Rather fanciful tales put a colorful spin on the origins of some buildings in the Prague’s historical Jewish quarter
The famous White Lady had a difficult life but returned after death to look after the Rožmberk family and property Not all ghosts are frightful. One of the more benign Czech phantoms is Perchta z Rožmberka, whose spectre still visits castles across Bohemia. Noble women who haunt their ancestral lands tend to appear
A devil sat beneath the tree to play his eerie violin at night before the village was covered by dam water Legends surround a 350-year-old Scots pine called the Guardian of the Flooded Village. It sits alone on a spit of land in the middle of a reservoir in the Czech
The failed attempt of the Swedish army to conquer Prague at the end of the Thirty Years’ War has been back in the news, as a Baroque-style Victory Column that was toppled by a mob in Old Town Square 1918 is now likely to be rebuilt on its original spot. The
Each of the seasons in Slavic folklore is overseen by a god or goddess, though the names and attributes vary greatly from region to region. In Bohemia and Moravia, the female force behind winter, death and dreams is Morana, who covers the fields in a funeral shroud of ice and
A village once stood outside the Old Town walls, and a pond there was home to a sad but beautiful mermaid The Czech word for a little pond is Rybníček, and in pagan times a village by that name stood outside the Old Town walls in what is now Prague’s New
The palace that houses the Czech Senate is haunted by the ghost of a trumpeter Some people like to sleep in late, especially after a night of partying. And isn’t it just those mornings that someone starts band practice in their garage, or worse yet, jack-hammering in the street? Back a few
In the early 1700s, part of the Czech Republic was at the center of suspected vampire activity There was a “vampire panic” across much of Central and Eastern Europe in the first half of the 18th century. And no place was more caught up in fear of the undead than Moravia,
A beggar had the last word when the entrepreneur wouldn’t share his leftovers Back when times were tough, obesity used to be quite rare. Only the wealthy could afford to eat that much, while the poor barely managed from day to day. A merchant managed to have incredible luck, getting goods cheaply
Among the more curious supernatural apparitions in Prague are some stubborn goats Prague at night is a virtual menagerie of spectral animals. There are the mundane yet otherworldly dogs and cats, and the more exotic demon rabbit, flaming turkey and man-eating dancing bear, not to mention a werewolf and mermaid. Among the
