The Secrets of the Monastery Church

Petr Parléř supposedly helped build the Church of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the mid-fourteenth century. Among his works here is the well chapel. The church was once connected to the Dominican monastery by a secret underground passage, surrounded by many legends, whose traces remain undiscovered. One night a nun passed through it and caught robbers in the church seeking the monastery treasure. She locked them in the sacristy and summoned help. Their likenesses supposedly survive in three masks on the eastern façade of the armoury, also called the salt house. This building belonged to the monastery and stands on the western side, opposite the church’s side entrance. Tradition also says that a chamber deep beneath the church conceals a treasure guarded by a toad. During construction, an enormous frog supposedly lay beneath the foundations. Every attempt to drive the dangerous animal away failed; only a spell made it vanish so that work could continue. A large stone frog was placed atop the side wall of the entrance to commemorate the event. In the small square between the cathedral and deanery, a huge black dog’s ghost appeared at night, harassing walkers and jumping on their backs. It vanished only after a prayer was spoken. A White Lady also appeared here. Only a person born on the first Sunday after a new moon could supposedly see her. Those who did were frozen with fear and unable to move. She also appeared on Pekárenská Street.