Summoning Spirits

Treasures are supposedly hidden in the castle ruins on a high basalt hill (482 m) above Vrchovany. A record of a search survives. While a conjurer summoned spirits inside a consecrated circle in the Bernštejn cellar, a gale supposedly arose and terrifying sounds frightened him so badly that he did not finish reading the required passage from his magic book. Darkness fell, and he awoke only in the morning, bruised, below the ruins. The legend rests on an actual event: on 21 December 1718 the French adventurer Jorius Vietz summoned spirits here to find treasure. He and his assistants robbed people and he was later detained, but escaped while being taken to prison in Kosmonosy.