The Ghost of Builder Štěbeta

The hospital church of St Elizabeth in Čáslav Cemetery was supposedly rebuilt a second time using material that the local builder Štěbeta had kept back during its first repair. He used embezzled money to build himself a house, but guilt weighed on him; he soon fell ill and died. From that day his new house was haunted. At night people heard painful sighing and doors banging; some even saw a light. His wife finally resolved to spend a night in the haunted house. After midnight her husband’s ghost appeared and begged her to demolish the house, carry its bricks and stones to the little church in her bridal veil and have the church rebuilt again. The widow fulfilled his wishes and rebuilt the church into its present form. Her husband’s ghost ceased appearing from then on. The area where the house had stood was long afterwards called Na pusťáku.