Prague is the most haunted of places. It is a city where magic and mystery can be found at every turn. The thirty-nine supernatural legends in this book, all but one associated with notable tourist attractions, are more than fascinating stories set in Prague. They also capture the city's images and imagination better than any guidebook or history book. This is not a collection of folktales, but only of supernatural legends for which Prague is unsurpassed. The writing is original, and the setting of each tale is described in detail to allow even an armchair traveler a magical tour of this captivating city. The stories also serve as the framework for providing an overview of Czech history and culture as we celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the First Czechoslovak Republic.
For readers of VE Schwab and The Witcher, science and magic clash in atmospheric gaslight-era Prague. In the quiet streets of Prague all manner of otherworldly creatures lurk in the shadows. Unbeknownst to its citizens, their only hope against the tide of predators are the dauntless lamplighters - a secret elite of monster hunters whose light staves off the darkness each night. Domek Myska leads a life teeming with fraught encounters with the worst kind of evil: pijavica, bloodthirsty and soulless vampiric creatures. Despite this, Domek find solace in his moments spent in the company of his friend, the clever and beautiful Lady Ora Fischer - a widow with secrets of her own. When Domek finds himself stalked by the spirit of the White Lady - a ghost who haunts the baroque halls of Prague castle – he stumbles across the sentient essence of a will-o'-the-wisp captured in a mysterious container. Now, as it's bearer, Domek wields its power, but the wisp, known for leading travellers to their deaths, will not be so easily controlled. After discovering a conspiracy amongst the pijavice that could see them unleash terror on the daylight world, Domek finds himself in a race against those who aim to twist alchemical science for their own dangerous gain.
The Czech Republic - The Most Haunted Country in the World? by G. Michael Vasey The Czech Republic is a beautiful, landlocked country at the heart of Europe. It has a pagan Slavic past that has survived and indeed even been adopted by Christianity. From whipping girls with special sticks at Easter to visits by the Devil, an Angel and St. Nicholas on St. Nicholas' day, there are reminders of past paganism at every turn during the course of a year. It is a country where each town and city has its own ghost stories, legends and myths, where innumerable castles dot the landscape, each with their hidden treasures, specters and wraiths, separated by haunted and magical forests. The Czech Republic may just be the most haunted country on the planet! Discover the creepy ghosts of Prague, the location of the mysterious gate to Hell, creepy haunted forests, tales of vampires and the undead, abandoned cemeteries now used for satanic rituals in the dead of night, strange and mysterious imps and elves, and much more. The Czech Republic is a country of ghosts and myths, haunted and mysterious places and strange pagan customs. If you plan to visit the Czech Republic - here is your guide to the supernatural side of the country! Discover the ghosts and haunted places of the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic - The Most Haunted Country in the World? by G. Michael Vasey
Drawing on the same standards of accuracy as the acclaimed DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, DK Top 10 Prague uses exciting colorful photography and excellent cartography to provide a reliable and useful travel guide in ebook format. Dozens of Top 10 lists provide vital information on each destination, as well as insider tips, from avoiding the crowds to finding out the freebies, The DK Top 10 Guides take the work out of planning any trip.
There is a strange triality in Prague’s history — Czechs, Germans, Jews; Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism; rulers, nobles, peasants; Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque. Joseph Wechsberg penetrates Prague’s world to recapture an extraordinary cultural, spiritual, political, artistic and embattled past. Prague was the home of Kafka, Rilke, Neruda and Werfel, of “heretic” Jan Hus, of “Good King (and later Saint) Wenceslas”; the inspiration of Mozart; the mecca of alchemists, astronomers and adventurers; it gave birth to folklore, fantasy and bizarre facts, such as the Golem, a manlike figure of clay that was brought to life by its alleged creator, “High Rabbi” Loew, in the 16th century. She was the first town in Central Europe with paved streets that were regularly cleaned (1340). The Thirty Years’ War began and ended in Prague. And it was here that the Counter-Reformation reached its brutal climax. The city comes alive, from its founder Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor who made Prague the cultural center of Europe; the Hussite Era; the 300 years of Habsburg domination that followed; to the great Republic of humanist-philosopher Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the horrors of Nazi occupation and, finally, the gray realities of communism, and the 1968 “Prague Spring” which began with Dubček, ended with the invasion by the Warsaw Pact troops and Jan Palach‘s self-immolation on January 16, 1969. “Nothing is clear and simple in Prague; everything is enigmatic and complex. The city’s thousand-year-old history is constant flux and reflux, love and hatred, struggle and synthesis, contrast and symbiosis. Princes fight tribal leaders, kings fight the Estates, feudal rulers fight the upcoming bourgeoisie, the city fights the countryside, haves fight the have-nots. More recently, Czechs have fought Czechs. The social struggles have ended with the conversion of former have-nots into haves, and vice versa — but for how long? There are religious struggles throughout the centuries: pagans against Christians, Christians against “heretic” Christians, Utraquists against Jesuits, Christians against Jews... Today Prague is a Czech city but it would be wrong to write the story of Prague as a Czech city, or as a German city, or as a Jewish city. Prague is all three... Prague always was either battlefield or symbiosis... Tolerance was never widespread in this city of cruel passions where the bizarre nomenclature reflects history... The story of Prague depends on who writes it.” — Joseph Wechsberg, Prague: The Mystical City “Joseph Wechsberg... wrote compellingly of [Prague,] this compelling city.” — Henry Kamm, The New York Times “[G]raceful and immaculately styled.” — Kirkus
In 1993, Tina Brown researched and created the Hastings Old Town Ghost Walk. Over the many years of guiding visitors to Hastings around the haunted passageways of the Old Town of Hastings, Tina has collected more stories from visitors from across the World. In addition to the ghost stories that there just isn't time to include in the tour, this book also includes some of these stories that have been collected from visitors over the years from places as far afield as Poland, Sweden, Germany, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. There are also a number of feline ghostly experiences that Tina has collected from a number of cat owners in the UK. Find out about these haunted experiences in Hastings and beyond!
A work of great rage, sorrow, and love, Michael Salcman’s majestic A Prague Spring tells an almost unbearable story that needs to be told over and over and never forgotten. Beginning with coldly matter-of-fact poems of family members lost to and escaping the Shoah, Salcman documents how his parents survived and met, and how he got along in Brooklyn, the glorious borough of his childhood, baseball’s Dodgers, and the Brooklyn Bridge. Finally, he doubles back to visit the country of his birth. And in a series of stunning poems, a prose piece, and a final poem to his cousin Magda, Salcman ties together past and present, and gives us one more glimpse into the soul of a survivor, two really, his older cousin, and himself. —Robert Cooperman, author of In the Colorado Gold Fever Mountains, winner of the Colorado Book Award for Poetry A Prague Spring is a beautiful blend of the lyric imagination with historical and autobiographical facts. In this book, ignorance, cruelty, and murder lose. Art, and the truth, wins. —Thomas Lux, Bourne Chair in Poetry at the Georgia Institute of Technology, winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award and author of God Particles A Prague Spring is a near-epic book of history poems, interweaving the story of Prague with the Holocaust, family deaths and survivals, a book that stuns the reader with the enormities and sorrows of Time. Salcman uses the compression of narrative, meditative and lyric poetry to “bring you looted treasures: History’s twisted snakes.” Here we find a Holocaust survivor who is “a stick leaning on a stick, / an insect on a branch” as well as the backwards-running Jewish clock of Prague (“What city tells time like Prague?”) counterpoised with Salcman’s Brooklyn: “sweet / borough of my youth, heart and lung / of life.” Kafka and Salcman's ancestors haunt the Czech capital where “a pile of dust once pushed a cart of salt and spices / on a medieval street.” The poems revisit totalitarian defenestrations, slaughters and repressions as they recount, wonder and pray, all the time knowing “the brain is a savage beast, it eats when and what / no other organ eats….” At once autobiography, history, testimonial and memorial, A Prague Spring is a revolutionary collection of important and necessary poems, confidently written and—especially with Salcman’s tonal skills—always absorbing; it is further deepened by how perfectly Lynn Silverman’s dark photographs of Prague capture that ancient city’s shadows and ghosts. —Dick Allen, Connecticut State Poet Laureate (2010-2015) and author of This Shadowy Place, Present Vanishing, and Ode to the Cold War: Poems New and Selected
Newly revised, updated, and redesigned for 2016. True to its name, DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Top 10 Prague covers all the city's major sights and attractions in easy-to-use "top 10" lists that help you plan the vacation that's right for you. This newly updated pocket travel guide for Prague will lead you straight to the best attractions the city has to offer, whether you want to explore the largest castle complex in the world, take a stroll along the picturesque Vltava River, discover the architectural pearls among the winding alleys of the Old Town, or enjoy some of the best lager on the planet. Expert travel writers have fully revised this edition of DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Top 10 Prague. + Brand-new itineraries help you plan your trip to Prague. + Maps of walking routes show you the best ways to maximize your time. + New Top 10 lists feature off-the-beaten-track ideas, along with standbys like the top attractions, shopping, dining options, and more. + New typography and fresh layout throughout. You'll still find DK's famous full-color photography and museum floor plans, along with just the right amount of coverage of the city's history and culture. The perfect pocket-size travel companion: DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Top 10 Prague.
Picture a place where tumbleweeds roll across abandoned streets, grey fog hangs heavy beneath an eerie moon, and creaking doors hang open on ramshackle cottages. With this haunting text, readers will tour some of the most haunted towns around the globe. Fearsome stories about spooky specters and paranormal activities are tied into historical context, giving readers insight into key concepts of social studies. Informative sidebars enhance and expand this thrilling text. The brilliant design and frightful photographs will inspire the imaginations of young readers.
