The Home of the Local “Faust”

In Krásná, formerly Šumburk, stands the house of the miraculous doctor and magician J. J. Kittel, dating from the mid-18th century and altered in the later 19th century. House no. 10 combines masonry and timber construction, with an upper floor and mansard roof. J. J. Kittel, also Kytl, was born to poor parents in 1701 and is known to have studied medicine in Prague. Many legends surround him. Like Dr Faust, he allegedly pledged himself to the devil for fifty years, receiving a wondrous cloak and magical wand. These tales may have a basis in reality: the highly skilful doctor always wore an enormous rusty-coloured coat and reached patients unusually quickly. He had a large, ungainly, ugly servant devoted to him. Šumburk then belonged to the parish of Bzí. While Kittel attended church, his children allegedly found a book of magic and read it. Suddenly a flock of ravens arrived and painfully pecked them. Fortunately he returned in time and banished the birds. Several variants survive. Other stories concern his magical cloak, in which he flew as far as Prague. Once he was summoned there to a sick count and forced to exchange his old coat for a new one richly embroidered with gold. After hearing the count’s symptoms he stood silent. Asked why, he replied: “They would not admit me in my coat; I had to wear this gold-embroidered one. I therefore suppose the coat is more important than I am, so I am waiting for it to speak and advise you.” Once back in his own coat, he examined and eventually cured the count. The doctor became blind in old age and died naturally in 1783, shortly after his eldest son Jan became parish priest at Šumburk. He lived with him in retirement. He is said finally to have escaped hell because he so devotedly helped the sick. (See Jablonec nad Nisou.)