Every day on Lviv's narrow and ancient streets, we meet many people but also mythical and terrifying creatures. They quietly observe the city's life from the facades of historical buildings. At the same time, they hint that there is a place for cunning witches, dangerous criminals, deals with the devil, and other manifestations of evil in the city’s history. Lviv is a multifaceted city, and if we want to feel its spirit, we need also study its mystical, mysterious, and frightening essence. After all, it is impossible to understand the beautiful without a sense of the ugly and terrible.
All problems begin in Rynok Square
In 1772, after the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Lviv became part of the Habsburg Empire. A year passed, and Emperor Joseph II arrived here. His impressions were not the best: the ruler's carriage, drawn by six horses, got stuck in the swamp on Rynok Square. The emperor did not even suspect that the problems were only beginning here and that Lviv was not as simple a city as it seemed at first glance.
Let's even take the town hall. It is a well-known fact that city council employees work hard, persistently, and late into the night. So they had to see a black coffin. In the evening and at night, it flies along the long corridors of the Lviv City Hall, right under the ceiling. There is a version that it all started after a careless investigation of the crime by Lviv government officials. The verdict was unjust, the prisoner was executed, and his soul never found peace.
By the way, there was once a prison in the dungeons of the town hall.
Witches and alchemists
Narrow and dimly lit streets, dark corners, the whispering of hoarse voices behind and on either side of you, the distant barking of dogs and tailed rats underfoot. Ancient Lviv differed from the modern city. In 1829, Ignacy Chodyniecki, the author of the chronicle of Lviv, wrote without any doubt about the witches, sorcerers, and fortune-tellers who lived in the city during the old times. When Lviv was part of the Polish Crown, there were trials against witches. There were legal norms that regulated these issues. Even the representatives of the noble army, which in September 1648 was defeated near Pylіavtsi by Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, muttered something about the hetman's witch corps. Of course, no one will talk about his disorganization or laziness in this situation.
Alchemists were no less popular than witches in ancient Lviv. Frog's legs, hare's tail, snake poison, suspicious smoke from the neighbor’s house - he definitely does not brew beer! Rather, he is looking for a way to turn iron into gold or wants to live forever. There is evidence that the alchemist worked in Lviv at the site of the Doctor Faust restaurant and in other places. A popular story is about the owner of the Palace in Pidhirtsi, Seweryn Rzewuski, who had an alchemical laboratory in the basement. The improvised room of the alchemist can be seen in the pharmacy museum "Under the Black Eagle''.
"Vampire" Cybulski
Stryiskyi Park is a beautiful location. It’s impossible to imagine Lviv without this place. Spacious paths, clean air, peace, and quiet all around. This is the paradise of a modern city. In summer especially. No one remembers the Stryiskyi cemetery, which was nearby. Moreover, about the "dark" pages of the history of Stryiskyi Park. For example, in February 1934, a fragmented female body was found here without a head and limbs. The police acted quickly. The missing parts of the victim's body were quickly discovered. They also caught the murderer. It was the owner of a newspaper kiosk, Jeronim Сybulski. They also established the identity of the deceased.
While inspecting Cybulski's kiosk, the police found the remains of a body wrapped in paper. The tools of murder were nearby: an ax, a saw, and a knife. Based on the investigation and testimony of Cybulski, the following was established. On Halytska Street, Cybulski met a prostitute, Emilia Schaeffer. She was known for stealing. They went to his stall. It was not possible to establish a motive, but we already know how this story ended. Cybulski was recognized as mentally ill. That is why his sentence is life imprisonment.
Creepy stories with headless corpses
Our ideas about witches in Lviv begin and end with mentions of Lysa Hora. This story is so secret that every Lviv resident knows the meeting place of Lviv witches - this is Lysa Hora. Their meetings, known as Sabbaths, take place there. But the reality is not so romantic.
In the Lychakiv district of Lviv, above the church of St. Antonia, was another temple. This church was dismantled after the Austrian authorities came to Lviv, but there is one unusual story connected with it.
In the second half of the 16th century, a woman from Riasne was buried in the church cemetery. Over the next few days, several people died in the surrounding area. Local residents were alarmed by this. Suspicion fell on a woman from Riasne, who was suspected of witchcraft. The Lviv people are brave, so they dug up the coffin. It was found that the deceased had bitten a handkerchief in her teeth. Witnesses who confirmed that there was no such thing at the time of the funeral were found immediately. So they cut off the poor woman's head, put it at her feet, and buried the coffin again.
Ghost train
In 1861, a train arrived in Lviv. It was the first train that arrived in the territory of modern Ukraine. Already in the following decades, this vehicle was a means of comfort, but also a symbol of the era. And what symbol is possible without legends and scary stories?
After the appearance of railways in Lviv, a ghost train was often seen at the city station. It was coming out of nowhere and hurtling towards nowhere at breakneck speed. One evening, a ghost train quite excited the passengers present on the platform. He appeared again out of nowhere and rushed frantically to the Vienna train, which arrived in Lviv exactly according to its schedule. It seemed that the tragedy was inevitable! However, the ghost train simply passed the real one, leaving an imprint of horror on the faces of the people present.
A conversation with the devil
Are deals with the devil more about Western Europe or Hollywood movies? No! Such a thing happened in Lviv! In 1641, the monk Albert Virozemskyi made a deal with the devil and gave him his soul and body. This incident was called, "the most shameful human act in the entire history of the city."
Albert Virozemskyi was a good and quite intelligent guy. He pretended to be a priest and traveled around the surrounding villages. There he held religious services, confessed, gave communion, and baptized children, and in this way swindled money from people.
However, all good things come to an end - he was exposed, captured, and imprisoned in the dungeons of the Bernardine monastery in Lviv. Virozemskyi was sentenced to death. Then he was visited by the devil. No horns or tail, but in the image of a young boy. He passed through the wall, on which the monk later wrote the agreement in blood:
"I sign with my blood and submit to the power of Prince Lucifer. In exchange for this, I ask for twenty years of life, after which he has the right to take me with soul and body. According to this contract, I renounce God and the Mother of God...".
