A Life Devoted to Treasure

Even old legends placed hidden treasures in the castle ruins. B. Balbín saw geese in the castle well which later emerged down below on the Orlice River. One former owner of the castle, Count J. A. Harbuval Chamaré, had heard about its hidden treasure since boyhood. Reports from local villagers and a vision of the Potštejn sexton strengthened his enthusiasm. He also misinterpreted a Latin inscription on a building stone, reading it as signata instes, caritas extirpat hostes, which he understood as “Begin searching at the marked spot.” In fact it was probably a Latin verse containing a pious saying. The inscription is now illegible, and the stone is no longer in its original position. It probably formed the upper crosspiece of a stone doorway in the former castle. The count began digging there. He spent many thousands of guilders on his efforts and dug from 1744 until 1782! In the end he found only an old iron chest, completely empty, along with keys, spurs and similar objects. When workmen building a chapel in the castle discovered underground passages, he began excavating again, made most of them accessible and explored them. Occasionally he encountered a stone with mysterious markings, which he believed were signs leading to the treasure of the notorious robber Mikuláš of Potštejn. According to legend, his workers reached a door bearing a fiery inscription: “The time has not yet come.” They heard mournful cries from behind it, dropped their tools and fled. The count supposedly later had the way to the treasure walled up. In reality, his many years of fruitless demolition and digging caused parts of the old castle to collapse, while others were deliberately demolished. Its ruin then became inevitable. Count Harbuval did, however, commission a detailed plan of the secret passages, making the castle an illustrative model of the underground parts of other medieval castles. His finds and the tunnel map are kept in the local museum. One entrance to the underground passages was in the tower above the fifth gate, intended as the last refuge of the remaining garrison. A. Jirásek used the story of the forever-unsatisfied treasure seeker in his novel Poklad (The Treasure). Surroundings: