According to legend, on the site of the current Ekaterinhof Park near the Narvskaya metro station, there was a wasteland before the revolution, popularly nicknamed the Devil's Wasteland. At night, creepy sounds and wandering lights flashed from there. At the beginning of the 20th century, the wasteland was bought by the manufacturer Shakanidi, who was fond of mysticism and spiritualism. He built a mansion here with a large park.

Because of this, the manufacturer in the area had a reputation as a sorcerer. In 1918, Chekists came to Shakanidi with a search. The manufacturer resisted this and was shot dead on the spot. His body was put in a bag and drowned in one of the ponds of the park. And soon a boarding house for the old Bolsheviks and political prisoners was placed in the mansion. Convicts, who were not afraid of the royal casemates and satraps, asked a chirp from the park, when during walks they encountered the terrible ghost of the murdered Shakanidi. This ghost of a troubled manufacturer still appears there.