Prague legends 2

Mysterious Prague legends are connected to nearly each house, palace, castle, fountain, bridge, statue, tower...

Knowing town legends, you will have a feeling that the history is walking just next to you while you pass through old, narrow and curving streets.

To get ready for this experience you can take special Virtual tours to majority of places connected to legends

The Loreto is an artistic and historical monument, as well as a Baroque pilgrimage site, established more than 300 years ago.

It is a striking complex of buildings in Hradčany consisting of a cloister, the church of the Lord`s Birth, built around the copy of alleged house of the Virgin Mary which stood there from 1626.

Part of the Loreto treasure is the Diamond Monstrance decorated with over 6,000 diamonds.

The famous carillon in Loreto dates back to the late 17th century.

Following nice legend is linked to Loreto.

The chime in Loreto was originaly created to ring out the time only.

But it happened during the Black Death time, that a poor widow with 27 small children (as many as the bells of Loreto chime) was living nearby. And the only property of her was a cord with small silver coins.

One day the Black Death struck the house of the widow and gradually one child died after another.

The poor widow always took off one small silver coin and let ring the Loreto to her dying child.

So it died the last child and the widow handed over the last silver coin.

A few days later, she was taken ill with the Black Death as well.

When dying she expressed sorrow, that nobody would ring Loreto for her „final journey“.

And at that very moment suddenly by itself all the 27 bells of Loreto started to play a beautiful tune.

And it sounded so touchingly like it would be a song of her all deceased children, who wanted to accompany their mother on her „final journey“.

The beautiful tune a Marian song „We greet You a Thousand Times“ is being played since that times every hour from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

During the reign of Rudolf II in the 16 century, Jewish people in Praha were often attacked and lived in a fear from the future.

Jehuda Löwy (Liva) ben Becalel (1525 -1609) decided to help Jews from pogroms.

Based on secret rituals he made of a clay from banks of Vltava river a giant named Golem.

Rabbi wrote a word „emet“ meaning „truth“ at a parchment and placed it into Golem`s mouth and made him come to life via reciting a magic formula in Hebrew.

The Golem had to follow and listen to Rabbi's every order, help and protect the people of the Jewish Ghetto.

But each Friday Löwy had to remove the parchment from his mouth, because Golem was not allowed to work on Saturday.

Once he forgot to remove the parchment on Friday and went to synagogue to pray. But Golem got very aggressive and started to destroy the Rabbi's house.

Rabbi had to enterupt the 92 psalm and hurry home to calm him down. In a short fight he managed to remove the parchment from his mouth and immobilize him. After that Löwy decided not to wake him up again.

He return back to synagogue and started to sign the 92 psalm again. Everybody was surprised, but followed him in singing.

Since that time, as nowhere else in the world, the 92 psalm is always being sung twice in Old synagogue in Prague.

Remainings of Golem were never found. The legend says, that he just sleeps and waits for the magic formula to be ready again to protect the Jews and the Prague.

The grave of Jehuda Löwy (Liva) ben Becalel (1525 - 1609) can be found at Old Jewish cemetery, Prague.

Legend tells that Infant Jesus miraculously appeared to a certain monk in Spain in the 16th century.

This event enchanted the monk so much, that consequently he sculpted the statue according to the appearance.

The result is a 45 cm high statue with a wooden surface covered by and modeled from colored wax. It represents a small child, dressed in a long ceremonial robe. The face is very beautiful and sweet. Infant Jesus blesses with the right hand and in the left holds a globe topped by a cross – as a symbol that the whole world rests in his hands.

The statue was possessed by noblewomen in Spain and in Bohemia. Finally the statue was donated in 1628 to the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites at the Church of Our Lady of Victory. Carmelites placed the statue first in the chapel of the novitiate, the young monks to learn the virtues of the baby Jesus.

Shortly the Thirty Years War broke out in Europe. At that time, in the 1631 the Saxon army occupied Prague and the statue disappeared. Only in 1637, after his return to Prague, Father Cyril found the statue under a pile of garbage in the corner. But he found out, that unfortunately the staue had both hands broken off.

At that moment it seemed that Infant Jesus asked him to help him to get back his hand. As an honor he promised to bless him and other people as well.

Father Cyril managed to arrange new hands. As an honor Infant Jesus began to bless the local people and the whole of Prague. It is believed, that it helped Prague also during the time of siege of Prague by the Swedes.

In 1651 the statue was worn as a pilgrim statue of Prague's churches, and in 1655 solemnly crowned by bishop of Praha. Today commemorates this event as an annual celebration, falling on the last Sunday in May.

The Infant Jesus is still placed in Church of Our Lady Victorious in Mala Strana, the oldest Baroque church building in Prague, having own altar.

Since it is believed, that Infant Jesus is still able to perform miracles, people are coming there from all over the world begging for help, healing, peace, the birth of a child etc. When it happens, many of them come back again. As an acknowledgment they usualy place a small plate close to the altar.

Well-known individuals and organizations from around the world have donated to Infant Jesus variety of dresses, decorated with gold, diamonds and pearls. One of the dresses was personally made by Empress Maria Theresa.

There are more than sixty dresses the Infant Jesus is dressed in, according to different religious days/holidays.

When Pope Benedict XVI visited Praha in 2009 he also visited the Church of Our Lady Victorious and gave Infant Jesus a golden crown.

Directly in the church there is a museum. The museum admission is free. There are religious items, chalices, paintings, crosses, and also rare sets of Infant Jesus dresses.

Back to Prague Travel Tips HOME page