Speaker 1: Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClain smith, where
Speaker 1: for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories
Speaker 1: and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make
Speaker 1: it into the previous show. Last week's episode, Lying in
Speaker 1: Wait detailed the haunting experience of a group of US
Speaker 1: Marines who spent sixty days stationed on top of a
Speaker 1: notorious observation point in Helmand Province in South Afghanistan, known
Speaker 1: to some as the Rock. It is perhaps unsurprising that
Speaker 1: stories of ghosts should materialize out of the experiences of war,
Speaker 1: given the ever present proximity of death and the heightened
Speaker 1: emotional state of all those caught up in it. Ultimately, however,
Speaker 1: it is the location of this story that takes center stage.
Speaker 1: Though the people change, it endures like a strange radio
Speaker 1: tower made of earth and rock, broadcasting the tales of
Speaker 1: a land haunted by decades of conflict. Though somewhat of
Speaker 1: a tangent, it put me a mind of another equally
Speaker 1: strange location that has become synonymous with wartime tales of
Speaker 1: the strange and unnerving. It was back in March twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen that a worker at a storage depot used by
Speaker 1: the National Library of the Czech Republic, came across an
Speaker 1: unusual collection of books that had not seen the light
Speaker 1: of day since the nineteen fifties. Comprised of various occult
Speaker 1: texts as well as histories of witchcraft, freemasonry, and folklore,
Speaker 1: the collection is believed to have formed part of a
Speaker 1: vast book library, much of its stolen of similar material
Speaker 1: that had once been the possession of Heinrich Himler, as
Speaker 1: the head of the German s S Unit. It is
Speaker 1: thought that Himmler intended to keep the books at Castlevevelsburg
Speaker 1: in Germany, which he'd earmarked as a potential headquarters for
Speaker 1: the ss. Some, however, believed that many of the books
Speaker 1: were in fact taken to another, even more mysterious castle,
Speaker 1: located in the forests of Bohemia in modern day Czech Republic,
Speaker 1: for reasons that have never been entirely clear. Perhaps we
Speaker 1: might find a clue in one of my favorite horror
Speaker 1: films of the nineteen eighties, Michael Mann's flowed nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: three masterpiece The Keep, based on the book by Paul Wilson,
Speaker 1: tells the story of a troop of German s S
Speaker 1: soldiers stationed at a strange and ancient castle high up
Speaker 1: in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, who are slowly being
Speaker 1: killed off by a mysterious force located there. The force
Speaker 1: is later revealed to be a dark and powerful entity
Speaker 1: that had been trapped in the depths of the castle's keep,
Speaker 1: only to be reawakened by the presence and nefarious energy
Speaker 1: of the German soldiers. I have no evidence to suggest
Speaker 1: the keep was based on the stories surrounding house could castle,
Speaker 1: but there's certainly good reason to think it was. The
Speaker 1: prisoner leant over the edge and peered down into the
Speaker 1: unfathomable deep beyond. As far off from out of the
Speaker 1: depths of the surrounding forest, A wolf howled. As the
Speaker 1: man continued to stare. He was almost certain he felt
Speaker 1: a warm air beginning to rise up from somewhere deep
Speaker 1: inside the crevasse. When he caught sight of something slithering
Speaker 1: about in the darkness, the prisoner jumped back from the edge,
Speaker 1: his feet scuffing at the rock, sending a handful of
Speaker 1: dust and pebbles cascading down into the abyss. As the
Speaker 1: prisoner clung gratefully to the rope tied tightly around his waist.
Speaker 1: All about waited expectantly for the sound of the rocks
Speaker 1: hitting the bottom, but no such sound came back. The
Speaker 1: prisoner looked pleadingly toward heineck Burker. He changed his mind.
Speaker 1: He said he'd rather faced the noose than spend another
Speaker 1: second near this place. But heineck Burker didn't flinch and
Speaker 1: waved for the soldiers to begin lowering the man into
Speaker 1: the vast, endless crevasse. According to local legend, the fisher
Speaker 1: had appeared one morning sometime in the early thirteenth century,
Speaker 1: striking a seemingly endless cleft through a small limestone ridge
Speaker 1: deep within the forests of Central Bohemia in present day
Speaker 1: Czech Republic, roughly sixty kilometers north of Prague. Reports of strange,
Speaker 1: half human, half demonic creatures seen flying out of the crevasse,
Speaker 1: killing and mutilating, called livestock, soon began to circulate, While
Speaker 1: some claimed that anyone walking too close to the rift
Speaker 1: would be dragged into it, only to return half human,
Speaker 1: half demonic themselves. The locals called it the gateway to Hell.
Speaker 1: As the story goes, heinech Burker of Duba, a confidant
Speaker 1: of the reigning monarch of the time, Ottakar the Second,
Speaker 1: took it on himself to investigate the rumors. After locating
Speaker 1: the mysterious crack, Burker offered to pardon any condemned prisoner
Speaker 1: who was willing to be lowered into it to see
Speaker 1: what exactly was down there. On the first attempt, a prisoner,
Speaker 1: equipped with a burning torch to light the way, was
Speaker 1: lowered by Burker's guards into the hole, being dropped deeper
Speaker 1: and deeper until a distant, horrific scream was heard shooting
Speaker 1: up from deep inside the chasm. With the guards working
Speaker 1: furiously to recover the man, he emerged finally into the light,
Speaker 1: his eyes vacant and lips trembling as he mumbled something indecipherable.
Speaker 1: His hair had turned completely white. If you're an entrepreneur
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Speaker 1: Proton dot com slash unexplained. One of the only sources,
Speaker 1: if not the only, source, that gives some indication as
Speaker 1: to when house could castle was built can be found
Speaker 1: in vaslav high X Chronica Cheska or Bohemian Chronicles, which
Speaker 1: was first published in fifteen forty three. In it, Hayak
Speaker 1: makes reference to a certain castle of Hauska being in
Speaker 1: existence as far back as thirteen sixteen. The eponymous Hauska
Speaker 1: is thought to have been the son of famed ruler
Speaker 1: Slavi Bore, who may have built a wooden fortress on
Speaker 1: the site of what would later become Hausker Castle sometime
Speaker 1: in the tenth century, naming it after his son. Heineck
Speaker 1: Berker is believed to have built a stone castle on
Speaker 1: the same spot sometime in the mid thirteenth century, then
Speaker 1: later adopted the name Hausker for himself, becoming Heineck Berker
Speaker 1: of Hauska. It is said that Burker, having either been
Speaker 1: convinced of the diabolic nature of the mysterious crack in
Speaker 1: the forest, or simply as a way to placate the
Speaker 1: local population who believed it, constructed the castle in an
Speaker 1: effort to keep whatever terrible things might emerge from it
Speaker 1: at bay. Substantial stone plate were laid over the apparent
Speaker 1: crack in the limestone ridge. A chapel was then constructed
Speaker 1: over the offending spot around which the castle was built.
Speaker 1: Apocryphal or knot, there are numerous facts about the castle
Speaker 1: that suggests there may be more than a little truth
Speaker 1: to its supposed dark origins. For a start, being located
Speaker 1: in the depths of what at the time would have
Speaker 1: been almost impenetrable forest and swamp plant, while also being
Speaker 1: nowhere near a fresh water source. The castle, which would
Speaker 1: have been incredibly expensive to build, had absolutely no strategic
Speaker 1: purpose whatsoever, adding further to the mystery. Although the castle
Speaker 1: was significantly altered in the seventeenth century, with its towers,
Speaker 1: moat and defenses being removed, it is said to have
Speaker 1: originally been constructed in such a way that its fortifications
Speaker 1: faced inward toward the chapel. The only explanation for this,
Speaker 1: it seems, is that the ustle was built as a
Speaker 1: defense not against the outside world, but against what was
Speaker 1: contained within it. While inside the chapel, frescoes dating from
Speaker 1: the fourteen hundreds that still survived today to pick scenes
Speaker 1: of the archangel Michael fighting a dragon symbolic of his
Speaker 1: fight against supposed evil, as well as an image of
Speaker 1: him weighing souls for their last judgment. As the Bible
Speaker 1: has it, it is the archangel Michael who was given
Speaker 1: the task of defeating Satan in the end times. Another
Speaker 1: image found inside the chapel appears to show a female
Speaker 1: centaur holding a bow in their left hand, which some
Speaker 1: have identified as being significant since the left hand has
Speaker 1: often been associated with the devil. In the seventeenth century,
Speaker 1: Housca Castle was located in the Kingdom of Bohemia, also
Speaker 1: referred to as the Czech Kingdom, within the broader umbrella
Speaker 1: of the Holy Roman Empire. During the early seventeenth century,
Speaker 1: much of the Empire was embroiled in a bitter and
Speaker 1: bloody battle as two of its major players, the Habsburg
Speaker 1: family and the French House of Borbon, battled for supremacy.
Speaker 1: The resulting conflict, one of the most destructive in European history,
Speaker 1: would eventually last for thirty years, becoming known as the
Speaker 1: Thirty Years War, and claimed the lives of anywhere between
Speaker 1: four and a half to eight million people. During the war,
Speaker 1: many other peripheral powers were drawn into it to protect
Speaker 1: their various territories within the Empire, including Gustavus Adolphus, the
Speaker 1: then King of Sweden. As a consequence, it is rumored
Speaker 1: that a Swedish commander named O'tronto used his involvement in
Speaker 1: the war as an opportunity to secure Castle Housker for himself,
Speaker 1: having been drawn to it by its dark and tantalizing mythology.
Speaker 1: After capturing the castle during the Swedish Army's forays into Bohemia.
Speaker 1: A Toronto, a supposed alchemist and practitioner of magic, is
Speaker 1: said to have made attempts to harness the strange energy
Speaker 1: said to be contained within the castle's walls. While a
Speaker 1: Toronto was staying at the castle, it is believed that
Speaker 1: his soldiers were given free reign to rape and pillage
Speaker 1: the surrounding communities in revenge. While also unnerved by the
Speaker 1: reports of strange occult experiments being carried out at the castle,
Speaker 1: two local hunters assassinated the Swedish commander, supposedly killing him
Speaker 1: while he was in the mists of one such strange experiment.
Speaker 1: In the years after a. Toronto's supposed occupation, the castle
Speaker 1: is thought to have fallen into severe disrepair. After being
Speaker 1: restored significantly in the early nineteenth century, it began once
Speaker 1: again to draw in all manner of visitors curious to
Speaker 1: know more about the peculiar fortress on the Limestone Cliff.
Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty six, poet Carol Heinick Masher, while in
Speaker 1: the middle of a walking tour of the local area,
Speaker 1: is said to have spent a night at the castle.
Speaker 1: That night, it is claimed that Masha fell into a
Speaker 1: deep but fitful sleep, in which he found himself drifting
Speaker 1: toward the chapel, only to be pulled deep below the
Speaker 1: floor and threw into the chasm below it. Moments later,
Speaker 1: he found himself wandering unfamiliar streets, soon realizing he'd been
Speaker 1: propelled two hundred years into the future. As he apparently
Speaker 1: wrote in a letter to a friend, he was surrounded
Speaker 1: by huge towers like sandstone cliffs, with holes dotted throughout them,
Speaker 1: from out of which eerie yellow light was shining like
Speaker 1: modern day tower blocks. Perhaps while later you saw a
Speaker 1: woman on the street watching moving pictures out of a
Speaker 1: small boxlike contraption she was holding in her hand. Just
Speaker 1: over a hundred years later, under the orders of Adolf Hitler,
Speaker 1: the German army invaded Czechoslovakia, and a short time later
Speaker 1: a troop of SS guards was stationed at Castle Houska.
Speaker 1: Just why they were there, however, remains a mystery. Today,
Speaker 1: Hauska Castle remains open to visitors, nestled deep within the
Speaker 1: forests of Bohemia as beguiling and incomprehensible. As Ever, if
Speaker 1: you enjoy unexplained and would like to help supporters, you
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Speaker 1: All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced
Speaker 1: by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the
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