"Iron Mask" Weird Statue, Prague

Sculptor Ladislav Šaloun is best known for his statue of Jan Hus in Old Town Square, and while that one is a bit odd, it doesn’t really make the list. A more interesting work of his is the faceless knight on the side of Prague’s City Hall. This is another ghost story. Prague’s oldest houses are known by colorful names that refer to a symbol above the door. This was done because houses at that time had no street numbers.

On Platnéřská Street there was a house called At the Iron Man, with a stone statue of a knight above the door. That house is now gone, and the original statue is in the Municipal Museum. When City Hall was built near the original site, Šaloun made a large stone copy of the faceless knight, who is said to have killed his lover in a fit of rage. The knight was turned to stone as punishment. He can be freed by the love of a pure-hearted woman but only once every 100 years on the anniversary of the murder. The exact date, alas, has been lost to history. Šaloun’s copy includes the poor victim off on the side. Prague must have the only City Hall with a statue of a murderous and ghostly knight as a decoration.