Prague legends in short

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

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

The story goes back to the 7th century when prince Krok and his company settled down and build a stronghold named Vyšehrad situated at a high and steep rock overlooking Vltava river.

Krok has got 3 daughters. One of them Libuše was very beautiful and possessed prophetic powers. She ruled from Vyšehrad peacefully together with her husband Premysl for many years.

One day she had a vision while overlooking the Vltava river and the country below Vyšehrad hill. She pointed out to the forest across the river and proclaimed: „I see a great city whose glory will touch the stars“.

She ordered her people: „Go and find a person who is building a threshold of a house (práh in Czech) build a castle there and name it Praha“. As she said: „Even noblemen had to bow before crossing a threshold of a house.“

Her words became true.

200 years later the Praha Castle became the seat of Premysl dynasty. And the city around the castle was named Praha.

And as everybody had to bow, at times of Libuše, before a threshold (práh), today everybody bows to the beauty and glory of Praha.

The Old Town Square was a center for political and cultural life of the city since the 12th century. Prague councilmen wanted to show to the outer world, that the Prague city hall is the most remarkable an unique architectural treasure.

When Astronomical Clocks were constructed by a watchmaker Mr. Hanuš, Prague city hall became a real proud of the city.

Clocks shows even today years, months, days, hours, sunrise and sunset, moon rise and moon set and even star constellations. On both sides of Clocks there are moving statues: Skeleton, Turk, a symbol of Vanity, a symbol of a Miser.

Above the Clocks there are two windows with 12 apostles bowing each hour to the Old Town Square. At the end of the parade a statue of Jesus Christ is blessing with his right arm to all people around.

After the death of Mr. Hanuš Astronomical Clocks stopped for long years. The legend says, that it was not a coincidence.

The fame of Astronomical clocks became so big, that councilmen started to be afraid, that Mr. Hanuš will construct similar clocks to another town and the Prague will not be unique any more.

So they have decided to protect Astronomical clocks in a really horrific way. One dark night two men broke into the home and blinded Mr. Hanuš.

Councilmen thought that now Mr. Hanuš will not be able to draw plans for another Astronomical Clocks.

Mr. Hanuš fought for his life for long weeks. At the end he recovered and consequently also got to know the sad truth and swore revenge.

One day Mr. Hanuš asked to be accompanied to the Astronomical Clock’s machine. By memory he pulled a secret lever and clocks stopped.

Another legend says, that in order not to be able to maintain the Astronomical Cloks anymore he put his both hands into cog-wheels.

Shortly after that, he died and took the secret of the mechanism with him...

And for many years Astronomical Clocks remained silent...

During the reign of prince Kresomysl, due to his obcesson to treasury, majority of people preferred mining gold and silver instead of farming and taking care about fields.

Horymír a religious person from Neumetely settlement asked Kresomysl to stop this dangerous development which could lead to famine. But Kresomysl being obsessed by gold and silver was not willing to listen to Horymír.

Insted of that Kresomysl informed miners about Horymírs request. Miners felt endangered and decided to kill Horymír for his audacity.

Horymír managed to escape, but his settlement was destroyed and burned down. He swore revenge and in a short time burned down a settlement belonging to miners.

Because of this he was taken to the court at Vyšehrad and sentenced to death.

When the day of the execution came he was asked his last wish. He requested one last ride around the castle yard on his beloved white horse Šemík.

The Vyšehrad was situated at high and steep rock overlooking Vltava river and Kresomysl was therefore not afraid to fulfill the wish.

But Horymír while driving Šemík, whispered something into his ears. Šemík speed up ran toward ramparts jumped over, slid down the cliff swam across Vltava and disappeared.

Everybody was stoned.

But Šemík was seriously wounded as a consequence of the jump. When dying Šemík asked Horymír to be buried in a tomb.

Even though Horymír did as he was asked for, the tomb was never found.

But the legend says that Šemík still sleeps in Vyšehrad hill and is ready to come and help again, if needed...

Each castle should have a fortification and a prison. The fortification of the Prague castle goes back to the 13th century and an important part of it is so called Daliborka Tower.

According to legend it has got the name after its first prison - Dalibor from Kozojed.

It was during the reign of the king Vladislav II when knight Ploskovský behaved toward his people in serfdom in a such a cruel way, that peasants decided to revolt. They stormed the fortress of their master captured him and forced him to free them from the serfdom.

After that peasants voluntarily approached and accepted a serfdom from Dalibor from Kozojed, who behaved in a more human way.

But this action was not well accepted by authorities. They started to be affraid, that this event could create a precedent and lead to other rebellions.

They invited Dalibor to the court to Prague and put him into the prison. Ploskovský got back all his possession and original rights.

Dalibor in prison was suffering from being hungry and alone and therefore asked for a fiddle. He has never played this instrument. First days the tones coming out of the prison were simply terrible.

But as the time passed he managed to improve his playing into such a quality, that people gathered outside of the prison and listened to his songs.

Moreover they brought him meal and warm dress in order to make his stay in prison more pleasant.

But authorities did not care about Dalibor’s play and one day fiddle remained forever silent. Dalibor was executed.

Since that time people in Czech use to say „The indigence made Dalibor to play fiddle“, when a person is forced by unpleasant circumstances to perform some activity.

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