In addition to beautiful resort places, which are pleasant to stroll through, in Pyatigorsk there is one mysterious building around which legends are circulating. Elsa's house is a truly mystical place filled with strange energy.
Elsa's house is located at the address: Pyatigorsk, st. Lermontovskaya, 13. If you are resting in Pyatigorsk, be sure to visit this place. A strange energy emanates from him. The building has long been abandoned, but getting into the house is not difficult. I remember how, as a teenager, my friends and I loved to wander around the rooms and read strange graffiti on the walls.
Then it never occurred to anyone why such a beautiful building, located in a picturesque place, was empty all the time, and no one wanted to put it in order and open some restaurant, hotel or sanatorium building there.
Many urban legends are associated with Elsa's house. Some people even claim to have seen ghosts there. I didn’t meet ghosts in the house, but I felt peace and warmth, I just didn’t want to leave.
The Legend of Elsa's House
The very Elsa, after whom the house was named, was German by origin, but lived in Pyatigorsk and kept her own boarding house (rented out furnished rooms). In 1901, she met her fate - the pastry chef Arshak Gukasov and married him. An enterprising couple started a joint restaurant business. Things were going uphill and the couple decided to build a new boarding house in a picturesque place in the city of Pyatigorsk.
The mansion was designed by the architect Sergei Gushchin and resembled a medieval fortress. The house had 62 rooms. Elsa's house was completed in 1905. It was a boarding house where wealthy guests came. It was prestigious to stay here.
The business was booming. Arshak Gukasov was elected a deputy of the local duma, he visited the Russian-Japanese war and changed his name - he became Alexander. The couple was doing well, but there were no children. In 1909, they opened a coffee shop in Flower Garden, but the family soon fell apart. Presumably, Elsa left her husband because she could not give birth to his heirs.
Elsa continued to manage the mansion even after breaking up with her husband, but in 1917 a revolution took place that destroyed many lives. The mansion was nationalized and transferred to the jurisdiction of the Krasnaya Zvezda sanatorium. The fate of the hostess of the hotel is still unknown. There is a version that the Bolsheviks shot her, and then walled up in the wall of the boarding house.
Another, more plausible version, says that Elsa disappeared from the city during the Great Patriotic War, when Pyatigorsk was under German occupation. There is a version that she left for Nalchik or Stavropol, then her traces are lost.
The people said that Elsa managed to hide a lot of treasures from the Bolsheviks, and that they were in her boarding house. As if the treasures were buried somewhere in the basement, however, until now no one has been able to find them, although over the years a lot of people have visited this abandoned building. Maybe someone found the treasures hidden by the enterprising Elsa, and just doesn't tell anyone about it?
Also, popular rumor believes that Elsa Gukasova was engaged in black magic and sold her soul to the devil for financial well-being and prosperity. So her soul does not know peace - it wanders around the house, frightening people who, for the sake of curiosity, disturb her peace.
Ghosts in the house
Even in those days, when there was a sanatorium in the house, various mystical rumors circulated about it. Vacationers complained that suddenly they were visited by fear, someone heard crying, and some, on the contrary, felt inexplicable joy and euphoria.
Today, on the Internet, you can see videos and photographs taken in Elsa's house, where some incomprehensible shadows and strange silhouettes are visible.
It is strange that the house has been abandoned for many decades. Elsa's house fell into disrepair. Homeless people spend the night in it, curious teenagers walk around and worshipers of black magic perform rituals.
It is believed that the main energy is concentrated in the basement of the room, where there is a strange parallelepiped covered with tiles. They say that the body of the mistress of the house rests here. The mystics believe that Elsa was so attached to her boarding house, for which she laid her soul, that she could not leave this place even many years after her death.
Elsa's house: personal experience
One of the legends associated with Elsa's house says that the hostess treats guests differently. Some one can curse and bring misfortune to their future fate, but someone, on the contrary, she welcomes.
I was in this house several times in my youth. Then I did not know what about this mystical place. I didn't go down to the basement, but once my friends and I spent several hours there. I can say that then I really felt euphoria. I simply didn’t want to leave there. This house seemed to me then very calm and pleasant.
I read reviews on the Internet. Some visitors to Elsa's house make a wish there. It is believed that this place is able to materialize what you want, especially when it comes to personal life and happiness in love.
If we discard the mysticism, it still seems strange that such a beautiful building is empty and is gradually falling into decay. There were rumors that the house was bought by some commercial company that was going to restore the mansion, but something did not work out. Elsa's house was included in the register of architectural monuments, but it still remains abandoned, only the metal fence that was erected around the building prevents curious visitors from entering there.
By the way, a poem is written on one of the balconies of the house, allegedly Elsa Gukasova herself dictated these lines to someone:
