The myth of the “White Lady”
According to legend, a Turkish pasha once took a young Slavic woman from the village of Varnitsa as his concubine. Trapped in the harem tower, she longed for her home and family. Desperate to escape, she tried to flee several times. In the end, she was thrown from the fortress walls, and her child was taken by the Janissaries. They say her restless spirit still wanders, searching for the son she lost.
Many claim to have seen her. At midnight, beneath the full moon, the ghost of a woman in white appears at the top of the citadel, holding a child in her arms. She glides silently down the stairs, crosses the fortress, and vanishes near the Gate Tower. A mere folktale? Perhaps—but too many eyewitnesses have reported the same eerie vision.
Even stranger, the very spot where she is said to appear is riddled with bullet holes—both from old muskets and modern firearms. Frightened guards have fired at her over the years, as if trying to banish their own terror. And during excavations in the Lower Fortress, human bones were discovered, along with a long, copper-red braid of hair, astonishingly well-preserved. That braid now rests in a museum, a silent relic of a story that refuses to fade.
Golden carriage of Ivan Mazepa
Legends about hidden treasures have long surrounded Bendery Fortress, sparking curiosity and adventure. The most famous tale involves Ukrainian Hetman Ivan Mazepa and claims that his legendary golden carriage, along with the so-called “Mazepa’s treasure,” remains buried beneath the fortress. According to the myth, this wealth was brought here after Mazepa fled the Battle of Poltava.
While the golden carriage is likely fiction—historical records confirm that Mazepa, gravely ill, traveled in a simple wooden cart—the treasure itself is another story. It is well documented that Mazepa possessed barrels of gold and silver, as well as a 90-carat diamond he never parted with. Some believe his allies hid the treasure, while others speculate that the Ottomans stashed it in the fortress cellars. Adding to the mystery, a unique underground map of the fortress, once displayed in a Turkish museum, vanished just as restoration work on Bendery Fortress began.
Experts suggest the true mystery may lie in the missing garrison treasury, never recovered despite three separate conquests of the fortress. Unlike other captured strongholds, where detailed records of seized gold and supplies exist, Bendery Fortress reveals no such accounts. Even documents listing captured soldiers and their payments make no mention of missing funds. Could the treasure still be hidden within the fortress’s underground labyrinths?
A myth or a lost fortune waiting to be found? The mystery endures…
Mazaraki and the Dark Legends of Bender Fortress
According to legend, Mazaraki Magus, a Moldavian vizier, was summoned to Bender Fortress by the Ottoman pasha ruling Bessarabia. Such invitations often led to gruesome deaths—viziers were buried alive, beheaded, or even roasted over an open fire. One chilling account tells of the governor of Bălți, who was allegedly grilled for 29 hours on a traditional Moldavian grătar, with chroniclers noting that his flesh “released a clear juice like roasted goose.” He was later canonized by the Orthodox Church as Vasily Roast.
Compared to this, Mazaraki’s execution was swift, he was simply beheaded. However, his legacy endures as a fierce defender of Moldavia. Chronicles describe how he led brutal raids against the Ottomans and Tatars, burning their settlements and drowning 100,000 enemies in Lake Orhei. This, legend claims, gave the lake its sulfuric, “healing” waters, still famous in Moldova today.
This article was inspired by the Bender Fortress website
