Ghost story
The cursed house of Joala Street, Narva
In 1934 a newspaper reporter in Narva wondered why one two-storey house on busy Joala Street, opposite the Hotel Europa, stood empty and rotting while every other building was crammed with shops. Neighbours told him the house was cursed. Sixty-year-old Olga Korhov listed its victims: of three merchants who kept shop there, one went bankrupt, one was shot by the Bolsheviks and one was robbed; among the tenants, two drowned, one was beaten to death and one went mad. Even a relative of hers from Mustvee who merely thought of buying it in 1932 met misfortune. The old centre of Narva was destroyed in 1944, and the house has vanished with it.
Open it on the map See the spot on the old maps and as it is today
Eesti keeles
1934. aastal imestas üks ajalehereporter Narvas, miks seisab kärarikka Joala tänava ääres hotell Euroopa vastas kahekorruseline maja tühjana ja laguneb, kui kõik teised hooned olid poode täis. Naabrid ütlesid talle, et maja on neetud. Kuuekümneaastane Olga Korhov loetles selle ohvreid: kolmest kaupmehest, kes seal poodi pidasid, läks üks pankrotti, ühe lasid enamlased maha ja üks rööviti paljaks; elanikest uppus kaks, üks löödi surnuks ja üks läks hulluks. Isegi tema sugulane Mustveest, kes 1932. aastal maja ostmist vaid kaalus, sattus õnnetusse. Narva vanalinn hävis 1944. aastal ja koos sellega kadus ka maja.
Source: Uudisleht newspaper, 1934, retold in Postimees' 'Külmavärinad' series (2021). ↗