Prague is one of the most wonderful cities in Europe. You can endlessly wander along its narrow streets, among the houses decorated with dragons, monks and fabulous birds. It goes without saying that Prague is not only inhabited by creatures of flesh and blood. The city is inhabited by famous and not so famous characters of its rich and bloody history, who for some reason decided to stay here after their own death. Each of the historic districts boasts its own ghosts. The Czechs are proud of them, they talk about them, and God forbid it is unflattering to speak about a local ghost.
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Prague Castle has always, almost since the time of Princess Libuše, been the focus of city power, and there is more pomp here than in any other place - the presidential palace, guarded not only by an honor guard, but also by a couple of muscular stone uncles with clubs, St. Vitus Cathedral, which seems too big for his surroundings, Golden Lane …
It is not surprising that this is where the last monarch who chose Prague as his residence wanders - Rudolph II, an eccentric emperor who flooded the city with alchemists and magicians, looking for the philosopher's stone until the last days of his first, not ghostly life.
Now it can sometimes be seen in the courtyards of the Castle or on the Golden Street, but only in the dark, when tourists are no longer allowed there and the heart of Prague is empty. Dressed in a mantle and a crown, the emperor wanders back and forth, muttering despondently and wringing his hands. And if the moonlight falls on his face, it becomes clear that he looks exactly like in the famous portrait of Giuseppe Arcimboldo - a nose like a pear, cheeks of two apples, ears of corn sticking out of his head, lips made of plums or cherries.
No, Rudolph will not humiliate the monarch's dignity and frighten a bystander, but horror emanates from his figure, from what the possessed emperor has become after death. And to seek a meeting with him is only one who is truly strong in spirit.
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JEWISH QUARTER
Josefov, who received a new name and rebuilt one hundred and fifty years ago, has preserved in his heart a piece of the pristine, ancient ghetto, created for Jews in the Kingdom of Bohemia.
Its heart is the famous Jewish cemetery, where the dead lie on top of each other in many layers. It is here that the grave of one of the most famous rabbis of Europe, an expert on Kabbalah, Rabbi Yehuda Lev ben Bezalel, the very sage who managed to make the Prague Golem, is located. A humanoid creature made of clay, incredibly strong, does not need food, air and sleep, and revived thanks to the "moving soul", the breath that was put into the golem by the magician-creator.
Technically, the golem awakens either the Yiddish word "life" inscribed on its forehead, or a piece of parchment with one of the names of God placed under its tongue - as surely Rabbi Leo knew, but he took this secret with him, leaving the world of the living, but his creation remained in Prague. And sometimes you can meet him in the middle of the night on one of the streets in the vicinity of the Maisel or Staronov synagogue.
The golem walks, shaking the ground, and reaches with its head to the windows of the second floor. They say that he guards the treasures hidden by his creator, and not only gold and jewels, but also kabbalistic books. There are curious people who decided to trace the creature from clay to its refuge in order to lay their paws on the ancient, full of secrets tomes. But no one succeeded - everyone who went after the golem will inevitably get lost in the darkness, and find himself in the same place where he started his pursuit, and even with the imprint of huge fingers on his neck.
The secrets of Kabbalah are too deep and dangerous for an ordinary mortal to touch them.
OLD CITY
Stare Mesto, located on the opposite bank of the Vltava River from the Castle, was built around the Old Town Square. The tower of the town hall rises there, there is a monument to Jan Hus and pleases the eye with the graceful, as if from a fairy tale, the transferred church of the Mother of God Before Tyn.
Here, even more so than in the castle and the Cathedral of St. Vitus, the history of Prague was created, in Stare Mesto life was in full swing even when the buildings on the mountain were dilapidated in desolation.
It beats with a key even now, and not only under the gentle light of the sun. Near the town hall, where thousands of tourists crowd during the day, looking at the astronomical clock, in the dead of rainy nights, the ghost of the master Ganush, the artisan who made this clock, appears. They repaid him for the masterpiece in a completely medieval way - they burned out his eyes so that he could no longer create anything like that. And now master Ganush wanders in the darkness, black holes of empty eye sockets stand out on his white face, and a red-hot poker is visible in his hands, with the help of which they carried out the execution. According to legend, the one who has the courage to take it and not scream in pain will acquire all the skill of a ghost.
The name of the executioner, who deprived the sight of the master Ganush, disappeared in the darkness of the centuries, but on the other hand, the master is still remembered for another shoulder.
Approximately where the monument to Huss now stands, Jan Mlydar in 1621 took the lives of twenty-seven Hussite leaders in one day, and this is precisely what determined his posthumous fate. You can see him, in addition to All Saints Day and Christmas Eve, only on the anniversary of the execution, July twenty-first, but each time the executioner is shown in a different guise - now with a noose, now with a huge bloody ax, now with instruments of torture in his hands.
But it is easy to recognize him - hardly any of the guests of the Czech capital will walk around its center in a scarlet cap with slits for eyes, the same color caftan and huge knee-high boots. It can be seen that Mlydar wants something - either to continue his atrocities, or to ask for forgiveness for them.
To find out, you need to talk to him, but who dares to do this?
SMALL COUNTRY
It is a small state of opulent houses and medieval estates, sheltered under red tiled roofs, and stretches under the hill on which the Castle rises.
Just at such a distance that the courtiers would not annoy the monarch, but could appear to him at the first request … But oddly enough, the ghosts here are not aristocratic at all.
Lesser Town Square was chosen by a melancholy monk, running around its surroundings at full moon nights, lamenting mournfully, pulling hair from the remnants of his hair and from time to time falling to his knees. He does not cause fear, only disgust and pity. Anyone who decides to show pity and asks the ghost what the matter is, faces a waterfall of unintelligible words and ghostly tears.
It is not known who this monk is, whether the Master Palech himself, who once betrayed Jan Hus and who was unable to forget his deed, or the greedy cellarer from the Cathedral of St. Mikulas in Mala Strana, mourning the supplies that disappeared during the fire.
Nearby, near the Letensky Gardens, night passers-by are sometimes disturbed by the nervous call of the trumpet. The court trumpeter Albrecht Wallenstein, the famous commander of the Thirty Years' War, challenges competitors to the competition. During his lifetime, he was a guy anywhere, and even now he is a feast for the eyes, except that he is forced to carry his head in his hands.
This musician was famous for his art, and of course, he irritated his rivals incredibly. No one could defeat him in an open competition, and they had to go for a trick. Choosing the moment when Wallenstein's teeth or head ached, the competitors offered the trumpeter a bet. You blow into your instrument for ten minutes without interruption - we all recognize your superiority. If you give up halfway, then I'm sorry - you put your pride to hell and behave yourself.
The musician just snorted contemptuously and got down to business. But before he had time to rejoice at the power of his own lungs and the sweet voice of his beloved trumpet, Albrecht Wallenstein himself jumped out of the inner chambers and chopped off the trumpeter's head. And since then, he wanders around the vicinity of the commander's estate, holding a pipe in one hand, and in the other head in a flowered beret with a feather, and from time to time tries to challenge long-dead rivals to battle.
For people who are not involved in music, he is not dangerous and does not pay attention to them.
NEW TOWN
Nove Mesto stretches in a wide arc, embracing the Old Town. This area cannot boast of such a venerable history as its older neighbor, there are much fewer buildings or streets that have got into the chronicles, but there are own ghosts. And not only ghosts. In the Vltava, more precisely in a narrow channel separated from the river by the Kampa island, the water one lives. The channel is named Devil, and there used to be a mill here, and even now a wheel has been preserved from it.
In those days, when grain was ground on Devil's, the waterman was in business. Later, when the fishery was liquidated, he became bored, and the inhabitant of the river became a regular at the neighboring pubs - he appeared there in the evening in the form of a huge man with algae in his hair, dragging a bucket of water with him and leaving wet footprints on the floor. But times have changed, crowds of tourists flooded Prague, quiet taverns on the island of Kampa turned into luxurious restaurants, crowds of strangers began to walk in them, and the waterman did not like it. He stopped visiting pubs, although he did not get rid of his passion for the foamy drink. And now from time to time he gets out of his river to ask some of the passers-by to get him a mug of beer. Anyone who fulfills the request of the inhabitant of the Devil's, receives a good fat fish as a reward, or even more than one.
So if, in the vicinity of Kampa, you meet a wet man with green strands in his hair, who starts muttering something in Czech and pulling his hands towards you, do not rush to curse Prague's antisocial elements and run away; it may well be that you were lucky and you ran into the famous waterman from the Devil's.
ZHIZHKOV
The quarter, named after the fierce leader of the Hussites, Jan Zizka, nestled from the south to Zizkov Hill, nestled in a long hollow between two hills. Simple people, workers and artisans have always lived here, and the ghosts of the royal or at least noble family have nowhere to come from. But it is absolutely impossible for a respectable Prague district to remain without ghosts!
Ižkov is famous for having the largest number of pubs per square kilometer of territory, and the local night wanderer reflects the spirit of the place. His name is Pizhdyukh, and he appears to prank citizens with two full circles in his paws. Those who saw him describe him in different ways - as a dwarf in a colorful clown's cap, as a skinned, skinny student, as a drunkard with a red nose and a swollen face. But in any case, the meeting with him does not end with good. He can even confuse a sober person, lead him astray, drag him into some tavern, but if he drank the story in such a bend that by morning there will be no money in his pocket, no memories in his head. Of course, Pizhdyukh misled you!
GHOST TOUR
Arriving in the capital of the Czech Republic, you can go around it all in a week, visit a dozen excursions - walk along the Royal Route, explore the Castle and the zoo, look around Vysehrad, climb Petřín or the TV tower, sail on a ship along the Vltava or ride a fiacre. It’s surprising that no one thought to come up with a “ghost tour” for the guests of Prague: a meeting with a golem in Josefov, observing the executioner Mlydar from a safe distance, an attempt to order a favorite melody from a headless trumpeter, a hike for beer for a water one. And people are interested, and for otherworldly creatures, some kind of entertainment. But so far there is nothing of the kind, and those who wish to meet one of the Prague ghosts have to trample the cobblestones themselves and climb the protected corners of the most fabulous city in Europe.
Although sometimes these meetings happen by themselves …
Dmitry Kazakov