The White Lady

At no. 3 on today’s Jiráskova Street stands the Old Mint, a historic building partly dating from the Middle Ages. In 1465 King Matthias Corvinus founded the Academia Istropolitana here, the oldest institution of higher learning in Hungary. The building later belonged to a wealthy burgher whose extravagant widow held noisy entertainments here after his death. On clear moonlit nights, when the tower clock of St Martin’s Cathedral strikes midnight, a mysterious woman in white is said to walk across the enclosed courtyard of the Academia Istropolitana. She carries a jug and draws water from the well. She supposedly looks into every corner, then walks towards the gate and vanishes beyond it. No one has ever seen her return.