Lomikar, Lomikar!

Trhanov Château was the seat of Wolf Maximilian Lamingen of Albenreuth (1634–1696), the notorious Lomikar, whose role in the Chods' struggle for their ancient rights earned him an infamous place in history. According to the best-known legend, their leader Jan Sladký Kozina challenged him, during his execution in Plzeň, to 'God's judgment within a year and a day'. Lamingen did indeed die about a year later. He is buried in the Church of St Martin in Klenčí pod Čerchovem. His impact here was so strong that local tradition preserved numerous stories of his return after death, unmatched in this country both in geographical extent and in the variety of their extraordinary versions. Most tales of the haunting Lomikar are centred on Trhanov Château itself, its rooms and the entrance, where two cockerel heads stand on high pedestals. His ghost supposedly often travelled along the linden avenue towards the settlement of Nový Hamr, either as a headless horseman or in a fiery carriage. At other times he appeared in a gentleman's clothes and a three-cornered hat. Every midnight he also changed into a black, fiery dog and ran from the church crypt in Klenčí along the road to Trhanov and back. He had large shining eyes and a fiery tongue. His hair reached the ground, white foam dripped from his jaws, and sometimes he was seen with only three legs. He also appeared in this form near the Mejkosovec, Pařezová and Černý ponds. If anyone met him, he lay across their path, stuck out his fiery tongue and terrified them until morning. He could take many other frightening forms too: a black cat, rabbit, cow, bull, fiery horse or fiery sow. Sometimes he appeared as a burning barrel, a bundle of straw or two tongues of flame. Many stories also concern Lomikar's little lights. A distinctive, characteristic transformation was his appearance as a wall, a folding screen or mist. (See Klenčí pod Čerchovem.)