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The flaming turkey of Kampa is Prague’s strangest ghost
A premature holiday meal was the undoing of a miller and created Prague’s oddest spectres. Bohemian ghost stories sometimes are downright bizarre. The tale of the angry flaming turkey of Kampa stands…
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The dark meaning behind the legend of Dalibor’s violin
An imprisoned knight learned to make music, but his singing was something else as Dalibor’s violin has a dark meaning. One of the most famous legends of Prague Castle is that of…
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Stephen Hübner, the peculiar vampire of Trutnov
A wealthy farmer’s success was attributed to a deal with the Devil. These days, the town of Trutnov in the Krkonoše mountains in the northeast of Bohemia is known for its annual music festival.…
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The restless skeletons of Old Town
A flaming miser and a top hat-wearing beggar are among the restless skeletons wandering Prague at night. Old Town is quite crowded at night with a variety of headless ghosts, flaming ghosts,…
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Prague’s zombie: The Stromovka ghoul hunts on moonlit nights
One soldier stayed behind after the Siege of 1848 and became a zombie-like ghoul. One of the most pleasant ways to spend an afternoon is whiling away the time in Prague’s Stromovka…
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The sad tale of Prague’s pathetic lone vampire
The city’s only vampire, Dopiječ, unlives in a borrowed grave in Olšany Cemeteries. Prague surprisingly has few tales of vampires before modern times. Many films, novels, and computer games mention Prague as…
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Three frightening ghosts and a unicorn roam Na Poříčí Street
A plague-era gravedigger, a flaming man and a harlot wander the same area of Prague. At the edge of Prague’s touristy center lies a small nexus of supernatural stories. Two frightening ghosts…
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The boy who turned to stone, a legend of Prague’s Old Town
One statue is not what it seems, according to a popular Old Town legend. Most old churches have some stone decorations on the roof, and the overwhelming majority are just fanciful sculptures…
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Tales of three doorways: stories behind the cards
The Four of Pentacles in The Tarot of Prague features details from three Prague doorways from different eras, but the images speak to us across time. The House at St. Luke (U…
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A wild werewolf stalked Emperor Rudolf’s castle moat
Wild wolves used to be common in Europe, and with them tales of werewolves. They were often talked of across Northern Europe and deep into Russia, but on occasion were mentioned all…
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The haunted ministry: Prague’ Černín Palace hides a demonic past
The Černín Palace in Prague has a long and unsettling history. . What is now the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the 1660’s up to 1851 belonged to the noble Černín…
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Monsters of Prague: The Golem
The legend of the Golem is known worldwide. This post is the second in our series of eerie Bohemian stories leading up to Halloween. Last week I took you to a very special house in…