The Black Lady of Nesvizh and other famous Belarusian ghosts. Black Lady of Nesvizh Castle White Lady Golshan

We were there on Friday and there were already a lot of weddings and processions. The coolest thing is that everyone tried to take pictures with the cadets and other military personnel, who are brought en masse on excursions to the castles.

The castle is surrounded by ponds, it is very picturesque here. It’s a pity there was no sun, otherwise Nesvizh would have shone like a pearl.

Nesvizh Palace is surrounded by a moat and was previously completely surrounded by ramparts and a wall. Now we see a very European castle. Entry through the main gate

Inside is a square surrounded by houses that make up the palace's lodges.

There are no particularly tricky passages here like in Mirskoye, everything here is linear and rather “boring”, especially for those who have seen the palaces of Peterhof, Catherine, Versailles or even any other. The room goes into another, a continuous corridor of rooms, from which secret staircases go, a sea of ​​fireplaces, stoves with tiles. Then you just have to look, it’s difficult for me to comment, we didn’t have a tour. By the way, it’s worth taking, because this way you can learn about the historical Radzivil family, maybe even remember the family tree, learn some of the secrets of this palace and, most importantly, legends.

I really love legends. It seems to me that this is the same magic that attracts everyone to the ruins of castles. Let's start with the most discussed one and the main thing is that it is easy to believe, because between Nesvizh and Mir there are only a little over 30 kilometers.

The legend about the road connecting Mir Castle with Nesvizhik has been around for many years, and the underground tunnels of the castles increasingly confirm this story. Now fortification tunnels have been discovered, about 20 meters long, and one leads to the gunner’s house from where the cannonballs were unnoticed, and the other, about 40 meters long, leads to the courtyard. Needed to drain water and supply water from the moat during a siege. But I think many of the passages over the years of the castle’s existence could have been buried for safety.

The castle has everything for the convenience of tourists. There are tours, there are audio guides and many signs in different languages ​​for everyone else. The decoration of the palace is pleasant. It resembles a country hunting lodge of very rich gentlemen.

Everything is in moderation, there is no special pathos, but a lot of wood, a little gold.

Lots of business offices and hunting rooms. It felt like there were only men here.

A serious restoration was carried out, since the castle was plundered, the situation was restored.

I was always drawn to fireplaces and stoves. This is truly the center of the room.

There is no unnecessary pomp here, everything is comfortable and practical, but rich.

Selfie in the mirror.

What a stove! Piece of art.

The halls are all different, but all passable. This one has a stunning coffered or even properly beamed ceiling.

Amazing!

This is mine! Bright, discreet, stylish.

There are vases on the mantelpiece

We move to the main hall.

There is gold and mirrors.

Interesting parquet

Stove with pictures

But the main thing is the mirror corridor. It’s scary to even look into it, let alone photograph it. But what if? Here they talk about another legend of Nesvizh - about the ghost of the Black Panna. Like many stories, this one has real roots.

So in the distant past, Nikolai Radzivil, nicknamed the Black, really wanted to become king and decided to use his cousin Barbara, who lived not far from the Polish king Sigismund Augustus, to do this. They really fell in love with each other and, in order to keep their relationship secret, under pressure from Nicholas, they entered into a secret alliance. But then the Medici intervened. Well, what would we do without them? Sigismund's mother was from this wonderful family, and after the coronation of her son, she did her best to prevent his legitimate wife from ascending to the throne.
This went on for several years and when the gentry accepted the new queen, the mother-in-law ordered her daughter-in-law to be poisoned. Six months after her coronation, Barbara died of a terrible illness. The death was terrible, but her husband remained with her until the last. According to tradition, Polish kings were buried in Krakow, but Augustus insisted on transporting Barbara’s body to her homeland - to Vilna: “They didn’t accept her here during her lifetime, I won’t leave her here even after death.” He walked the entire route from Krakow to Vilna, following a black carriage. Barbara was buried in the Cathedral in Vilna, her sarcophagus is still there.

After the death of his beloved, the king was very sad. He often visited the Nesvizh castle to see his beloved’s brothers. Everything here reminded me of my beloved Fable. On one of these visits, the desperately yearning king, with the help of black magic and the alchemists Twardowski and Mniszek, decided to summon the spirit of Barabara. The ritual had only one condition - not to touch the ghost. When a vision of Barbara appeared, the king could not contain his feelings and rushed to the ghost to hug him, thereby breaking the magical spell. So the soul of the unfortunate woman could not return to her world, and was forced to wander around Nesvizh Castle.

According to one version, she could find peace if her loved one were next to her after death. August promised his beloved that, sensing his approaching death, he would come to die right here, in Nesvizh Castle. However, this time too fate turned out to be too cruel to the lovers. Death came to the king too quickly, and he was never able to fulfill his promise. So the ghost remained on this earth and was forced to wander among the living forever. She was nicknamed the Black Panna because a ghost walks around in black mourning clothes, as a sign of her unhappy love.

It is believed that the Black Lady warns the residents of Nesvizh Castle about danger. So, she was seen some time before the fire in the castle in 2002.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Germans believed in the legend of the ghost of the Black Lady and were afraid of her. Seeing somewhere unclear shadows or outlines, they furiously fired at that place and quickly hid.

But tourists are told that the Black Lady can be seen in that same mirrored corridor,
after all, he is like a guide to different worlds.

The dance hall has amazing stucco, it is different everywhere.

The hunting hall, I would say for men.

Trophies on the walls...

And on the floor.

The owners were multifaceted personalities and they had their own theater here. And not a simple game one, but a puppet one.

Here's the setup for the wave and storm image. I'd really like to see how it all works. If only such performances were shown now, it would be a masterpiece!

The castle has its own chapel. It is unusually decorated. All these are volumetric paintings.

I strongly advise everyone who is planning a trip to Belarus to visit Nesvizh Castle - you will get a beautiful and educational excursion with a slight touch of mysticism.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the ancestral seat of the famous Lithuanian princes the Radziwills, the castle seemed to me more like an elegant palace than a powerful defensive fortress. In the summer of 2011, when my meeting with the castle took place, restoration work was still underway in some places, and under the bridge, right in the ditch, a bulldozer was vigorously floundering... Nevertheless, the castle and the city itself left only the most pleasant impressions.

Special mention should be made of the local guides, who talk so enthusiastically about the castle and its inhabitants, the stories and legends associated with them, that you want to applaud. By the way, you can write separate opuses about the owners of the frame, the Radziwills. This family was so rich and influential that their contemporaries called them nothing less than “uncrowned kings.” Moreover, they are quite capable of “showing the middle finger” to the same king... Even the nicknames given to them by their compatriots did not leave me indifferent - Orphan, Black, Rybonka, Panya Kokhanku (well, a person with such a name cannot be uninteresting, can he ? :))

In a word, a beautiful castle with a fascinating history, covered in many legends and, by the way, has its own ghost - the Black Lady. This is where I will focus my attention in my story, because it is already like a “calling card” of the castle.

The story is extremely heart-warming, lovers of melodrama please have handkerchiefs ready... Because we are talking about tragic love and untimely death. So, according to legend, the role of the ghost is played by Barbara Radziwill, the wife of the Polish king Sigismund Augustus, who managed to be queen for only 6 months. The story began in 1542, when the young heir to the throne, Prince Sigismund, fell in love with Barbara, the widow of Gastold, the first beauty of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The matter may not have come to marriage if not for the zealous efforts of two of Barbara’s relatives - brother Radziwill the Red and cousin Radziwill the Black... Wanting to strengthen their political influence at court, they cunningly staged a wedding, organizing a performance with a spied date, the threat of scandal and a priest who suddenly appeared from somewhere. Well, the prince in love didn’t really resist...

When King Sigismund the Old dies, and our hero has to take the throne, his caring mother, Queen Bona Sforza, with all the agility of her Italian soul, begins to look for a bride for her son. This is where the secret marriage becomes obvious. Despite the stormy protests of the entire Polish Sejm, who did not at all want to name the Lithuanian princess as their queen, and the ultimatums of his mother, Sigismund still achieves the crown for his beloved. But is this a good thing? This is where the story begins about Snow White and the treacherous stepmother, sorry, in this version - the treacherous mother-in-law. Never reconciled, Queen Bona drove off to Italy with her retinue, but left her personal doctor with the order to poison Barbara. Yeah, everything is in the best traditions of sunny Italy... Barbara’s fate evokes sympathy, doesn’t it, ladies? Just imagine, here you are, young and beautiful, putting on a crown, with a loving husband next to you and rrrr!... from that day on, she never gets out of bed. For six months Barbara struggled with the “illness”, and all the time Sigismund did not leave her side. The guide, with a trembling voice, tells how the king personally cared for the sick woman, even when it became completely unbearable to be around. This is where the real story ends and the mysticism begins. The king suffered all the time, and could not come to terms with the death of his wife. Finally, he decided to evoke the spirit of his beloved at a spiritualistic seance. Huge mirrors and portraits of Barbara were installed in the dungeon, and the king received the strictest order - not to touch the phantom under any circumstances... But Sigismund, overcome with feelings, could not restrain himself and tried to hug his wife. The ritual was broken, the spell was broken, and the spirit of the unfortunate queen could no longer return. Since then, the Black Lady has been wandering the chambers of the castle, foreshadowing trouble to everyone who meets her...

Touching, yes. It evokes associations with the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice... But if you dig deeper, you can find out a lot of unpleasant facts that prove that Barbara was by no means an angel. Even under her first husband, she was called “the great libertine of Lithuania,” with at least 38 lovers attributed to her! Our lady also loved fashionable outfits, pearls and used cosmetics liberally... The first husband, Stanislav Halshtod, by the way, did not lag behind his missus in his exploits, and even infected her with the “French disease”, that is, syphilis... So maybe Queen Bona was for Why hate such a daughter-in-law? And maybe the beautiful Barbara didn’t die from poison at all? And some Polish researchers even believe that rapidly progressing cancer was to blame. Once I started digging, I couldn’t stop, it was interesting, and frankly, I wasn’t happy myself... Let the beautiful legend remain so!

But there was nothing to be done, so I went to debunk the legend itself. To smithereens, may romantically minded people forgive me... Firstly, Barbara Radziwill had never even been to Nesvizh, which during her life was just a provincial run-down town... The first stone in the foundation of the Nesvizh castle was laid no earlier than 30 years later years since Barbara's death. So even purely theoretically, she could not walk through its halls and corridors. The princess was born in Vilna (modern Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania), and was buried there according to her own dying wish. So maybe she is not the notorious Black Lady of Nesvizh? The descendants of the Radziwills themselves, by the way, sincerely believe in the existence of the Black Lady, but they have a completely different woman in mind. Her name is Princess Anna Radziwill-Sangushkova, who lived a long life in Nesvizh and was buried under the slabs of the Corpus Christi Church. According to their version, Anna appears only to members of the Radziwill family, and only with the purpose of warning about the impending misfortune.

Secondly, it seems that enthusiasm for Barbara’s beauty is greatly exaggerated. There are only two authentic portraits left, and in them the princess looks like a nondescript gray mouse. And the later the copy of this portrait, the more attractive they depict our Barbara. And some records of her contemporaries indicate that the “beauty” had broad shoulders and a rather strong-willed face, generously sprinkled with white powder... And the reconstruction of the princess’s face based on her skull completely baffled scientists: it turns out that Barbara had a rather impressive nose with a hump ! Oh, somewhere we have already heard about this notorious “hooked nose”, belonging to another famous fatal beauty of antiquity. Of course, I mean Cleopatra... And so the image of the beauty with a doll-like face melted away, alas... Was she really able to win the heart of the king with her charm alone?

And another legend, about an underground passage supposedly connecting Nesvizh Castle with Mirsky, seems not so extravagant. Not long ago, archaeologists discovered one of the previously unknown underground corridors; research is underway. Maybe the famous missing treasure of the Radziwills will be discovered. No joke, a ton of gold...

In addition to the castle, I recommend taking a walk along the alleys of its park. Of course, to those who have visited, say, Tsarskoe Selo or Pavlovsk, he may seem very modest. I really liked the silver willows growing there, as well as the numerous park sculptures, for example, the mermaid Ondine, or a dog who saved her owner from a bear...

And the real “gift” for me was the organ in the Church of the Body of God. Just during our excursion, Sunday mass was being celebrated in the church; I did not take photographs at that moment...

I just sat on the bench and enjoyed the solemn chords, unable to leave. Forgetting about everything in the world, including the fact that they have been waiting for me for a long time... I must say thanks to “Viapol” and the kind Belarusians who did not abandon me there, and were not too lazy to find and put my carcass on the bus. Exactly the carcass, because my soul remained there, next to the organ... By the way, since then in St. Petersburg I have attended more than one organ concert, but somehow it’s not the same, it’s not impressive...

👁 Do we book the hotel through booking as always? In the world, not only Booking exists (🙈 we pay for a huge percentage of hotels!) I have been practicing Rumguru for a long time, it’s really more profitable 💰💰 than Booking.

👁 Do you know? 🐒 this is the evolution of city excursions. The VIP guide is a city dweller, he will show you the most unusual places and tell you urban legends, I tried it, it’s fire 🚀! Prices from 600 rub. - they will definitely please you 🤑

👁 The best search engine on the Runet - Yandex ❤ has started selling air tickets! 🤷

There are many amazing stories and simply fantastic legends about Nesvizh Castle and the Radziwill dynastic family, the history of which goes back many generations.

The great dynasty is in one way or another connected with the Belarusian city of Nesvizh, where representatives of this legendary family tree were born, lived and died. Here is just a story about a small part of them.

According to legend, the Radziwill family originates from the distant ancestor Lizdzeika, who advised the powerful Prince Gedymin to build the city of Vilnia on the site where he dreamed of the iron wolf.

For valuable advice, the prince ordered Lizzeyka to measure out as much land as long as the hunting trumpet could be heard. This is how the Radziwill family coat of arms “Pipes” and vast lands - Nesvizh appeared. This is how the biography of the famous dynasty begins.

Over the years, the family, which began with the illegitimate son of a priest and a peasant woman, developed and expanded. The intelligence of the members of the Radziwill clan, insight and education, as well as their untold wealth and connections gave them the opportunity to influence the destinies of people and take an active part in global world events, far from being the last ones.

Bright representatives of the genus

So, Dominik Nikolai Radziwill known for his participation in the War of 1812 on the side of Napoleon.

According to legend, in order to equip his Uhlan regiment, Dominic sold one of the 12 figures of the apostles that were kept in the Radziwill treasury. 10 statues were cast from silver and 2 from gold.

And one more interesting fact from his personal life: already being married, Dominic fell passionately in love with his cousin. She reciprocated his feelings, although she was also married. The lovers secretly left for Vienna.

This whole story about an affair between blood relatives cost a descendant of a famous family a lot of money. But after Dominic divorced his wife and Teofilia divorced her husband, they still got married. The family had two children.

After a severe shell shock during the war, Dominik Radziwill died at the age of 27.

He was a powerful statesman and church figure in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was the son of the governor of the Vilna prince Nicholas Christopher Radziwill “Black”.

Yuri served in the retinue of the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus and in 1854 became the first cardinal of Lithuania. He bore the title of Bishop of Vilnius and Krakow.

He was one of those representatives of the Radziwills, at which the history of the family is interrupted. One of the branches of the dynasty ends with him, since the cardinal, as a spiritual person, did not have his own children.

He died at the age of 43 in Rome, where he was invited to continue his religious activities. The cardinal was buried in Italy, in the Church of Il Gesu.

Among the numerous members of the family were knights, governors, hetmans, marshals, senators and even priests. Many of them were distinguished by their strange, unusual behavior.

Prince Martin Nikolai became interested in Eastern philosophy, changed his faith from Catholicism to Judaism, became interested in alchemy and started a whole harem of his serf peasant women.

Eventually, his relatives put him under house arrest, telling everyone that the prince was mentally ill. This is how he ended his life.

A Prince Ulrich ordered the court artist to paint a portrait of an ideal woman, the most beautiful on earth. When the portrait was ready, the prince accepted it with delight, hung it on the wall and could spend hours playing on the flute to this ideal portrait woman hymns of praise and love, which he himself wrote.

The man who makes legends

But the unsurpassed record holder for stories, tales and rumors about him is, of course, Karl Stanislaw Radziwill, who was also called . They say that until the age of 15, the prince could neither write nor read, and no one could force him to study. But one visiting teacher found a cunning way. He came up with a game for the young prince: he wrote letters on the board with chalk, and he shot them with a gun.

But this story is unlikely to be true, because Karl Stanislav is the son of the most educated woman in Europe - Frantiska Urszula Radziwill. There is even historical information that Prince Karol spoke seven languages.

Once upon a time, the King of Poland Stanislav August Poniatowski himself came to Nesvizh Castle. The prince gave him a luxurious reception and, among other things, used his own flotilla to stage the Battle of Gibraltar on the river.

Winter fun in summer at the court of Pane Kohanku

They said that at another luxurious feast on a hot summer evening, Pane Kokhanku promised the guests that tomorrow they would ride a sleigh on the white snow. The guests, thinking that the owner of the house had drunk too much, only laughed at this promise. Their amazement knew no bounds when in the morning they saw a courtyard strewn with white salt, and a beautiful sleigh stood at the entrance.

But salt was worth its weight in gold back then! The next day, having gathered local peasants, the prince gave the following order: if people do not collect all the salt before sunset, they will be executed. If they manage to do this, they will be able to take all the salt home. Of course, the work was completed on time.

For his uncontrollable imagination and cheerful disposition, Pane Kokhanka was called the Belarusian Baron Munchausen. When he was in a very good mood, the prince could roll a barrel of wine onto the Market Square of Nesvizh. He sat on it in the costume of the god of wine Bacchus and began to treat everyone passing by.

The prince loved to boast that he managed to catch the devil in Nalibokskaya Pushcha. And so that all the evil spirits would leave him, he kept him in holy water for three days. These are the “true” stories.

Pane Kokhanku liked to tell his guests that he could not use dishes made of fragile porcelain, so he was “forced” to buy only gold and silver dishes. There are many legends about the wealth of the Radziwills, which is still considered lost.

Treasures of the Radziwills

Each year, Prince Charles Radziwill received a profit of 20 million zlotys. This was much more than what the treasury of such a state as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth received annually.

There are even documentary materials confirming this story. Sometimes the King of Poland, Augustus, came to the castle on an official visit. One day, after a sumptuous dinner in honor of such a distinguished guest, the king, as a surprise, was invited to the family treasure vault, located in the dungeons of the palace.

Entering the treasury, for some time Augustus could not utter a word from amazement - everything around simply shone with the brilliance of the jewelry. But the most amazing thing was the sculptures of the 12 Radziwill apostles, made in full human height from gold and silver! The owner of the house gave his distinguished guest a luxurious gift - a golden cross studded with diamonds.

These precious sculptures were kept in the strictest confidence in the dungeons of the castle. Only the prince and another trusted servant had access to them. And only the most important and titled guests of the dynasty had the privilege of looking at this man-made miracle.

During the war, the passage to the treasure dungeons was blown up. And the jewelry has not yet been found.

Individual rooms of the palace complex were also richly decorated with precious metals. And they were named according to the quality of the interior: gold, silver, diamond, marble - to match the interior decor.

Treasures from which piglets are fed

They tell another story about countless family treasures. In the last century there lived a collector Unehovsky. He knew a lot about the life and treasures of the Radziwills. He was especially interested in weapons, which, at the request of the Radziwills, were made for them by a Spanish master from Toledo. Some valuable things made by his hands were once kept in the Knights' Hall of the castle.

Now, the connoisseur-collector could not find his talented works in any museum in the world. While searching, Unehovsky came to Nesvizh. Knowing that many things from the palace were simply stolen, Unehovsky decided to search among local residents. After living for several days with a poor nobleman, he noticed that the owner was feeding the piglets from an amazing vessel of an unusual shape.

The nobleman's amazement knew no bounds when a rich visitor asked him to sell him this vessel. The collector was not mistaken - after washing the strange contraption from dirt, he saw the sign of a gunsmith from Toledo and gold patterns on it. It was only one piece, the "back" from an ancient weapon kit. Unehovsky managed to exchange it for Mazepa’s golden props, and the “back” became an exhibit in a European museum.

Another adventurer for a long time could not find the missing parts from the kit anywhere with a miraculously found “back”. Then he came to the castle and asked to be allowed to simply help restore order in the castle weapons. He did not ask for any payment, but said that he really liked working on ancient things.

He never found what he had been looking for for so long. Desperate, he prepared to leave home. But one old resident of the village remembered that there was a huge pit in which the Radziwill bears used to live, now all kinds of garbage are dumped there.

No longer hoping for anything, the guy went there and, to his great surprise and joy, found there Nikolai Orphan’s childhood weapon and a cuirass on his “back” with the sign of a Spanish master from Toledo. It was only these strange pieces of iron, as those around him thought, that the guy took with him. He sold these ancient treasures to the museum for a lot of money, and later these things ended up in the New York Museum. Such amazing stories sometimes happen.

Metro Radziwillov

There is also a legend that two famous castles: and Mirsky, which are located at a distance of about 30 km from each other, were connected by a secret underground passage.

The width of this tunnel was quite significant, since according to stories, it was possible to get from one palace to another with three harnessed horses.

And there is also a legend that numerous treasures of the Radziwill family, which are considered missing, may be located precisely in the dungeons of the castle. Including in the long tunnel between the palaces.

However, archaeological research has not yet confirmed the presence of a secret passage.

Femme fatales of the Radzewill clan

The prince received his nickname Pane Kokhanku - beloved sir - not only because he liked to address people so much, but also for his unbridled love for women. Many ladies heard words of love from him. They say that at one of the balls a young womanizer met and became interested in a beautiful girl, Felicia Wierzbut. When she refused him, he forcibly took her away from her parents' house.

The girl was returned home after some time, but she had to go to a monastery. And her father cursed Karl Radziwill, wishing him never to have children. Whether this is true or not, let everyone decide for themselves. But in fact, then Pane Kokhanku was married twice, and there were no children left from him.

The prince's second wife was the beautiful Teresa Caroline Rzhevuskaya. She never felt any special love for her husband, and her character was similar to the beautiful villainess Milady from Dumas’s novel: smart, beautiful and cruel.

When Carol Radziwill fell out of favor with the Tsar due to political differences and was forced to flee abroad, his beautiful wife did not go with him and continued her luxurious life with feasts and balls in her castle.

After some time, Karol Radziwill returned to his homeland in Nesvizh Castle. The legend says that he heard rumors about his wife’s wild life in the Belokamsky castle. The deceived husband sent a messenger to his wife - a young, brave nobleman Chesheiko with an offer to Teresa to go to a monastery and an order to take away from her the family jewels given by her husband for the wedding.

Hearing about the monastery, the enraged Teresa almost threw a decanter of water at the envoy, but unexpectedly easily gave up the jewelry in exchange for a receipt. As soon as Chesheiko left, Teresa Carolina accused him of theft and sent him in pursuit.

The nobleman was captured. They discovered jewelry on him and, without listening to explanations, brought him to the castle, where, on Teresa’s false accusation, they cut off the young man’s head. According to one version, Teresa divorced the prince and ended her life in poverty, and according to another, she lived in her family castle in the village of White Stone until her death.

Black Lady of Nesvizh Castle

The ghost of the Black Panna, according to knowledgeable people, still wanders around the palace. This is the spirit of Barbara Radziwill, who was the wife of Zhigimont Augustus, King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This is a story of a beautiful but tragic love that actually happened.

- a young and beautiful representative of a famous family - fell in love and even secretly married the future king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: Sigismund. No one knew about the secret wedding, and they were looking for a noble bride for the king.

The news of the king's secret engagement came as a surprise to everyone. The young man’s mother, an Italian by birth, Queen Bona Sforza, was especially against it. She did not like this family, considering them ill-mannered upstarts. The queen did her best to prevent the girl's coronation.

The young king was even offered to get a divorce, and the sin of divorce should be divided among all residents of the country. But the king was so much in love with Barbara that he did not want to get a divorce and replied that he would rather become a Protestant, but would not abandon his beloved and would not break the promises he made to her in the face of God.

And the Polish Diet had no choice but to crown the king’s wife, and Bona Sforza left for Italy in a rage, leaving her doctor in the palace, who later poisoned the young queen.

Six months after the coronation ceremony, which took place in December 1550, Barbara died. Sigismund decided to bury his beloved in Vilna, her hometown. The loving king walked the entire route, from Krakow to Vilna, following the coffin.

Personal ghost of Nesvizh Castle

This is where the real story ends. But what begins next: truth or fiction is up to you to decide. Sigismund, who passionately loved his wife, never coming to terms with the loss, decided to use magic to summon the soul of his beloved. He was warned not to touch Barbara's spirit. But when the spirit appeared in the room, the king touched his beloved. Immediately it was as if something exploded in the room.

They say that Barbara's spirit has not found peace since that time. Even after the death of the king, the ghost still lives in Nesvizh Castle, and appears there at the first hour of the night. So Barbara warns of impending danger.

Last refuge

This place deserves special attention. Permission to found a crypto Nikolay Krishtof Radziwill Orphan I specially went to receive it from the Pope. It became the third ancestral tomb in Europe. The first is Louis in France, the second is the Austrian Habsburgs.

The orphan traveled a lot in his life and brought the secret of embalming bodies from Egypt. But then the recipe for such a burial, which was passed down from generation to generation, was unfortunately lost, and the bodies in the coffins were preserved differently.

They were simply sealed in lead or zinc coffins. At a certain pressure inside the coffin, the decomposition processes of the bodies stopped. This was a very unreliable method: after all, with any change, the body could decay in a few hours.

Orphan, as the founder of the crypt, established 2 rules that should never be violated by anyone. First, only the Radziwills should be buried there, the history of whose family should be preserved for centuries. But the Orphan himself violated this rule: next to his coffin stands the sarcophagus of his servant, who always and everywhere accompanied him during his life.

The second rule is that bodies during burial should be in simple clothes, without excessive pomp and without decorations. Probably, compliance with this rule was the reason that the crypt was not looted. Nikolai Sirotka himself was buried in the clothes of a pilgrim. He himself came up with an epitaph for his coffin “In the face of death, everyone is not a knight, but only a traveler”.

There are some rather strange burials in the crypt. One of them is the “humpbacked sarcophagus”. Legend has it that a beautiful princess is buried in it, who supposedly froze in a winter park, waiting for her lover: a simple guy with whom she wanted to run away because her parents had already scheduled her wedding to an Austrian prince. Being numb, they could not place her correctly in the coffin and they had to bury the girl sitting.

But in 1953, researchers discovered an elderly princess, 74 years old, in a coffin. And the hump was created by a vase, which the relatives, for some reason, attached to the lid of the coffin.

A little further away there is an unusual barrel with handles. According to legend, this is all that remains of the prince, who was torn to pieces by a mighty bear. But it turned out to be much more romantic. When the coffin was opened, they saw human organs there - liver, heart, kidneys and lungs. It turns out that at this time they began to do embalming with an autopsy.

And after the death of the wife of one of the Radziwills, he did not allow the heart that loved him to be thrown away. All this was filled with the necessary solution and placed in the family crypt with the following epitaph: “I owe everything except life to you”. This is such a beautiful story.

In the last room of the crypt, one large family is buried: there are 2 large coffins and 12 children’s coffins in it. This Katarzyna Radziwill and her 12 deceased young children. They say that on a moonlit night a terrible cry can sometimes be heard here. This is an unhappy mother, turning into an owl, crying into the night over her lost babies.

The first burial in the tomb took place in 1616. During the years of Soviet power there were no new burials. But Antony Radziwill, who died in England in our time, asked in his will to be buried in the family crypt. The government of Belarus allowed this. The last wish of the Radziwill descendant was fulfilled in June 2000.

Thus, members of this noble family created cities and legends that live to this day.

I invite you to experience the luxury and beauty of the palace, which for many years served numerous representatives of the Radziwill family. This is a legend of Belarus and, perhaps, the most popular tourist attraction in the country today.

In Belarus, in any city, there is a huge number of different housing options. It’s very easy to rent an apartment or room on the service, or book a hotel through the service.

The map below shows all the sights of Belarus that I was able to visit. You can see more details about each of them.

In one of the oldest cities in Belarus – Nesvizh, there is a mysterious castle. A tragic legend is associated with it about the ghost of the Black Lady, appearing on dark moonless nights and wandering through the corridors of the castle...

Nesvizh Castle is located on the road leading from Minsk to Grodno. Surrounded by a deep moat, it rises majestically above the surrounding area. According to legend, on dark nights, at exactly midnight, the ghost of the Black Lady appears in the castle corridor. Weeping and lamenting, she wanders through the premises of the castle and disappears when the clock shows fifteen minutes to five.

If you believe the legend, Barbara Radziwill and Prince Sigismund, having fallen deeply in love with each other, secretly got married. Secretly because the prince's parents were categorically against this marriage. And only when the prince’s father, the Polish king, died and the throne passed to his son, Sigismund announced that Barbara was his wife.

On April 17, 1548, the king officially presented his wife to the Sejm. The Polish gentry did not want to see Barbara as queen, but Sigismund showed unprecedented firmness for him. In 1550, the beautiful wife was crowned. The young king's mother, Bona Sforza, was furious. She moved with her entire court to her homeland in Italy, but left the doctor Ludwig Monti in the palace, who allegedly poisoned Barbara. A few months after the coronation, she died a painful death.

Fulfilling the will of the deceased, the coffin with the body of the deceased was transported to Vilna. The funeral procession walked from Krakow to Vilna for a month. And the inconsolable king walked all the way from Krakow to pick up the coffin. Barbara Radziwill was buried in the Cathedral on Gediminas Square, where her remains still rest.

Suffering after the death of his wife, Sigismund decided to resort to magic to summon her soul. For this purpose, he invited alchemists, among whom was the famous astrologer, magician and warlock Pan Tvardovsky. Tvardovsky set the condition that the king should not leave his place, much less touch the ghost, otherwise Barbara’s spirit would not be able to return to the afterlife. And Sigismund gave his consent.

The hall was lined with mirrors, one of which was engraved with the silhouette of the deceased. The king was seated in a chair and asked to tie his hands to the armrests so that he would not involuntarily touch the ghost. But Sigismund refused to do this, giving his word that he would sit quietly. When the ghost appeared, the king, breaking his promise, rushed to him and wanted to hug him.

There was a flash, a loud explosion shook the walls of the hall, and a stinking, corpse-like smell spread throughout it. The ghost instantly turned black and disappeared into thin air.

After this, Barbara's soul could not find its way back, and was doomed to wander in the world of the living. Since then, she appears at night in the castle premises, dressed in black clothes as a sign of mourning for lost love. She wanders around the castle, screaming, moaning and crying.

According to legend, Barbara’s soul, with its appearance, warns of impending troubles. As if she was seen on the eve of a strong fire that occurred in 2002, when most of the palace burned down.

There is a rumor that since the middle of the 18th century, the ghost of Barbara has become a guardian of strict morals. She began to closely monitor the behavior of young girls and women. If they came to the ball in very revealing outfits, then the ghost appeared in front of them in the dark corridors and scared them half to death.

Documentary evidence has been preserved that even the German soldiers who occupied Poland feared the ghost of the Black Lady. They were afraid to stay in the vicinity of the castle in the dark, and if circumstances were such that they had to do this, then without warning they would shoot at any moving shadow and run away.

In Soviet times, a collective farm health resort was set up in Nesvizh Castle for the village workers. And visitors to the health resort often complained about strange creaks and rustling noises at night.

The legend of the Black Lady (the legend of the Black Panna) has lived in the ancient city for more than four centuries. This is what they say about her in Nesvizh.

In the middle of the 16th century, the owner of the city was the mighty and glorious Nikolai Radziwill, nicknamed the Black. In literature he is shown as a capable diplomat, an educated statesman, very influential in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, serving as the Grand Chancellor.

Radziwill, Nikolai Cherny
In 1547, Nikolai Cherny achieved the title of prince for himself and his brothers, but did not rest on this. He dreamed of removing the principality from the power of the Polish crown and becoming the most independent king in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. To fulfill his dream, Radziwill also used a new movement of religion - Protestantism. The prince himself accepted Calvin's teachings and invited numerous reformers to Nesvizh. It was at this time that the Nesvizh printing house began to operate, in which books were published in the Belarusian language. The influence of Nicholas the Black increased even more when he became related to the future Polish king Sigismund Augustus through his cousin Barbara Radziwill.

Barbara Radziwill.

The beautiful Barbara lived in Vilna. Her father was considered an experienced commander, who was called Hercules of Lithuania because he won 30 victories over the enemy.

Barbara Radziwill.

Barbara lost her father early, and soon her first husband. The castles of the young widow and Prince Sigismund were nearby. The prince did not remain indifferent to Barbara’s beauty. They started dating and soon fell deeply in love with each other.

Sigismund II Augustus.

The Black Lady (Black Lady of Nesvizh) of the Nesvizh Castle. Relatives learned about these meetings. Nesvizh Radzivil - Nikolai Cherny - was especially worried. He cared about his sister’s reputation and decided to take the necessary measures to protect her name and honor and his family from unwanted gossip. The danger was that the mother of the prince, Bona Sforza, fiercely hated the “upstart” Radziwills.

The old king was living his last days. His son was soon to become monarch. They looked for a wife for him among the influential royal courts of Europe.

Nesvizh Radziwill decided to go to Vilna himself and restore order. He took his cousin Nicholas the Red (Barbara’s brother) with him and went to the prince. In knightly attire, the brothers looked very menacing. They demanded a final decision from Sigismund: either marry Barbara or not meet with her again. The prince, who knew his unstable position, the attitude of the Queen Mother, a representative of the Radziwill family, as well as the intrigues at the Polish court, had to give his word that he would leave his beloved.

The brothers pretended to leave Vilna. The prince wanted to see Barbara again. During the meeting of the lovers, the brothers suddenly appeared and demanded that Sigismund marry their sister, since he had broken his words. The prince agreed because he loved Barbara very much. He only asked that the wedding remain secret until he took the Polish throne, otherwise he would not be able to protect not only Barbara, but also himself.

After some time, old Sigismund died. The prince was urgently summoned to Krakow.

Bona Sforza in his youth and in a widow's dress in old age.
Bona Sforza is a Milanese princess, daughter of the Milanese Duke Gian Galeazzo Sforza and Isabella of Aragon.

Bona Sforza is actively looking for a bride for the young king. The marriage should strengthen the throne and increase the prestige of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Europe. The news came like a thunderclap that the king already had a wife. Bona Sforza makes every effort to prevent the Diet from crowning Barbara. To successfully resolve this issue, Nikolai Cherny had to make a special trip to Rome to see the pope. When the Diet was finally forced to crown Barbara, the Queen Mother left Krakow in protest and went to her homeland - Italy. She took the entire court with her, but left agents with the task of poisoning the hated Queen Barbara. The name of the pharmacist Monty has survived to this day, who, instead of the necessary medicine, prepared a poison that slowly but inexorably brought the blooming beauty to the grave. Barbara was crowned in December 1550, and 6 months later, in May 1551, she died.

Black Lady (Black Lady of Nesvizh) of Nesvizh Castle. The king's despair and grief were immeasurable. According to the will of the deceased, the coffin with her body was taken to Vilna. The inconsolable king followed the coffin on foot all the way from Krakow. Barbara was buried in the Cathedral on Gediminas Square. The sarcophagus with her remains is still there today.

The king was so sad after the death of his beloved that he decided to summon her soul with the help of alchemists. As historians testify, Tvardovsky and Mnishek (historical figures) undertook to do this. In the dimly lit hall, everything was prepared so that, with the help of mirrors, on one of which Barbara was engraved in full length in white clothes, beloved by the king, to play out the scene of the meeting of the king and the soul of Barbara. They sat the king in a chair and wanted to tie his hands to the armrests so that he would not accidentally touch the ghost. Sigismund gave his word that he would sit quietly and only ask his beloved from a distance how he should live further. But when the ghost appeared, he forgot his oath out of excitement, jumped out of his chair, rushed to the ghost with the words: “My little fable!” - and wanted to hug her. There was an explosion, there was a corpse smell - now Barbara’s soul could not find its way to the grave, it would forever wander the earth.

Since that time she has been walking among people, and after the death of the king she settled in Nesvizh Castle. She always appeared in front of the living in a black robe as a sign of mourning for her lost love. The castle believed that the ghost warned the castle owners about the danger that threatened them - war, disease.

In the middle of the 18th century, the Black Lady began to perform new duties - she monitored the behavior of young beautiful girls and women. She taught some of them in dark places during balls, when they allowed themselves to appear in very open toilets. The Germans, who occupied Nesvizh twice, also believed in the existence of the Black Lady in the castle. When they saw something black at the end of the park, they shouted “Schwartz Frau!” shot in that direction and ran to hide.
In 2001, based on an ancient legend, at the National Academic Theater. Y. Kupala staged the play “Black Panna Nyasvizha” in Minsk. The production is a great success.