Richard’s Castle

In fact, the castle was originally designed to be an apartment house. At the beginning of the 20th century Kiev witnessed a construction boom: wooden, primarily single-storey houses were demolished and substituted by high-rise buildings and roomy apartments, which were available for rent; Orlov wanted a piece of this lucrative business. Fate, however, intervened. Orlov, who had various business interests in the Far East, was shot in 1911, and the castle sold shortly after.

At once rumours began of the castle harbouring terrible secrets and – far worse – ghosts and ghouls. Tenants complained of dreadful noises from the chimneys and ventilation ducts that accompanied every wind, and before long the house’s notoriety spread throughout the city. So in fear of the alleged ghosts and terrifying sounds emanating from the house were Kyiv’s citizens that they wanted to tear the castle down. Luckily, one of the inhabitants of house was Stepan Timofeyevich Golubev, a professor at the Kyiv Theological Academy and a famous historian. He wasn’t so easily scared, and one day, after another sleepless night caused by mournful howling from the chimneys, slipped his arm into a chimney and found… an egg-shell! It was the shell – and the shell alone - that had caused the terrible sounds: air was passing through its tiny holes, while the shell worked as a resonator. We can only guess as to how it had gotten into the chimney, though an angry construction worker is the most likely explanation.