If a building is abandoned for a long enough time, it doesn’t take long before stories about hauntings begin to emerge. In Czechia, the Fairy Tale Farmhouse has attracted a few legends of its own.
I left Prague on a sunny winter’s morning, heading towards this farmhouse. While cold, the winter of 2017-2018 was still warmer than last year’s and I was looking forward to the 2 hour drive south. The suburbs soon peeled away to reveal fields and forests iced with a smattering of snow that we city dwellers had barely noticed.
The Fairy Tale Farmhouse was originally called Christelhof. It sits in the country with incredible views of south Bohemia which is probably why they apply the “Fairy Tale” moniker. In the 17th century, this was one of three buildings on the estate built by a German family1. The family lived here peacefully for a few generations2.
On 12 May 1828 a huge fire devastated the nearby town of Strážov, possibly because of something left on a stove3. Locals blamed an ugly old woman who had recently moved into a small hut at the edge of the hill below this building. Linking the legends of this place with her ugliness, they concluded she must be a witch. They lynched and stoned her outside her house. With her dying breath, she clung onto a nearby birch tree and cursed the peacefulness in the forest together with the owner of this building1 2.
I was heading south-south-west from Prague. The Czech countryside is always breathtaking and it takes a lot of will power to focus on the road rather than rubber-neck and enjoy the views. I stopped at a roadside cafe for a quick pit stop. I was surrounded by a small number of travellers, many locals. It’s funny how we are quick to point the differences between peoples, I reflected, but the ability to immediately believe superstitions over facts is a universally human trait.
After World War I, a new family moved into this building. The wife went mad, took her children into the forest and disappeared. The husband hanged himself. The next owner started to get premonitions and visions1 2.
This sounds all circumstantial and, obviously, few records substantiate this. That doesn’t stop people believing what they want to believe.
I was only 45 minutes away from the Fairy Tale Farmhouse when I noticed the sky darken. The cloud cover had increased and it was clear to me a storm was brewing over south Bohemia. My sat-nav directed me off main roads and I marvelled at some beautiful wooden buildings with acres of space around them. You can tell the villages are a little poorer than cities but you can see many people still living amidst the scenery.
After a wrong turning or two, and tight manoeuvring around country roads, I drove on to a cart track in a field. Puzzled, but sure of my route, I inched forward on snow-capped frozen mud. I was surrounded by tall trees now, further shielding me from the little daylight that the gun-metal grey clouds had not yet covered.
In 19912, a young man by the name of Ivan Roubal moved in. This puzzled locals as the place wasn’t even connected to the electrical grid yet. The polite young man raised poultry and Black Vietnamese pigs. Roubal went on to become the country’s most notorious serial killer and a Czech court convicted him of 5 murders. Police are sure that he’s guilty of another 3 but there is no evidence to suggest this. He had been overheard claiming that he killed these three and fed their bodies to his pigs so it’s doubtful whether any evidence will ever be found1.
Police arrested him in Náměstí Míru (Peace Square) in Prague in 19973. He died while serving a life sentence4; while the place has fallen into disrepair once more. In 2010 it was torched by unknown persons1. Locals claim the place is haunted and that Roubal only turned into a murderer once he moved into this building. This too seems to be more local lore than anything else.
I stopped the car at a barrier across the path. My sat-nav clearly showed I was on the right route. I would now have to get out, leave the car in a field and trek for a clear 45 minutes to get to the place. It certainly is remote. The only routes to the place would also need such a trek and I wasn’t prepared for a long hike in sub-zero weather, especially with the promise of rain.
I reversed until I found space to do a 3-point turn. I retraced my steps and was soon on a normal road once more. Maybe it was my imagination, but the skies suddenly turned brighter and the cloud cover disappeared. A sign perhaps? Or just another symptom of an overactive imagination.
I shall return to this place when the weather is a little more welcoming, hence the lack of photos.
Have you ever tried to visit a haunted farmhouse? Leave a comment below and tell us about it!
- Awesome story: A serial killer; ExtraStory.cz; (Retrieved 2017-05-04) (Article in Czech) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
- Secret Farm Tale, Jaros, David; Vyhledy.net; 2014-06-22; (Article in Czech) [↩][↩][↩][↩]
- Night of the Fairy Tale; Moskyt.net; (Retrieved 2017-05-04) (Article in Czech) [↩][↩]
- The scariest places in the Czech Republic; Prague.TV; 2016-11-29 [↩]