Houska castle was founded in the 13th century by King Přemysl Otakar II and is one of the oldest Czech castles. Like many similar buildings, it has its own legend, the roots of which go to the dark depths of the earth …
They say that once in the middle of the rock on which the fortress now stands, there was a strange rift, from which unknown creatures sometimes crawled to the surface. They resembled monsters from ancient legends, roaming the area and attacking the peasants. People dubbed this place "a hole in hell" and began to make attempts to get rid of such an unpleasant neighborhood. But neither prayer nor the throwing of logs into the hole met with success. Evil has always found a way to get out.
Then it was decided to let the criminal, sentenced to death, go down into the crack, so that he, in exchange for freedom, would tell what he saw or felt. But when they got him, he was dead, and the hair on his head turned gray. And the rope was saturated with a smell that, according to descriptions, resembles sulfur …
The frightened people took drastic measures: for three moons they filled up the fault with stones and boulders. Soon it was difficult to find even a simple cobblestone in the area. Later, a chapel was built on the site of the failure, which eventually grew into the Gouska castle.
If you look at its layout with a modern eye, it seems that the high walls were supposed to contain something inside rather than defend against threats from outside. Even the balconies inside the fortress speak of this, from which archers could easily hit any target in the courtyard. With such an architecture, not a single creature of flesh and blood that got out of the castle's dungeons could not remain unnoticed.
We no longer know who people were so afraid of and what secrets the failure that they have walled up holds. But even nowadays, very extraordinary personalities sometimes appear within the walls of the castle, reminiscent of the guardians from the ancient order …
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