What happened
From the outside the building looks like one of the many old villas of Konstancin. According to local legend, in the 1950s it housed the communist Security Office (UB), and prisoners were tortured, some to death, in an interrogation room upstairs. When the building was later taken over by the militia and then the police, officers on night duty supposedly heard footsteps on the empty upper floor, creaking stairs and doors banging open by themselves. People said a bluish apparition roamed the corridors – the ghost of a particularly brutal interrogator, nicknamed the “Blue Spectre”. According to the stories, officers were reluctant to take night shifts and some pressed for the station to be moved elsewhere. The abandoned building still draws thrill-seekers.
Witnesses
According to the accounts – police officers on night duty; the legend is described by “National Geographic Traveler”, “Super Express” and travel websites.
Explanations and hypotheses
Even writers on Konstancin admit it is hard to separate legend from fact here: there are no documents confirming that a UB detention centre operated in this particular building, and the officers' accounts are known only second-hand. Old timber and brick villas creak as temperatures change, which explains many “footsteps” and groans. Still, the legend reflects the memory of the post-war terror of the communist security apparatus. The police station is now located in a different building.
Legend A story handed down through generations – it can be neither confirmed nor disproved.
Sources
- Zdzisław Skrok, Konstancin – Zapomniana Arkadia (Wydawnictwo Stanisław Kryciński, 2003)
- Okolice Konstancina – portal historyczny (Paweł Komosa)