Merchant Mikhail Shelekhov 's House

A sad and frightening, but in its own way beautiful story begins with the sculpture of a young, beautiful girl decorating the house of merchant Mikhail Shelekhov. It was said in the city that the merchant's daughter, Masha, was indescribably beautiful. But the father doted on his daughter and did not want to part with her in any way.  Fate played a cruel joke with the beauty - Masha fell ill, and life began to fade in front of everyone's eyes. The doctors fought, but the disease turned out to be stronger. Unfortunately, at that time there was no disease, namely tuberculosis, they could not treat, there were no methods and medicines. The father, heartbroken, went to Italy, where he ordered a statue of his daughter from a leading sculptor, exactly repeating all the features of her beautiful face. According to legend, there he also found a sorcerer who was able to move his daughter's soul into a statue. For this, the merchant gave all the money he had.

He spent every day with the statue, for hours on end. Even after the Revolution, the merchant could not leave his house and lived in the basement, together with the sculpture of his daughter. Then they began to say that Shelekhov had long conversations with someone. But he did not hide it, and even told me that his daughter came to him. Later, he handed over the building to his hometown, but with the only request - to treat there from a terrible disease that took his daughter.

In the Astrakhan dispensary, years later, they sometimes continued to see a silhouette in a beautiful robe. But, they say, it's not good - approaching someone's bed in the hospital, the ghost promised death.