The Legend of the Ancient Monastery

Two kilometres northwest of the town, in the so-called Aglaja Valley, lies a place revered and visited by pilgrims since pagan times. A complex of partly ruined buildings stands here: Světce (Heiligen) Château, which inherited its name from the original Minims' monastery of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. A chapel dedicated to the same saints previously stood on the site, and an old legend is associated with it. A large stone lay here in the forest, on which fourteen little lights appeared every night. The local people considered them a sign of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and held devotions by the stone. Once a pagan nobleman attended the ceremony and blasphemed before the faithful. To frighten the lights away, he charged at the stone on horseback, shouting that he wanted to become the fifteenth helper. But the earth opened and swallowed the blasphemer. Only his helmet and spur remained; these were supposedly preserved as proof of the event until a chapel was built over the spot. When its foundations were laid, the miraculous boulder was removed, but after three nights it reappeared in its original place and was eventually left there.