Leģendas

 

At Oleri Manor there formerly was a lake, but a former owner of the manor ordered to drain the lake. The draining was successful only in part, in the deepest points the lake depth has remained and the rest of the area has gradually turned into a bog.

 

Oleri lake

 

In the old days the lake was about five versts to the north at Endzeliesu Sight. At the lake a shepherd boy grazed his flock. Suddenly the lake for some reason got angry and turned into a black raven, and attacked the boy. The boy fled to Oleri Bigfoot house, where being tired threw himself to harrow in the yard. The raven immediately threw itself over the boy, turned into a lake and drowned the boy and all the surroundings.

 

Oleri lake

 

At Oleri Manor garden there is also a large overgrown lake. About this lake there are told stories. In the manor there lived a baron, who was a great womanizer. So once the baron for long had an affair with a maidservant. Scorned her and threw her away. The maid in madness jumped into the lake. The lake from it started to overgrow. Now the lake has completely overgrown and reminds of a grave. There grow neither bushes, nor trees, only tall grass. An animal alone cannot cross this place as swamps down.

 

Oleri lake

 

Baron's son was ill with tuberculosis and was not allowed to stay near water, so the lake was drained. Now the site of the lake is naked, around pine trees there overgrows a moss bog. People still often call the place Oleri lake.

 

Oleri lake

 

The old people of Oleri tell that the baron's daughter fell in love with the estate stoker, who in his turn made a drawing of the beautiful girl on the wall of the manor basement at the furnaces. The baron did not recognize this love. The baron's daughter and the young servant drowned themselves in the lake. So the baron ordered to drain up the lake and promised that in a few years instead of the lake there would be a huge rose garden

 

The Black lady

 

About the Master house of Oleri Manor there are kept various tales. Schoolgirls, who in the 30-ies learned there, told that upstairs in the veranda there growled a spinning wheel, that there was seen a phenomenon here – there was running a white pig with piglets, that often there were heard steps, that around the rooms there walked the Black lady.

 

(Vidzemes novada teikas (transl. Legends of Vidzeme region). Valmiera, 1999).