly woman who shook her finger at them. The frightened girls ran away, and the raised flag tore off the pole and fell to the ground. An explanation was quickly found for the incident, blaming saboteurs for everything. However, no strangers were ever found in the castle. So the ghost spoke out against fascism on her estate.

The picture is just about me :))
In summer, the castle hosts a night tour dedicated to the White Lady. No one met the ghost, but the excursion was very interesting. I hope that when I visit the Czech Republic again, I will definitely visit the White Lady.

You can find out about the Rozmberks (Rosenbergs) here http://rosenberg-i.ru
Photo materials from the site were also used

In our world, which has been studied, it would seem, far and wide, inexplicable phenomena are still encountered. And, although the existence of paranormal phenomena has not been scientifically proven, many still believe in them. Perhaps because people are naturally curious, and ghosts are an amazing chance to at least look behind the veil of mystery of the otherworldly. Here is a selection of the most famous ghosts in the world.

1. The Ghost of the White Lady

The White Lady is a collective name for ghosts. As a rule, eyewitnesses describe long-haired women in a white dress, with dark sad eyes and a thin, pointed face. Sometimes they also talk about bloody hands and face, and Mikhail Rosenberg, during his trip to the Czech Republic, saw a Lady in black gloves.

This ghost is one of the most famous in the world. According to legend, the Czech White Lady is none other than Perchta Rozmberk, who is considered the guardian of the Rozmberk family and families close to it. Her story could have happened to any noble young woman who lived in the Middle Ages: young Perchta was forcibly married to a man much older than herself, the aristocrat Jan Lichtenstein. He turned out to be a villain, a pervert and a sadist, often raped and beat his young wife, and also, not embarrassed by her presence, organized orgies in the castle. The unfortunate woman endured bullying for 20 years, because the morals of that era did not allow her to leave her despot husband and return to her family, and the church would not give permission for a divorce.

They say that before his death, Count Liechtenstein asked his wife for forgiveness, but she could not forgive him. Then the count cursed his wife with the words: “May you have no peace after death!”

Since then, Perchta has appeared in the former possessions of the Rožmberks: the old castle of Sovinec and the nearby town of Cesky Krumlov. It does not harm anyone, but for the descendants of the family it can mean a warning about the imminent death of one of the relatives. Her portrait with a signature in an unknown language has survived to this day. There is a legend that the White Lady in person will appear to anyone who can decipher the signature and tell where the huge treasure is hidden.

2. Anku

The word “Anku” itself is translated as “skeleton” or, in some interpretations, “Messenger of Death.” This ghost has been seen on the roads of Brittany. It always appears on old country roads and never near busy highways or populated areas. However, the ghost did not disdain small villages and, according to legend, visited them often.

Anku looks like a corpse or a skeleton with long white hair. He is wrapped in a dark cloak with a hood thrown over his face, hiding the greenish putrid light in his sunken eye sockets, with a scythe on his shoulder. He is always followed by a funeral cart drawn by a skeletal horse. His appearance was accompanied by the ringing of funeral bells, gusts of icy wind and the dull loud clatter of horse hooves.

It was believed that whoever was lucky enough to see the anka would die within the next two years. Some sources say that an eyewitness, when meeting a ghost, was certainly knocked down by an unknown force, and earth was stuffed into his mouth, perhaps the same one that would soon be thrown on his coffin. If a person encountered anku at midnight, he would certainly die within a month.

However, anku is not just one mysterious entity. The previous messenger of death was replaced every year by another unfortunate man, who happened to be the last to die of the year. There is another opinion: anku is none other than the biblical character Cain, the first person to commit murder.

The last time Anka was allegedly seen was about 50 years ago. It is possible that there is simply no place left for such ghosts in our enlightened age.

3. Shivering boy

There is a strange place in Ireland - Gripmain Castle. Now no one lives in the castle, but it is well preserved and is open to tourists. And, of course, like most respected European castles, it has its own ghost, known throughout the world as the “Trembling Boy”.

They say that if you stay in the castle overnight, then around midnight a pale translucent silhouette of a child with dark hair falling into his eyes will appear next to your bed. The boy will whisper, “It's cold, I'm so cold,” and may even touch your face with his icy fingers. Eyewitnesses said that after they woke up, the boy did not leave, but continued to stand by the bed and complain about the cold. He got away only after the unfortunate visitor to the ancient castle turned on the light. At the same time, the ghost did not leave the room, did not evaporate, no - it simply disappeared, as if it was not there, which, however, is quite possible.

According to legend, the boy was the heir to a rich old family of Northumbrian earls and received the castle from his father, who died when his son was only six years old. His guardian uncle decided to get rid of the rightful owner and appropriate the castle for himself, so he took the child to the field on a winter night and left him there alone. By morning the boy was frozen, and his uncle finally received the coveted castle. True, together with a ghost: some sources describe that the boy “returned” the very next night after his burial and tormented his uncle for the rest of his life.

The ghost of the child is still seen in the castle, and some impressionable tourists have talked about his appearance during the daytime. In some cases, entire groups of people who have never met before and visited Gripmain Castle for the first time in their lives speak about his appearance with one voice.

4. Lady from Echt

The lady from Echt can be found in Holland. The ghost is not tied to any specific place and can appear anywhere. The lady from Echt looks quite impressive: a torn dark dress, a thin cloak thrown over her shoulders, her head lying in her thin, emaciated hands, and blood oozing from the stump of her neck. However, this ghost is quite harmless for the casual traveler.

You can meet the Lady, as usual, only at night. In some cases, the headless female figure may simply walk by, and in others, it may stop in front of the person and speak to him. If for some reason a strange ghost likes you, it will take you to the place where the treasure is buried, but will ask you not to take a single coin for yourself, but to distribute everything to those in need. If the one who received the treasure does not fulfill this condition, then the gold coins found and appropriated by him will turn to dust.

One day the Lady from Echt met a young man on the road returning home at night. She showed him the place where the treasure was buried and said that he could take it for himself if only he dug up the treasure without making a sound. But the stupid young man, seeing a chest full of gold, could not resist a joyful cry, after which both the chest and the ghost literally fell through the ground. Since then, no one has seen the headless ghost. Apparently, the Lady finally became disillusioned with people and left for another world.

5. Black Lady of Nesvizh Castle

The Black Lady is the ghost of Barbara Radziwill, a representative of one of the most noble families of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Previously, she could be found in one of the rooms of her family nest - Nesvizh Castle. The ghost looked like a beautiful blond woman with sad brown eyes in a rich black dress and pearls on her slender neck.

It so happened that, while still alive, the young and beautiful princess met the heir to the Polish crown, Sigismund Augustus. As usual, passion arose between the young people, they became lovers and eventually got married secretly. Soon after this, Sigismund's first wife Augusta died of epilepsy, and Barbara was presented to the court as the king's legitimate wife. Unfortunately, Queen Mother Bona Sforza hated all the offspring of the Radziwill family, and therefore Barbara was soon poisoned on her orders and died in terrible agony. They did not bury her in the tomb of the Polish kings, but took her body to her native castle.

Oddly enough, this is perhaps the only ghost whose origin can be explained by anything other than the rich imagination of the people who saw it. Barbara, for example, was seen by many people during a spiritualistic seance arranged for the inconsolable king by the famous “magician and spellcaster” of that time, Pan Tvardovsky. He summoned the spirit of the deceased queen using the so-called magic mirror, having previously agreed with the king that he would not try to touch his wife. Of course, the king could not stand it, tried to hug her, and she disappeared with a loud ringing sound. The secret of its appearance lies in the mirror that Pan Tvardovsky, who left Nesvizh Castle in a hurry, left there. Behind a thin layer of amalgam is engraved the appearance of Barbara, exactly as she was in life. If the light hits the mirror at a certain angle, then a ghost appears in the room.

Agree, this is an amazing trick in its execution, and explains quite a lot. It is quite possible that other ghosts seen by people in other parts of the world and under other circumstances appeared due to some completely understandable reasons. Another thing is that these reasons are still unknown.

6. Ghost Ship

Surprisingly, the world's most famous ghost is not a man, but a ship - the Flying Dutchman. It is observed off the southern coast of Africa to this day, although always at a great distance. It is described as a battered old sailing ship. Previously, until the 20th century, sailors allegedly managed to get close to the ghost ship, and then it was possible to discern the ghostly silhouettes of emaciated men (according to another version, skeletons moving along the deck).

Fata Morgana

According to legend, the captain of the ship, Philip Van der Decken, fell in love with a girl, but she did not reciprocate his feelings, and then the stern sailor killed her fiancé. The girl did not survive this and threw herself off the cliff into the sea, and Van der Decken had to flee. While trying to go around the Cape of Good Hope, his ship was caught in a strong storm, but the ambitious captain did not want to wait out the bad weather in some bay. Instead, he began to blaspheme and swore that none of his crew would go ashore until they had rounded “that damn cape,” thereby bringing a curse upon himself and his crew. Since then, the ship has been forced to sail across the ocean, and none of the crew is able to go ashore. There is a version that a captain can step ashore once every ten years for exactly one day, and if during this time he finds a girl who voluntarily agrees to become his wife, then the curse will disappear.

The appearance of the Flying Dutchman is often explained by the phenomenon of Fata Morgana - a mirage that appears in the sea above the surface of the water.

7. The Ghost of Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn is another ghost that is not tied to a specific place. According to history, it can be found anywhere in the UK. Most often, eyewitnesses claim to have seen her wandering the corridors of the Tower of London, sitting near a window at the Priory of Dean in Windsor, or on the estates of Blickling Hall. She is described as a tall, beautiful woman dressed in white, carrying a severed head in her hands. She was sometimes seen riding in a carriage drawn by headless horses and driven by a headless coachman.

The story of Anne Boleyn's ghost originates in another legend of unhappy love. Anne was the second wife of the English king Henry VIII. For her sake, he founded the Anglican Church. This was necessary in order to divorce the previous wife: the Papal Throne at that time was categorically against divorce proceedings, especially when it came to monarchs. One way or another, the king married Anna, she bore him a daughter, but then the king’s love ended, and he became interested in his new favorite. Henry accused the unfortunate Anna of treason, took him into custody and subsequently executed her. Since then, Anna has been forced to wander through the expanses of her native country, unable to find peace.

Interestingly, no one has ever seen the ghost of the treacherous Henry. At least, there is nothing about this in written sources. As for Anna, her frequent appearances are written about in every guidebook of a more or less famous castle.

8. The Brown Lady from Ryman Hall

The Brown Lady is the ghost of Lady Dorothy Walpole, according to official sources, the wife of Viscount Townsend II who died in 1726. Her father did not consent to their marriage for a long time, and when Dorothy finally married the Viscount, she very soon fell in love with another man. Her angry husband locked her in one of the rooms of their castle, Ryman Hall. It is believed that she died of smallpox, but some historians are inclined to believe that the cause of death was depression from separation from her lover. There is also a version that a jealous husband pushed her down the stairs.

Since then, the Brown Lady has been seen more than once in the corridors of the estate. It is believed that she cannot leave Ryman Hall until she finds her children, whom she did not see until her death due to her husband’s ban on visiting them. She looks like a blurry female figure in a strict brown dress. This is a rather "peaceful" ghost. The lady never tried to make contact with eyewitnesses, did not speak to them or even look in their direction - she simply wandered along the corridors of the house and disappeared as suddenly as she appeared.

Surprisingly, there is even one photograph of this ghost, taken in 1936 by respected photographers Captain Provand and his assistant Indre Shira. These people had an impeccable reputation, so most ordinary people of that time did not question the authenticity of the photograph. It was published in the authoritative magazine “Rural Life” and served as excellent advertising for the old estate. However, it is inappropriate to talk about the authenticity of the photo these days: firstly, even in the first half of the 20th century it was easy to make such a fake, and secondly, there is no longer any documentary evidence of the existence of a ghost.

9. Black dogs

Black dogs are traditionally described as shaggy, calf-sized dogs with glowing red eyes and a grinning mouth with huge fangs. They were seen only in Great Britain and Ireland, most often near river and sea shores or in cemetery graveyards. Otherwise, legends about creepy black dogs vary greatly. According to some sources, meeting a dog means inevitable death, either immediately from its fangs, or soon from an incurable disease. According to other beliefs, dogs were considered, despite their appearance, to be good messengers and could guide home lonely girls walking along the road at night or lead a lost child out of the forest, and were dangerous only for sinners or criminals.

Some esotericists explain the appearance of black dogs by the fact that certain magnetic parallels supposedly pass in these places (a controversial version). Others believe that dogs are the energetic imprint of dogs that lived in these places in the past, and their appearance is caused by meteorological phenomena. Still others say that these are just ordinary dogs appearing at a distance from you, and fear, as you know, has big eyes.

It was never possible to film a black dog, so there is no documentary evidence of their existence. Of course, even a century and a half ago, in the vastness of Great Britain, corpses were found with obvious traces of fangs on the body, but ordinary wolves could do this to a lonely traveler.