Prague is a city not only rich in history, but rich in legends and ghost stories. With this in mind, Prague on Segway has decided to give you a bit of a personalized scary ghost tour with a series of articles on the city’s creepiest legends and myths. All of them set right in the city centre under our very noses! Let’s begin with the legends of the cathedral of Saint Vitus, the iconic gothic masterpiece towering over the city from Prague castle.
“The creepy thing is that Charles AND his four wives were all buried under the cathedral after passing.”
Our first cathedral legend begins with Emperor Charles the IV, known by many as the father of the country – ask any Czech you meet, they certainly know their history! Charles had four wives during his reign in the 1600s, so as you can imagine this made for a very complicated personal life. The creepy thing is that Charles AND his four wives were all buried under the cathedral after passing. Take a stroll around this magnificent piece of architecture and keep an ear out for the rumored screams and arguments of his four wives. A heated spiritual argument that will last an eternity… and we thought our family quarrels were bad!
Saint Vitus Cathedral
Our second legend concerns a Jewish organ player – isn’t the organ creepy enough already? Prague had quite an established Jewish community in old times and no one knows why, but this man decided he would convert to Catholicism. Maybe he was inspired by the great cathedral itself. After his death, legend has it that he would cross the river Vltava from the Jewish quarter in Old Town to the castle cathedral every night and play the great baroque pipe organ. Surely the macabre sounds of the organ mixed with the sounds of Charles’ angry wives is enough to scare even the gargoyles atop the cathedral spires.
