The Imperial Laboratory

In the 1590s an alchemical laboratory financed by Rudolf II was established in the castle. Well-known foreign alchemists from court worked here, including the Cypriot Marco Bragadino and the Englishman Edward Kelley, who was also imprisoned here. He wrote his Tractates de lapide philosophorum, attempted another escape and broke his other leg. On 1 November 1597 he allegedly killed himself here with some sort of tincture. His burial place is not recorded. The former imperial chamberlain and alchemist Jeroným Makovský of Maková was also imprisoned here. (See Křivoklát and Jílové.) Marco Bragadino, also called the Greek Mamugna, came from Famagusta in Cyprus and claimed to be a Venetian governor’s son. He worked as an alchemist in Greece, then Venice and Vienna. In Prague he allegedly always appeared in the streets with two large black dogs. He later went to Munich, where he was hanged in 1591 and dishonourably buried together with his dogs.