The Černín family legends

The little town is remembered as the original seat of the celebrated Czech noble family Černín of Chudenice. The family legend of their name has several versions. In one, a descendant had dark skin. In another, a Bavarian invasion killed everyone at the Chudenice seat except a nurse and a small boy, who hid in the hearth of the smoke-blackened kitchen. People later pitied the soot-covered boy: ‘Poor little thing, how black he is!’ In the old château at Chudenice the so-called Angel Room of Humprecht Černín of Chudenice is shown; he spent his old age here. An angel supposedly appeared and foretold that he would die within three days, which he did. An angel painted on the ceiling still commemorates the event.