Prague citizens are proud of their ghosts and are happy to promote them to tourists. There are so many ghosts here that you can even single out a whole category - "headless".
Trumpeter
The most curious of these is probably the ghost of the trumpeter Ruprecht. Ruprecht lived in the 7th century and boasted that no one could play the trumpet louder than him. In Prague (Czech Republic) then Prince Waldstein ruled, who did not shy away from music and even had his own court musicians. One of them, fearing for his place of bread, decided to trick the competitor of Ruprecht by cunning.
Many ghosts can be "seen" in the Museum of Ghosts and Legends of Prague
He bet with him that he would not be able to trumpet ten minutes without stopping. Ruprecht accepted the bet and proved that he could do it. However, his insidious colleague deliberately chose the moment to make a bet, when Prince Waldstein was terribly suffering from toothache.
The deafening sounds of Ruprecht's trumpet multiplied this pain tenfold. To calm her down, the angry prince grabbed a sword, jumped out of his palace and personally beheaded the trumpeter.
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Since then, street musicians in Wallenstein Square have often complained that they saw the ghost of Ruprecht, who holds a trumpet in one hand and a head in the other. As soon as they began to play, the ghost immediately began to trumpet, as if competing with them.
They say that Ruprecht will calm down only when a person suffering from inflammation of the periosteum asks him to trumpet over the ear. But so far no such person has been found.
Templar
One of the noblest ghosts lives in Prague, which the locals call the Templar. The Templar was once the leader of the Templar Knights in Bohemia. Although during his lifetime he was distinguished by nobility and honesty, some of the envious managed to discredit him before the leadership of the order. On a slander the Templar was executed and deprived of his head.
Since then, day after day, this knight-templar puts on armor, throws a cloak with a red cross on top, mounts a horse, and at exactly eleven o'clock in the evening leaves to patrol the night streets of Prague.
Although the Templar is a headless horseman, since she is encased in a helmet with ostrich feathers, which he holds on his hand, he sees everything. And in his trips around the city at night he is vigilant about order.
Bride
In Prague there are headless ghosts not only of men, but also of women.
Once upon a time, the only daughter of a wealthy nobleman fell in love with a young man from a Zeman family - a small landowner. The girl's father, who dreamed of strengthening his position by marrying his daughter with a representative of the noble family of Rozhmbergs, was very unhappy with the choice of his daughter and sent her to a Dominican monastery so that she would think about her behavior in the silence of her cell.
However, the young man also loved the girl and wandered around the walls of the monastery until he managed to contact his beloved and agree with her about an escape. But the girl's stern father found out about their plans, he set up an ambush near the monastery, and when he saw that his daughter was secretly getting out of the holy monastery, he cut off her head with his own hand.
Since then, the restless spirit of the poor thing wanders the streets near the monastery.
Actress
And the headless ghost of actress Laura walks along the corridors of another, now destroyed monastery. During her lifetime, she was considered one of the most beautiful women in Prague. Her husband played with her in the theater and was very jealous of her. Among the admirers of Laura's talent, a certain count showed the greatest attention to her. He went to all Laura's performances, filled her with flowers and gifts.
The husband did not like this very much, and he managed to persuade Laura to leave Prague. At the last performance in the capital, Laura surpassed herself on stage as she left the theater, a crowd of fans crowded at the entrance.
Laura swam out to meet them with a dazzling smile on her lips. Looking around the fans, she suddenly buried her big brown eyes in her husband, and a smile clearly began to slip from her face. This detail hurt her husband's heart, already tormented by jealousy.
And finally another detail finished it off. When at home Laura took off the scarf tied around her charming neck, a beautiful and very expensive necklace shone on her. The husband considered that this necklace was a gift from his lover, was inflamed with jealousy, after which he deprived his wife of his head, which he wrapped with a curtain and sent it to the count.
What became of the jealous husband is unknown, and Laura's spirit still wanders in search of her head.
Knight
At the corner of Karlova and Seminarskaya streets there was a house called "At the Golden Well". In the courtyard next to him there was a well, the water in which sparkled, as if gold flakes were floating in it. One of the maids of this house had been admiring the water of the well for so long that she felt dizzy, fell down and drowned.
When her body was pulled out, gold was indeed found at the bottom of the well. And the ghost of the servant then creaked the steps in the house for a long time at night and left wet footprints on them. But over time, he disappeared, and instead of him, this house was occupied by other ghosts - a headless knight with his also headless wife.
When this house was bought by a pastry chef, he got it with a "makeweight" in the form of ghosts. The pastry chef was a great inventor and began to make cakes in the shape of a knight and his wife, who appeared to him at night. And in order not to catch up with horror on customers, he attached heads in the form of marzipan, nuts or grapes to the figures.
These pastries were in great demand, but one day at midnight, ghosts showed up to him with their heads on their shoulders. The knight, holding his hand on the hilt of the sword, sternly said that he and his wife didn’t like it when faceless grapes were attached to them instead of heads, so they decided to show the owner of the house their faces so that he would reproduce them on confectionery.
The poor pastry chef, hands trembling with fear, quickly sculpted the heads of ghosts from dough and presented them to the intruders. They noted the similarities and expressed approval of his work. But before disappearing into thin air, they told the pastry chef that if he didn’t find their remains, they would remain in his house forever.
The next morning the pastry chef, instead of baking, went to the basement with a shovel. Having excavated the floor in the basement, he found not only the remains of the slain knight and his wife, but also gold coins.
Turk
A young Turkish merchant who kept a warehouse in the Ungelt district of Prague fell in love with a shinkar's daughter. The girl also fell in love with him, and the shinkar agreed to give his daughter to the Turk, but only if they get married in Prague. The merchant went home to ask permission for the marriage of his parents, and for a long time did not return to Prague.
The girl got tired of waiting for him and married a merchant's son who lived next door. But as soon as she became a married lady, the Turks returned to Prague. Having learned about the infidelity of his beloved, he asked her for only one, the last date. The girl went to the inn where he was staying - and no one saw her again alive.
According to the customs of his country, the Turk decided to punish the bride who did not remain faithful to him. He killed the poor girl, buried the body in the basement, and put her severed head in a box and took it home with him.
Since then, wherever he was, he did not know peace. Everywhere he dreamed that muffled crying and reproaches from his beloved could be heard from the box. No longer having the strength to endure these torments, he secretly returned to Prague and at night buried his head in the same place where he buried the body of his former bride.
A long time passed until the half-forgotten story of the daughter of a shinkar and a foreign merchant reminded of itself. One night a tailor saw a ghost on one of the deserted streets of Ungelt. A Turk with a turban on his head, dressed in wide silk robes, silently walked past him.
The ghost's eyes shone like coals, and in his hand he held the severed maiden's head by a long blond braid. The Turk went down to the basement of one of the houses, and the frightened tailor asked a snatch. Later, when he told about a strange night meeting, there were daredevils who decided to check the basement in which the ghost disappeared, and dug up the remains of the poor girl there.
However, the ghost of a Turk-murderer still wanders with the head of a bride in the Old Town, frightening with its appearance Prague citizens and tourists.