The Enchanted Women of Vyšehrad

A White Lady appears at night beside the former Mouse Hole passage out of Vyšehrad. Below the fortress, people said that she emerged through the Mouse Hole from inside the rock, where she has a great cave full of treasures guarded by a black, fiery dog. The White Lady supposedly guards her treasures without a head: when the appointed time is over and the treasures are discovered, her head will be restored and she will be released from the spell. On the Vyšehrad cliff stand the ruins of a small castle called Libuše’s Bath. According to legend, Libuše bathed here with lovers, whom she then threw into the Vltava. A White Lady appears here too. When moonlight passes through the ruin and falls on the river through one of its windows, people say that the White Lady is “looking out of the window.” For the inhabitants of Podskalí, this was a bad omen: it was said that someone would soon drown in the Vltava. The ghost of the so-called Hannewald Lady appeared in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, during Mass and at other times. The apparition always emerged from the Hannewald Chapel.