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”.

Castle Karlstejn

Karlstejn is considered the most famous and best preserved castle in Bohemia. Built by the Emperor Charles IV., it gained its fame as a Royal Treasury. Apart from that, it’s quite rich in paranormal energy as well. The treasure is guarded by a shepherd dressed in fur; he leads also a wild ram. Sometimes, the barrels glowing red hot roll down the hill and into a village. According to the story, once upon a time, soldiers discovered these barrels full of mess-wine. Before they could have a sip, the barrels started rolling out from the cellar and disappeared into the darkness. A ghost also resides here: a white lady named Blanka of Valois – supposedly one of the wives of Charles IV. She sits on a well and sobs. Sometimes, she ventures into a nearby village, knocks at a door, and tells people which of their sick ones will die and which ones will survive. Therefore, she was always feared: People would cover their windows so that they wouldn’t see her, and they always locked their door properly for the night.

Castle Milotice

Milotice has been called the baroque jewel for its beauty. It stands out as a precious stone upon the crown. However, the ghost of the black countess has been seen appearing in the castle. The legend says that the castle’s owner liked balls and hunts, enjoyed the company of other people; whereas his mistress rather kept to herself – she spent her time embroidering canonical dresses or with her parson. The count grew suspicious and jealous of the parson. One day, the countess and her parson met in a park as usual, and the parson courteously kissed her hand…and suddenly he was hit by a single shot and fell dead at the spot. The shooter was never found, but the countess fell sick. When she finally recovered, she put on a black dress. After her early death, she started appearing in the company of the parson. She embroidered his dresses while he was saying masses – the same habit as their earthly life.

Castle Pernstejn

Another mysterious Moravian castle hides many engraved astrological signs that no one can understand. In one of the window arches, there is an engraved mysterious stone – whoever touches it dies within a year. A white lady wanders through its pathways also. She was a daughter of a lord who was besieged by a Polish army. He saw no other solution than to give up the castle in order to grant life to his people and himself. His daughter had a combative spirit and refused this agreement. She ran up to the top of the outside walls and started shooting at the enemies. When her father saw it, he flew into such a rage that he beheaded her on the spot. Since then … , she haunts the place. Sometimes, she wears black clothes – it is a sign that some tragedy is coming.

Castle Straznice

No one knows who had hidden a treasure inside the walls of this beautiful castle; however, it was well guarded by a headless knight. Riding in a hackney coach, he would venture into the streets at night. The coach ran soundlessly even on uneven paths as sparks were sent flying from the horseshoes of his horse. He was feared, but nobody knew how to set his soul free. One day, a curioius, young, poor girl discovered an underground passage and dared to enter. She went as far as a great chamber. Suddenly, she saw the body of the knight resting on a pile of hay and his head was nearby. Without thinking, the girl took the head and placed it onto the neck: The knight opened his eyes and thanked her because now he was finally released from the curse. The girl came back with a share of the treasure in her apron – the rest of it was never found.

Castle Svojanov

Few castles host as many ghosts as this dilapidated residence. With a long history of battles and blood, its mystery is also enhanced by findings of numerous skeletons – perhaps sacrifices in the medieval tradition of burying alive a child or virgin to strengthen the castle’s walls. Among the most famous ghosts here, there is one lord Rasin, a former owner who governed the place in the 17th century. Every midnight, his grave opens wide and eleven carriages ride out. The last one carries Rasin himself. As the lord sits backward on a fiery bull, he grasps the oxtail as a bridle and he loudly swears as he rides through night in this odd position.

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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.

Castle Opočno

The owner of the Castle in the 15th century was Mikulas Trcka of Lipa. He married a very young woman of noble background. There was a big age difference between them. Mikulas was away from home very often. Because his young wife was bored, she began an affair with a young man. Mikulas discovered the affair and cruelly punished both of them. He had the lover beheaded; his wife was walled up alive in the castle cellar. The cellar was discovered in 19th century during the reconstruction of the castle. Inside, the workers found a skeleton in medieval dress fastened to a chair. When touched, unfortunately, it crumbled to dust.

Castle Bezdez

It’s one of our most valuable castles located in Northern Bohemia. According to a legend, once upon a time, three devils lived in the castle. One of them made a bet. He bet a mysterious knight that he could build a wall from the Castle Bezdez and connect it to a nearby hill named Jested; and he would do this quicker than the knight could manage to ride the same distance on his horse. The race began. First, it seemed that there would be no doubt about the winner because the track went through deep gorges and thick forests: but then the plains opened and the knight was quicker than the wind! When he came close to Castle Bezdez, he outran the devil. The Devil lost their bet. He was so furious that he tore his apron full of stones, thus creating a “Devil’s hill”. Today, it is also known as a “Small Bezdez”. Even now, you can still see a part of the wall near the town “Cesky Dub”.

Castle Spilberk

A magestic structure and once the Moravian seat, the Maria Castle Spilberk defended its walls against many armies, namely Turks and Swedes. Later, it became a state prison for the worst criminals. One of its involuntary “guests” was a count Pandor Trenck, a leader of a pack of forest robbers who were meant to harm German enemies. Soon, they became too greedy and started to attack their own people. The Empress eventually lost patience with Pandur Trenck and had him caught and imprisoned for the rest of his days. By his own wish, he was buried in a long robe and enchained. However, even after his death, he did not find peace. He often wanders through Spilberk’s co­rridors at night and loudly swears while his chains rattle.

Castle Buchlov

Dating back to the 13th century, Buchlov is one of the oldest castles in Bohemia. That’s why many ghosts gather in its chambers. One of them is a “White Lady”. She scared a mean lord of the castle so much that he jumped out of his window and killed himself. Another apparition here involves a former owner of the castle. He has a habit of recounting his money throughout the night. Just at the moment that he seems almost at the end of his task, he makes a mistake and has to start over. During his life, he borrowed a large sum of money from the Templar Knights. Instead of returning it, he murdered them one-by-one during a Christmas feast in the Castle.

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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.

From the beginning, construction workers continually complained about things flying in the air and abnornal sudden drops in temperature at the site. These occurrences disturbed the workers so much that the management of the park eventually decided to call a group of paranormal specialists to investigate the paranormal activity.

The group studied the history and found out that the stretch of land that formed the site  was formally called „The path of the monks“.  Information about this path dates back to the year 666, an ominous number, don’t you think?. According to sources, the path was near both the local abbey and a church. There are legends that tell of  many tragedies that happened at these places. Some members of the paranormal team were known to possess psychic abilities: these  specialists said that the construction of this amusement park was seen as a threat to the nearby cemetery. This may have been the reason why bizzarre events took place: paranormal energies were disturbed at the very site, where nearby, the park was to be built.

Strange blury photos

“When our employers started to go crazy with these paranormal disturbances, we decided to call a paranormal expert and ask him to investigate whether everything is ok,“ said Mike Vallis from the entertaining park.

Jim Arnold, a team member of Southwest London Paranormal, reported ,“The investigation of our team led to special results. Weird phenomena, mysterious blury objects on photographs,…, and there was an extreme reaction of the ouija board above the spot where the atraction was to be built.“

An Amusement Park of sorts was created at Storm Surge, but one of a different kind envisioned by the proprietors. We will keep you informed when we hear of any future disturbances.

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Las Caras de Bélmez

En agosto de 1971 en un pequeño pueblo de la provincia de Jaén, conocido como Bélmez de la Moraleda, empezaron a ocurrir cosas extrañas. En la casa de la familia Pereira empezaron a salir manchas en el suelo que tenían forma de rostro humano. La primera vez no le dieron la mayor importancia, ya que creían que se trataba de una simple mancha, así que decidieron limpiarla del suelo. Pero cuál fue su sorpresa que poco después volvió a aparecer una nueva mancha. En esa ocasión el matrimonio decidió extraer el trozo de suelo con la cara y lo conservaron enmarcado.

Por mucho que intentaban eliminar esos rostros del suelo, volvían a aparecer a los pocos días. Finalmente notificaron esos sucesos al Ayuntamiento, el cual, mediante el permiso de la familia Pereira, levantaron el suelo de la cocina en busca de una explicación lógica a tales sucesos. En esa excavación hallaron huesos y mediante varias investigaciones descubrieron que antiguamente en ese mismo emplazamiento, en el siglo XVIII, hubo un cementerio.

En Septiembre de 1975 un célebre grupo de parapsicólogos encabezados por Germán de Argumosa se desplazaron hasta Bélmez para empezar una investigación y tratar de esclarecer ese misterio. Después de varias pruebas y psicofonías consiguieron capturar varias voces atrapadas entre esas paredes. A partir de ese momento ese fenómeno empezó a cobrar más importancia en el ámbito nacional e internacional, saliendo en varios medios de comunicación.

Con el paso del tiempo mucha gente ha intentado demostrar que todo era un montaje y que los rostros aparecidos en el suelo, conocidos como teleplastias, estaban simplemente realizados por alguna persona. Pero en cambio las investigaciones científicas realizadas no pudieron demostrar que detrás de ese suceso hubiese una acción de la mano humana.

También decidieron cerrar la casa durante 3 meses y un notario se encargó de precintar y comprobar la veracidad de los sucesos. La sorpresa fue aún mucho mayor después de que la casa fuese desprecintada y comprobando mediante notario que nadie había entrado en ella, aparecieron nuevamente en el suelo otros rostros.

Desde entonces han aparecido muchas teorías, pero sea cual sea el resultado, de momento el misterio de las caras de Bélmez aún no está resuelto…

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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.

Inhabitants of Yorkshire also describe the crash of a car with a greyhound from hell. Another witnesses freaked out when they saw some creature with a long neck, large body, and glowing eyes. The creature lay upon the water, as if in wait for some unsuspecting passerby.

Also, locals in Dartmoor district (south-west England) are afraid of the ghost of a man who commited suicide recently. He’s appearing to people who come too close to his grave. They describe him as ghastly skinny figure dressed in dirty ragged tatters of grey garb. According to the chief paranormal researcher, Lionel Fanthorp, these encounters with ghosts are as wide-spread now as they were in medieval times.

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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.

People are praising the man who now is a full-time healer.

“I don’t understand it, but it works and for me it‘s surely better then fixing toilets,” said Jacek Slominski.

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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.

In 2006, Sevin purchased the 30 cm high image as a birthday present. The family began watching this strange phenomenon on February 12th.

The Church acknowledged similar phenomenon only once

Esat’s next move is to ask the bishop of the diocese to come and explore the tears of oil. Then, after research, the Church may pronounce this phenomenon as a miracle, according to Altindagoglu. Perhaps …, or perhaps not. Over the centuries, there were hundreds of similar cases in which statues and images wept drops of blood, oil, or water. The Church pronounced only one of them as a miracle. It took place in 1973 in the nearby town of Akita. Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa, a nun, announced the stigmata of bleeding tears from the statue of the Virgin Mary. This phenomenon lasted more then six years.

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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.

I’ve seen and experienced many strange things in New Castle, but I have never seen anything like this here or elsewhere, said the chatelaine.

There are no underground spaces nor engineer systems under the circle. Kokes considers as unlikely  the possibility of an old well that suddenly found itself full of warm water. He also  thought it improbable that someone scattered huge amounts of salt in this area where farmer’s  buildings once stood.

There is another possibilty. Acccording to recent information, this penomenon occured once some year ago when scouts were camping there. In order to reveal the mystery, Kotes wants to dig a hole in this spot so he can further investigate this bizarre turn of event.

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Mysterious house: Sockets and lightbulbs burn without switching connection

November 2009

The citizens of Strašice wonder if a UFO has visited a family in their town. The Mrackova family resides in a house that once was considered a typical house until light sockets caught fire and glass thermometers and light bulbs exploded. The family sought answers from scientific researchers but they cannot explain this case.

The truth is that the interior of the house is like a microwave. There is radiation thoughout the house and this does not make for a comfortable atmosphere. The owner, Jiří Mraček, claims that the radiation and electrical discharges happen even when he switched off the electricity: his own son was injured by one such electrical discharge.

The discharges destroy bulbs, glass,  and  CDs. Jiri has witnessed with his own eyes these extraordinary occurrences. The family is so disturbed by the events that

the wife and son are staying at their relatives, while the owner himself is guarding the house in the hope that it will not burn down . He  states, “I  have a headache and a whistle in my ear.”  According to the expert from ČEZ (electricity concern), this phenomenon isn‘t described in any scientific book. The other houses in the neighbourhood are not affected by similar phenomenon.

Altough a couple of months have passed, mysterious events in the house in Strašice (near Rokycany) are still unexplained. Local people connect these events with the name of their village itself (Strašice is derived from Czech word which means to haunt). Someone even said some dead people want to escape from the house.

Whatever the cause, the family of Mr. Mraček have the hope that everything will be explained as soon as possible so they can soon return to their house.

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