Wether it is true or not, this story is dedicated to all fans of cinema and mysticism.
It was the 70’s when the filmmakers at the Odessa Film Studio worked around the clock. One day, at the end of a shift, some young women editors mentioned that they were afraid to stay in the mansion on the film studio grounds after dark. With tears in their eyes, they explained that they had seen the ghost of a young woman with a disfigured cheek.
Only later did it become possible to learn the curious story of the owner family of the Demidovs’ mansion, the former home of the princess of San Donato, in which the studio had been located.
According to the legend, the mistress of the house had three daughters. When the youngest, who was called Elena, turned 20 years old, she was engaged to a railway telegraph operator. Before the engagement her betrothed had an affair with a girl named Sonya, who was from the famous Odessa region of Moldavanka. So she decided to take revenge on the girl for taking the groom away from her. One night, Sonya broke into her house on the French Boulevard and splashed acid on Elena’s face. The disfigured girl became a recluse, and the groom evaporated immediately. According to the stories, the desperate Odessa girl tried to hang herself in the church, but she was saved at the last moment.
And so Elena suffered for five years, until her parents sent her to Italy. There she organized a shelter for orphans and lived to a very old age. A monument made of white marble was even erected to her on one of the bridges of Florence.
Masha Tseloeva is a curator Invogue Gallery.
