Apparitions of Death

The village was founded around the tenth century by the Slavník family, who brought part of the Doudlebi tribe here from southern Bohemia. People say that before someone dies, a bundle of straw, a white dog’s ghost or a White Lady appears from the direction of the former Jewish cemetery. Doudleby Château stands in a park at the village edge, a Renaissance building with Baroque-style additions. Among its curiosities is a rare ceiling painting from Greek mythology, called the Devil’s Wedding after its many satyrs. Tradition says that a woman’s ghost came out at night through an opening in the old cellar, cursing the château and pounding on its gates. She was supposedly the spirit of the wife of one of its countly owners.