For our final night in Prague we joined a walking ghost tour to explore the darker side of Prague with www.mcgeesghosttours.com/
As we stood on the Old Town Square under the imposing Clock Tower our ghostly guide Sean pointed out the 27 white crosses marked in the cobble stone paving. He retold the story of the “Blood of Bohemia”. In 1620 after the dreadful battle of White Mountain the 27 defeated noblemen were captured and brought to Prague where they were held captive in the dismal dungeons under the Square. On the 21st June 1621 which is the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere (Prague sits on the 50th parallel and on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, the day light hours are exactly twice the length of time of the night hours.) the noble men were paraded on the square and then one by one the first 24 of them were bludgeoned to death and then beheaded. The town square was a splattered pool of blood. The heads were carried down to the river and hung from the Charles Bridge to fend off further enemies for the next two decades. The remaining 3 noblemen were hanged by the neck until their last breath and left to rot, swinging from the gallows for the townsfolk to gawk and throw curses at.
We then went through the narrow back streets of old Prague, where the black marketers used to sell spices and body parts. Sean, our scary tour guide, showed us a statue of the Black Madonna and told us that they were very special and were often signs to the secret Knights Templar, so we looked at the direction that the Black Madonna was looking at and we saw further down the street a sign of the Knights Templar, in Ancient times this was their secret meeting place.
In 1307, the King of France owed the Knights Templars money for helping him fight in war, but after losing the war he didn’t have enough money to pay back the loan so he told them to go to Paris and he would meet them there on Friday the 13th October. But he had a trap set up for them. When the Knights Templar arrived the King captured and tortured them for 7 years until they signed some confession papers saying they had done horrible things. The King then showed the papers to everyone including the Pope. The Pope ordered all the heads of the Knights Templar for this, so, in front of Notre Dame, the King burned all the Knights Templars at the stake. When the toes of the leader of the Knights were on fire and he was in deathly pain, he shouted out, “The King and the Pope will die before the end of this year for doing such cruel things to us.”
Soon after, the Pope had a heart attack and died, so the people of the church put his body on display with 500 candles around him. That night there was a terrible thunderstorm and a lightning bolt hit the church, it caught alight and burnt to the ground including the Pope with it. It is said that he was the first and only ever Pope to be cremated. Later that year the king passed away and soon after his sons died too, leaving no heir to the throne...
I love the Astronomical Clock in Prague and when our creepy guide, Sean told us about it´s history, I was really fascinated. After the clock maker made the clock in 1410 he was thinking of improving it but other people thought he was building another better clock so they came up with 3 ways to stop him. Number 1 was the American style. That was to offer him more money to stay. Number 2 was they figured it would not work so the number 3 plan was to walk 3 men into his house in the middle of the night and 2 men pinned him down while the 3rd one got a metal poker and put it in the fire until it was white hot and then burnt his eyes out. He was delirious for months after but once he recovered he asked his friend to help him to his beloved clock and his friend did and he went in with the clocks and felt all of them until he found the centre piece. He pulled with all his might until the main cog fell out and because it was the centre piece all the other cogs fell on him and he was crushed to death. For fifty years the clock could not be mended because no-one knew how to, but now it is working and it is amazing.
We each have a memory to retell....
The legend says that every year on the Summer Solstice the ghosts of the 27 noblemen rise from the dungeons under the town square and move around to the front of the Astronomical Clock. If the clock is working they silently descend back through the blood stained cobble stones to rest peacefully for another year, but, if the clock is not working they will remain above ground for the whole next year, haunting the living who visit the town square and their screams can be heard if you walk through the square late at night.
Ghostlee
We then went through the narrow back streets of old Prague, where the black marketers used to sell spices and body parts. Sean, our scary tour guide, showed us a statue of the Black Madonna and told us that they were very special and were often signs to the secret Knights Templar, so we looked at the direction that the Black Madonna was looking at and we saw further down the street a sign of the Knights Templar, in Ancient times this was their secret meeting place. In 1307, the King of France owed the Knights Templars money for helping him fight in war, but after losing the war he didn’t have enough money to pay back the loan so he told them to go to Paris and he would meet them there on Friday the 13th October. But he had a trap set up for them. When the Knights Templar arrived the King captured and tortured them for 7 years until they signed some confession papers saying they had done horrible things. The King then showed the papers to everyone including the Pope. The Pope ordered all the heads of the Knights Templar for this, so, in front of Notre Dame, the King burned all the Knights Templars at the stake. When the toes of the leader of the Knights were on fire and he was in deathly pain, he shouted out, “The King and the Pope will die before the end of this year for doing such cruel things to us.”
This is the story in history that began the superstition of bad luck on Friday the 13th.
By Charlotte who was born on the 13th.
I love the Astronomical Clock in Prague and when our creepy guide, Sean told us about it´s history, I was really fascinated. After the clock maker made the clock in 1410 he was thinking of improving it but other people thought he was building another better clock so they came up with 3 ways to stop him. Number 1 was the American style. That was to offer him more money to stay. Number 2 was they figured it would not work so the number 3 plan was to walk 3 men into his house in the middle of the night and 2 men pinned him down while the 3rd one got a metal poker and put it in the fire until it was white hot and then burnt his eyes out. He was delirious for months after but once he recovered he asked his friend to help him to his beloved clock and his friend did and he went in with the clocks and felt all of them until he found the centre piece. He pulled with all his might until the main cog fell out and because it was the centre piece all the other cogs fell on him and he was crushed to death. For fifty years the clock could not be mended because no-one knew how to, but now it is working and it is amazing.
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