-
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,…
-
The death of Tycho Brahe, the astrologer to Rudolf II
The man behind the silver nose, Tycho Brahe was only in Bohemia for a short time While the court of Emperor Rudolf II was filled with astrologers and alchemists, the most famous…
-
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…
-
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…
-
See the seven creepiest relics in Prague churches
Some skeletons and mummies all dressed up with no place to go are the Golden City’s creepiest relics Most Catholic churches have a creepy relic of one sort or another, but which…
-
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…
-
Secret Masonic symbols are hiding in plain sight
The all-seeing eye of God is among several Masonic symbols on buildings across the Golden City. Buildings throughout the historical center of Prague and even a bit beyond are bedizened with details,…
-
Prague’s mysterious standing stone is a link to the past
A standing stone called the Petrified Servant has been in place for perhaps thousands of years There is a mysterious reddish-grey standing stone on the outskirts of Prague, and it is far…
-
The Black Sun shines darkly over a Baroque doorway in Prague
A building near Old Town Square with the image of a black sun shows a hint of the alchemy woven in Prague’s past. In alchemy, everything has its counterpart, its mirror image.…
-
Prague will not be Mesmerized: a magnetism spa ended in failure
The family that brought Mozart to Prague tried to do the same with Mesmer, but mesmerism was a flop. Even though Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart visited Prague only a handful of times, his…
-
The dog and the legend of Charles Bridge
Petting the bronze dog on Charles Bridge is a more recent tradition than many people think. Practically every tourist who crosses Charles Bridge in Prague touches one of three places on the…
-
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…