This weekend has been full of colourful celebrations in Prague for Easter, with places like the Old Town Square occupied by market stalls selling painted eggs and braided willow twigs as part of the traditional Czech Easter celebrations, but Easter here in the Czech Republic has its origins in darker times, with many of these traditions rooted in pagan, rather than Christian customs.
A Bridge Full of Secrets…
This month marks the start of our new tour, Mystery River Cruise & Walk. This tour will take you from our new meeting point at the Prague Trips & Tickets office in Týnská 7, through the Old Town Square to the bridge, and along the way you’ll get to see the Klementinum, a former Jesuit college and in fact the second largest complex of buildings and churches in Prague after Prague Castle. You’ll get to hear some of the ghost stories associated with locations along the route, and, most importantly, you get the chance to visit the Old Town bridge tower. From the top there are spectacular views of the city, especially at night, but the tower has a few ghost stories of its own too.
Ghosts and Legends of the Old Town
This month marks the beginning of our new, improved ‘Ghosts and Legends of the Old Town’ tour. We take our customers’ feedback very seriously and want to give the best tour we possibly can, so when people mentioned they would like to visit more locations on the Old Town tour, and possibly have less of a walk between the locations as well, we set our team onto devising a new route, and this rolled out on February 1st. The tour is now a little longer, with some new locations and a few more ghosts!
But, alas, we can’t quite fit in every story we’d like to, so we thought we’d have a look at some of the other legends some of our locations have to offer, and some things to look out for when you’re on your tour.
Haunted Castles in Bohemia part II.
Castle Cervena Lhota
Known as one of the most romantic castles in Czech Republic, Cervena Lhota is like a red pearl on a lake’s island. There is a mystery behind its walls: Upon one of the walls, a cross is set that can’t be repainted. The cross was done by a devil: He took the blood of an unfortunate countess named Johanka. Why did she deserve it? While her husband was alive, she was a very pious woman. When he passed away, she uncovered her real religion – Protestantism. To get rid of every item resembling the hated Catholic Church, she decided to throw a memorable cross from her window. All of a sudden a great storm began; the devil himself jumped into the room and took Johanka with him to hell. Before he took her, he slammed her head into a wall and drew a cross with her own blood as the ink. To cover this dreadful sign, the later owners painted the whole building red. Since that time, it’s been called the Red Mansion, “Cervena Lhota”.
Haunted Castles in Bohemia part I.
Castle Cachtice
The Castle of Cachtice is located in Western Slovakia. It was once inhabited by Elizabeth Bathory, a member of Hungarian royalty. She was known as the “Blood Countess of Cachtice”. The legend says that Elizabeth accompanied her female lover, Anna Darvulia. With the aid of 2 servants, they killed over 600 young women. Elizabeth used to bathe in their blood in order to stay young. These killings became an obsession for Elizabeth Bathory and went on for over 30 years. Elizabeth was captured on December 29, 1610 as she had just killed a servant for stealing food. Elizabeth Bathory was put on trial for murder and was declared insane by the judge. She was sentenced to a confinement in the tower of Castle Cachtice. Her servant acccomplices were executed by fire or beheading. Elizabeth died in 1614.
Attraction built on a cursed path from 666 AD
February 8th, 2011
It’s not a welcome sight to see the horror that resides in haunted places. Thorpe Park, from British Surrey, had such an experience when he decided to build an amusement water park that features water sleds slashing their way through constructed water passages. He envisioned people paying for the amusement that comes from the thrill of the adrenalin rush: he did not count on a different kind of adrenalin rush-one that accompanies fear.
He called his new park, Storm Surge, but there was something that Mr. Thorpe did not know about the site that he chose for his amusement park. Noone told him about the strange history so he began his construction (his optimistic forecast had the completion date sometime around 2011). Well, he was about to get his first clue that this site was not the typical place for amusement.
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The British report the increase incidents of demons
April 26th 2010
In the last 25 year span, the British reported the largest number of paranormal occurences of demons, evil ghosts, werewolves, witches, and other eerie figures . The experts have much to investigate, including reports about the recent appearance of ghosts with sexual desires. Like predators of darkeness, these ghosts attack at nighttime.
Most of the happenings occur in Yorkshire County (north of Great Britain).
The increase of reports about demons, spectres, and werewolves are scary enough; but the rumours about sexual-predatorial-ghosts are terrifying people in Yorkshire. The culprits are demons called Incubus and Succubus. The first ones rape women while they sleep and then exhaust them too death. Succubus seduce men, especially monks.
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Polish plumber dug out strange stone from the ground. It’s said it healed hundreds of people.
March 8th 2010
Jacek Slominski, a Polish plumber, underwent a life-changing moment when he discovered an unusual stone while he was working on a canalization system under his house. The stone itself has a strange marking: It has a big letter Z carved on one side. Jacek touched the letter, and he felt immediately the rush of a huge amount of energy that dwelled inside the stone for centuries. He also claims that the energy from the stone healed his aching back which troubled him for many years. The news spread and people came to the Pole. He offered them to touch the stone for a fee. Once they touched the stone, they claimed healing powers. Overnight, he became a healer. Now people travel hundreds of kilometres so they can visit the Pole. All agree that the stone is full of an unidentified energy with curative powers.
The image of St. Mary in France spontaneously weeps tears of oil
March 8th 2010
Esat Altindagoglu is a French merchant that comes from Turkey. He claims of an unusual event that involves an icon. Some time ago, his wife, Sevin, purchased an icon of the Virgin Mary from a Lebanese priest. Recently, Mary began weeping tears of oil. The man, who lives in Garges-les-Gonnesse (approximately 20 km north-east of Paris), said the image has shed tears continuously from February 12th till the first weekend of March.
Hundreds of people have witnessed this weeping image. Now, people come every day to see with their own eyes the supposed miracle of tears. At first, they came only from France, but now people are coming from all over Europe.
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There is a mysterious warm circle in the snow at the castle Rudoltice
February 16th 2010
A circle in the snow recently appeared in the garden of New Castle in Rudoltice (near Ústí nad Orlicí). The snow inside the circle melts because the temperature in this spot is much higher than outside the circle. On Tuesday, the temperature reached a balmy 17 degrees while Prague was frozen in bitter cold. There is no rational explanation for this hot spot: there is nothing under the spot that could cause the higher temperature.
Grass is beginning to grow within the circular enclosure, a space with a diameter of only 2 meters. As of yet, noone has explained this phenomenon.
On Wednesday, Chatelaine, Krasava Šerkopová, put the thermometer into the dirt at the center of the circle. That morning, the temperature was 17,5 degrees. On the previous day, it was only a few degrees less. Meanwhile, the outside temperature was well below zero.
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