People conditionally divide Lysa Gora into three main zones: Mermaid`s ravine, Witch`s ravine and Mortuary grove. Lysa Gora is believed to be a cursed place. However, it attracts people interested in occultism, magic and esoteric. According to city legends, the witches hold their Sabbath here every year at night of 30th April. They fly to Lysa Gora on their magic brooms and gather special plant – centaury, which grows there, in order to use it for their re-embodiment ritual. The witches dance and tell each other about the evil actions, which they have done during a year. The darkest legends tell that even demons and Satan himself visit the Sabbath.

Those who are interested in history of paganism can find a huge statue of Perun and a real pagan temple on Lysa Gora. It should be mentioned that an ancient pagan religion existed on the territory of Kyivska Rus before Christianity. The secrets of this old religion are almost unknown to modern historians. It is said that followers of this religion met on Lysa Gora to pray to their gods. When the pagan religion was repressed in Kyivska Rus, monks and sorcerers hid in the catacombs of Lysa Gora. Their books and diverse mystic signs are still found in the caves. After some time, Christian monks came to live on Lysa Gora, and this area began to belong to Pechersk monastery. Lysa Gora was connected with the monastery by many underground labyrinths.
The place began to gain its evil reputation in 1240. After Mongolo-Tatar occupation of Kyiv, survived Kyivans hid into Lysa Gora caves. The Khan did not want to catch citizens there, so he commanded to immure cave entrances. Approximately one thousand people were simply buried alive. In the beginning of XVIII century, the fortress with numerous underground reservoirs with water from Dnipro was built on Lysa Gora. If fortification was taken over by enemies, it would be possible to flood the foemen together with the fortress. The sad part of this story is the fact that three thousand of Ukrainian bondslaves, who took part in construction process, were killed by the order of duke Menshikov. These people were drowned in the wells, built by their own hands. In 1906, Lysa Gora became an official execution yard for so-called state prisoners. The gibbets were standing on one of Lysa Gora glades, and hanged men were buried right at the same place. The death sentence was executed on Lysa Gora more than two hundred times during only a few years.
Nazi tank base was located on Lysa Gora in the period of German occupation of Kyiv in 1941-1943. This base was known by high number of soldiers gone mad or committed suicide. The historians, who work with archive documents of those years, often find records of Wehrmacht troops about unexplained paranormal activity on Lysa Gora. By the way, nowadays Lysa Gora is also notorious for the highest rate of suicide cases in Kyiv. According to official information, minimum 1-5 suicides are committed here each year.

A rocket launcher unit was located on Lysa Gora in post-war years. In 1975, geoscientist Viktor Stepanov was authorized to study the territory of Lysa Gora. After the study, he reported that military unit must be removed from that area. The government accepted his offer, and the unit was relocated. Another geoscientist, Vasiliy Stetsenko, affirms that the most powerful geopathic zone of Kyiv is located in Lysa Gora area. This zone is stretched from Lysa Gora along the edge of the Central Botanical Garden, then along the hills of National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the II World War, and finally to the left bank of Dnipro across the river. The scientist says that soldiers, who were doing military service on Lysa Gora, experienced weird feelings. They felt especially bad at midnight and at midday. That was the reason why the military unit was moved to another place.
In 1982, Lysa Gora was assigned a status of natural park. However, this park never has a lot of visitors. Those who love mystic stories and have strong nerves are welcome to visit this enigmatical place, located near Vydubichi subway station in Kyiv.
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