Hasištejn
or Hassenstein – Rock of Hatred or Wrath was built in 14th
century to guard the salt trade route from Prague to Saxony.
It
got the name, as legend says, from one of the castle captains. The
captain had beautiful and joyful daughter whom he loved so much. But
his service required him to be in campaigns and battles a lot so his
jolly young daughter was often alone in the castle. The girl though
was not sitting there sad and lonely – she threw parties and balls
for local nobles and wandering knights.
Once
after the most cheerful party the fun end up in a situation when one
of the knights had to merry the castle young lady. The father came
back right after the wedding and was furious to the extreme with his
daughter behavior and especially with the groom – as he was but
poor knight of low breed. Wrathful father literally cut the guy into
pieces, as for the daughter – he ordered to wall her up into one of
the towers.
When
after couple of days, he stopped hearing her cries and groans, the
captain put his best armor, gathered his servants and told them to
divide all his possessions between themselves, mounted a horse and
jumped into abyss from the castle wall. Servants didn't even touch
his treasures and run away from the fearful place, which got his
name as Hassenstein forever.
However
it was, the castle early owners are unknown, first reliable sources
mention castle as already well established and widely known fort on
the salt road (1350 Majestas Carolina for example). Mostly the castle
was the property of the crown and was given to nobles to guard the
road. Some of them did their job but some – as usual – took
guarding to the next level and taxed traders for the safe passage,
the ones who didn't pay were robed and killed – just a good
business.
With
years to come the castle – as most of these buildings, was
abandoned, although at the end of 19th
century was reconstructed and since then is open to public and taken
care of.
The
public, in its turn, keeps believing in yet another Hasištejn
legend: it is said that if in Good Friday (the Friday before Easter)
you will manage to get into the castle at midnight, without old guard
with big black dog noticing you, then
you
will see a miracle. At the midnight the castle will raise from the
ruins to its former glory, beautiful ladies will throw roses from
their windows to the mighty knights at the castle court, servants
will get food and drinks from the castle cellars but most importantly
– if you are very lucky, you can get into the castle vault and take
as much gold as you can carry. But! You need to do all this before
the local church bell calls for Matins, with the sound of the first
bell the castle turns back into ruins and gold into ashes. It is said
that in fact there were few lucky ones who manage to do so –
although, unfortunately all of them died on 5th day after
the adventure and their gold disappeared. Locals say as well that on
night after their funerals some big old guard was walking the cemetery with his black dog sniffing for their souls.from above:
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