Tiraspol, February, 21. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. A tunnel with niches in the walls was discovered in the town of Grigoriopol by the local resident Natalia Berzan, head of the field office of the Pridnestrovian Geographical Society. She shared information about this and photographs taken on a mobile phone with the Novosti Pridnestrovya.
According to her, this is not the first such discovery - citizens stumbled upon the underground structures before, during construction works. However, who and when built them, and most importantly for what purpose, is still unknown - special studies have never been conducted, and local old-timers know nothing about the origin of the tunnels, although they assume that they appeared before Grigoriopol was founded.
Natalia Berzan has been interested in the subject of the Grigoriopol dungeons for more than a year. She managed to gather some information about where and when the locals had found similar structures. They were mainly found in the central part of the town. Today the entrances to the dungeons are choked with municipal wastes and getting to them is quite problematic.
Recently, land subsidence occurred at one of those spontaneous dumps, as a result of which the arch of the portal leading under the ground was exposed.
Through it, they managed to enter the tunnel and photograph its architectural details. According to Natalia Berzan, the underground structure has an arch-shaped roof, and its walls are covered with stone.
This is a kind of a corridor with a length of about eight meters, and its height allows a person to walk to his full height.
One side of the underground passage ends with another arched portal that leads further down below the ground. However, the line to get inside is littered with soil, so getting through without appropriate excavation and equipment is impossible.
In the arch there are niches, which, according to Berzan, look like ventilation shafts.
“You don`t feel dampness here, and the air temperature is no less than 15 degrees. Apparently, there is a microclimate in this tunnel” - the local historian said.
They`ve been talking about the mysterious Grigoripol dungeons for a long time now. According to local residents, we are talking about multi-layered complexes, united in a common network. One of the entries was discovered last year on the territory of a private household during ground works. Today it is already covered with soil.
However, detailed information about their builders and the purpose of these structures is not in the local museum or in historical publications. At the same time, this topic does not lose its relevance, especially in the light of new data on the Grigoriopol history, which we wrote about earlier.
Grigoriopol is not the only place in Pridnestrovie where underground passages were discovered. Similar architectural phenomena were discovered on the territory of Bendery, Dubossary, Rashkov and even Tiraspol. This is evidenced by the director of the Podnestrovian Historical and Geographical Society, Alexander Gornostal, whom Novosti Pridnestrovya has previously addressed for comments on the subject of Dubossary dungeons.
Photo: traces of underground structures discovered during construction works in Tiraspol
Video of the First Pridnestrovian TV channel about Dubossary dungeons
“There are a considerable number of ramified underground utilities of various scale, length and level of preservation. They are built on the same architectural principle” - Gornostal noted.
The researcher is confident that only interdisciplinary research involving experts from different areas, primarily archaeologists and architects, can clarify when and why those mysterious tunnels had been built.
Аlexander Koretsky
