March 30, 2025 • 49 mins
Deep in the forests of the Czech Republic stands Houska Castle, a fortress with no strategic purpose, no defensive advantage, and no real reason to exist—except, perhaps, to trap something inside.
For centuries, legends have whispered of a bottomless pit beneath its foundation, a chasm so dark and deep that locals claimed it was a gateway to Hell itself. Medieval villagers refused to settle near it. The Nazis occupied it for reasons still shrouded in mystery. And even today, visitors report shadowy figures, inhuman whispers, and something moving beneath the stone floors.
So what is Houska Castle, really? A medieval experiment in fear? A forgotten pagan site repurposed by the Church? A natural geological anomaly misinterpreted by centuries of superstition? Or is it something far more sinister?
Join me as we dig deep into one of Europe’s strangest fortresses, uncovering its history, legends, Nazi experiments, and modern paranormal encounters—and asking the question that lingers long after the doors close behind you:
If you stood inside Houska Castle, staring down into the darkness… would you listen to what’s crawling beneath?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
The first thing you need to understand about Hauska
Castle is that it shouldn't bethere.
Castles are built to keepthings out Armies, invaders, the
creeping hands of time.
But Hauska Hauska was built inthe middle of nowhere.
(00:30):
Why Not on the edge of abattlefield, not along a river
or a trade route, but deep inthe forests of the Czech
Republic, in a place with nostrategic value, no natural
defenses, nothing that wouldjustify the effort.
It just sits there, defyinglogic, and the deeper you dig
into its history, the strangerit gets.
(00:50):
The first time I read aboutHauska, I kept circling back to
this same question why?
Why build a fortress with notown, no water source and for no
army?
They say Hauska Castle wasn'tbuilt to keep something out.
It was built to keep somethingin that beneath its foundation
(01:13):
is a pit so deep no one has everfound the bottom that before
the castle existed, people sawcreatures claw their way out of
it Twisted bodies, blackleathery wings that when the pit
couldn't be filled, they builta fortress over it instead.
They feared this pit so muchthey didn't just try to cover it
(01:36):
, they built an entire castle totrap it.
And then there's the Naziconnection, because of course
there is.
The SS took over Hauska duringWorld War II, drawn to its dark
reputation.
Some believe they weresearching for something in the
depths below.
Others say they found it.
(01:56):
I don't know what's real yet,but I do know this when a place
is built for no reason except toseal something in, that's worth
looking into.
Maybe it's just a story, maybethat's all it ever was.
But Hauska isn't just a hauntedcastle.
It's every question we've everhad about what could be A place
(02:21):
that almost taunts us with theanswers we'll never get in this
lifetime and that makes me leanin closer.
This is when walls can talk,where we may never find all the
answers, but we'll sure as helllisten and try.
I don't recall exactly when Istarted listening.
(02:51):
Maybe I always have.
Some people are drawn to whatthey can see, what they can
prove.
I've never had that luxury.
The world has always spoken tome in ways I couldn't quite
explain Through the heavy weightof a silent, empty room,
through a story no one rememberstelling, through a voice in my
(03:16):
head I'm not entirely sure wasmy own.
I used to wonder if I wasimagining it, if I was just
another person looking forpatterns in the noise.
But the older I got, the more Irealized the past doesn't go
quiet just because we stoppedlistening.
I don't know if I'll everunderstand what it all means.
Maybe I'm not supposed to, butI do know this.
(03:39):
I will never stop searching.
This might be my journey, butthese are their stories.
I'm Jeremy.
Stop searching.
This might be my journey, butthese are their stories.
I'm Jeremy Haig, and this iswhen Walls Can Talk.
(04:15):
The podcast, season five.
Let's play a game.
You're a medieval lord.
You have power, wealth and theability to build just about
anything.
You want A fortress, a palace,a monument to your own ego, for
all intents and purposes.
But if you're going to sinkmoney into a massive stone
(04:39):
castle, you do it for a reason.
You build it somewhereimportant, somewhere strategic,
somewhere that serves a purpose.
And yet Hauska exists.
It's buried deep in the forestsof the Czech Republic, far from
any trade route, any kingdom'sborder or any natural defense
(04:59):
point.
There's no real water source,no river, no well, nothing that
could sustain a population.
It's just there, a castle inthe middle of nowhere, doing
nothing for no one.
Many of the windows are fake,just glass panes with solid
stone behind them.
The layout is completelynonsensical.
(05:22):
There's no sign it was everdesigned for anyone to actually
live there.
No kitchen, no central hearth,no great hall where noblemen and
soldiers would gather.
If this was meant to be adefensive stronghold, someone
forgot to plan for peopleactually living in it.
Just outside the castle, thereare ruins of what were likely
(05:42):
homes for the laypeople, theblacksmiths, the servants, the
laborers who would havesupported the castle's function,
whatever that function was.
And yet here those ruins arethe only sign of habitation.
Outside of that, nothing, noreason, no logic behind why
Hauska should exist in thisplace at all.
(06:05):
And this place, this dense, dark, claustrophobic stretch of
wilderness, feels like it's beenholding secrets for a long time
.
The forests in this region areancient, tangled and thick
enough that even daylightstruggles to get through.
The trees seem to lean in onyou, pressing close, muffling
(06:36):
sound.
It's the kind of place wheresilence isn't peaceful, it's
oppressive, it's watching.
If you are expecting afairytale castle with towering
spires and grand, sweepingstaircases, yeah, no, hauska is
wrong in a way that's hard toput your finger on at first.
It's imposing, but not grand.
Old but not majestic.
It just sits there, hunched ontop of a limestone cliff, buried
(07:02):
in the dense forests ofnorthern Bohemia, like it's been
deliberately tucked away fromthe world.
Right at the center of thecastle, directly over what the
legend says is a bottomless pit,there's a tiny, dimly lit
chapel.
Its walls are lined withancient frescoes, angels, demons
and strange not-quite-humanfigures locked in battle.
If the goal was to sanctifywhatever was beneath it, they
(07:24):
sure weren't subtle about it.
Everything about Hauska feelsoff like a prison with no guards
, a fortress with no army, adoor locked from the inside.
And that's the part that keepsme up at night, because if this
place wasn't built to keeppeople out, then what the hell
(07:45):
was it trying to keep in?
If you're like me, this iswhere your brain really starts
itching, because in the 1200syou didn't just waste priceless
resources like this for noreason.
If you were going to haul stoneinto a remote forest and build
something as massive as Hauska,it had to be for a damn good
(08:05):
reason.
And here's where things getinteresting, because before
there ever was a castle, theland itself already had a
reputation.
The people who lived nearbydidn't just avoid it, they were
terrified of it.
They were terrified of it.
Imagine it's the 13th century.
(08:26):
You're a villager in Bohemia.
The forests surrounding yourvillage aren't just trees and
wildlife, they're alive, in away that almost feels aware.
You don't walk alone at nightbecause you know deep in your
bones that something could bewatching from the dark.
And this isn't paranoia, it'snot fear for fear's sake,
(08:48):
because people have seen things.
And when you live in a timewhen everything sickness, storms
, war is out of your control,you pay attention to the
warnings that get passed down.
So where exactly are we?
This is Bohemia, 13th centuryCentral Europe, a land of dense
(09:09):
ancient forests, rolling hillsand small, scattered villages.
This isn't just medieval Europein the vague Game of Thrones
sense.
This is a very real place witha very specific identity.
It's part of the Holy RomanEmpire, ruled at this time by
Autocar II of Bohemia, apowerful king expanding his
(09:30):
territory.
But most of the people livinghere don't care about empires.
They care about surviving.
You and your fellow villagerslive off the land, growing
barley wheat and rye, tending tolivestock when you can afford
them.
You don't own the land.
The land owns you, and it's ahard life.
(09:50):
You work from sunrise to sunset, your entire world dictated by
the changing of the seasons.
Winter isn't just cold, it'sdeadly.
If the harvest was bad.
People starve.
There is no safety net.
Your home is small, made ofwood and clay, with a thatched
(10:12):
roof and a single room whereyour entire family sleeps, cooks
and eats.
There's no privacy, but that'snot really a concept that exists
.
Yet Life is communal.
Your survival depends on yourneighbors as much as your own
strength.
And yet, despite theback-breaking labor, despite the
(10:32):
constant fight to stay alive,there's something even more
terrifying than hunger or war ordisease there's the unknown.
Here's the thing about this timeperiod People don't separate
the physical world from thespiritual one.
If a storm destroys your crops,if a child dies unexpectedly,
(10:54):
if you see something move in thetrees that shouldn't be there,
there is always a reason, andthat reason isn't random chance
or bad luck.
It's the devil or demons orspirits.
The Catholic Church is powerful, yes, but Christianity didn't
erase older beliefs, it justlayered itself over them.
(11:18):
Your village still holds on toold pagan traditions, the ones
that say certain places arecursed, that spirits can be held
at bay with salt and iron, thatsome land does not belong to
humans and that brings us to thepit.
No one knows how long it's beenthere deep in the vicious woods.
(11:40):
No one remembers a time beforepeople feared it.
But there is a gaping hole inthe earth in the middle of the
forest and it is wrong.
There is no bottom.
At night, strange sounds risefrom its depths Whispers,
screams, the rustling ofsomething moving down there too
(12:01):
far to see.
People claim that things havecrawled out of it twisted
half-human creatures with blackwings and sunken faces.
They emerge under the cover ofdarkness, dragging themselves
onto the land, only to vanishbefore sunrise.
No one will settle near the pit.
Even hunters don't go near it.
(12:23):
And, the worst part, no oneknows how far it goes.
People have tried to measure it.
They've dropped stones, torches, bodies, even Nothing ever hits
the bottom.
And because humanity is nothingif not morbidly curious, someone
maybe a local lord, maybe thechurch, maybe some sick bastard
(12:48):
just looking for a thrill comesup with an idea.
If this is truly a gateway tohell, why not test it?
They take a condemned prisoner,someone already sentenced to
death, and offer him a deal.
If he agrees to be lowered intothe pit and report back what he
(13:08):
sees, he'll be set free.
Now, if I were this guy, I'dhonestly be weighing my options
pretty hard here Death byexecution or death by whatever
the hell lives at the bottom ofthis thing.
But here's the thing.
Several people take the deal.
They tie a rope around hiswaist and start lowering him
(13:31):
down and within seconds hestarts screaming Not just
panicked screaming,Blood-curdling, animalistic
terror, the kind of screamingthat makes your stomach drop,
because, whatever he's seeing,his brain cannot process it.
They yank him back up and whatthey pull out of that pit is not
(13:53):
the same man they sent down.
His hair is white, his eyes arewild, unfocused, his face is
twisted in such horror that hecan't even speak.
They carry him away and henever recovers.
He dies days later, stillraving about whatever he saw.
(14:15):
No one else volunteers to godown after that.
Now we know that the legend ofHauska's bottomless pit goes
back centuries.
The villagers believed it was agateway to hell and that's the
version of the story we hear themost A chasm so deep no one
could see the bottom, exudingfoul air, with creatures
(14:37):
crawling out at night.
But where did this beliefactually come from?
Because in the 13th century,fear of hell wasn't just a
metaphor To a medieval villager.
Heaven and hell weren'tabstract ideas, they were
physical places, and sometimesthose places bled into our world
(14:58):
.
Deep pits, caves and chasmswere seen as portals.
Deep pits, caves and chasmswere seen as portals, not just
in Christianity, but in olderpagan traditions as well, places
where spirits and demons couldcross over.
And these beliefs weren't justwhispered in villages, they were
(15:18):
enforced by the church.
Think about it If you're apriest in the Middle Ages and
you hear stories of a gapinghole in the earth, spewing smoke
and strange noises, wheremonsters were supposedly
crawling out at night, what areyou going to assume?
You're going to assume it's ahellmouth.
Hellmouths were a real,documented belief in medieval
(15:39):
theology.
They were thought to bephysical entrances to hell
itself.
They were thought to bephysical entrances to hell
itself.
In fact, medieval art is fullof horrifying images of beasts
and demons emerging from giantgaping mouths in the ground,
consuming the damned.
So when the villagers of thisregion refused to go anywhere
near Hauska's pit, that fearwasn't irrational to them.
(16:01):
It was spiritual survival.
And this brings up anotherquestion.
What if this belief wasn'tirrational to them?
It was spiritual survival, andthis brings up another question.
What if this belief wasn't new?
Because before Christianity everarrived in Bohemia, this land
belonged to older traditions.
Pagan cultures saw deep naturalformations, caves, chasms and
(16:22):
sinkholes as sacred places.
Some were used as ritual sites,some were feared as places of
dark power, and whenChristianity spread through
Europe, many of these olderbeliefs were absorbed and
repurposed.
A place that was once seen as adwelling of ancient gods now
it's a gateway to hell.
(16:43):
A pit once used for ritualsacrifices, now it's a cursed
place that must be sealed.
So maybe the legend of HauskaCastle wasn't something that
started in the Middle Ages,maybe it was something much,
much older.
So now you have a problem.
You have a hole in the groundthat no one will go near, where
(17:07):
monsters supposedly crawl out atnight and where that one guy
who did get lowered into it cameback broken.
And in the 1200s, when thechurch has absolute power, when
demons and hell mouths anddivine punishment are just part
of reality, there is only onething to do if you can't destroy
it, you seal it, and divinepunishment are just part of
(17:28):
reality, there is only one thingto do If you can't destroy it,
you seal it.
So a decision was made, or atleast so the story goes.
A fortress will be builtdirectly over the pit, not for
protection, not for war, but asa lid.
A chapel is placed directlyover the opening, because holy
ground has power and if anythingtries to crawl out, maybe, just
(17:50):
maybe, the weight of Godhimself will hold it down.
They begin construction, stoneby stone, sealing the abyss
beneath them.
But here's the question that Ikeep coming back to Is this all
just one big story, a medievalhorror tale exaggerated over
(18:10):
time, or did these people reallysee something?
Did they know something that wedon't?
All right, so we know.
The land beneath Hauska Castlewas feared long before anyone
decided to slap a fortress ontop of it.
We know about the pit, thewinged creatures, the prisoner
who came back just wrong.
(18:33):
And here's where things get evenweirder.
The official story, if you caneven call it that, is that
Hauska Castle was commissionedin the mid-1200s by Ottokar II
of Bohemia, a powerhouse rulerwho was out here expanding his
kingdom like it was a game ofrisk.
Now, ottokar II loved castles.
He built a lot of them, usuallyfor strategic purposes
(18:56):
protecting borders, securingtrade routes, reinforcing
military power.
But again, hauska is nowherenear a border.
It has no natural defenses.
It's not close to any majortrade route, river or major city
.
There was no pre-existingsettlement here, no town that
(19:18):
needed protecting and nofarmland to oversee.
It's in the middle of theforest, in the middle of nowhere
.
There was nothing here, whichmeans the most logical
explanation is, as the legendsuggests, that Hauska wasn't
built for people at all.
So what was Hauska really for?
(19:42):
There's a lot of debate here.
Some historians argue that itwas just an administrative
center for Autokar II's estates,but honestly, that doesn't hold
up.
Castles built foradministration still had
kitchens, wells, places to sleep.
They weren't built with fakewindows and walls designed to
(20:03):
reinforce something from theinside.
Others say it was a huntinglodge, but again, why fortify it
like this?
You don't need that muchsecurity for a weekend hunting
trip.
So we're left once again with aquestion that has haunted this
place for centuries Was HauskaCastle built to protect Bohemia
(20:24):
or to protect the world fromwhatever was beneath it?
Because if the people who builtit truly believed they were
sealing away something dangerous, then we have to ask ourselves
the next question Did theysucceed or did they just make
sure that eventually someonewould come looking?
And at the very heart of thisfortress, standing directly over
(20:46):
the infamous pit itself, is achapel, and not just any chapel,
a chapel dedicated to ArchangelMichael.
In Christian tradition, michaelisn't just some angelic figure
floating around playing a harp.
He's God's top warrior, the onewho leads heaven's armies into
(21:06):
battle, the one who is literallydescribed in scriptures as
casting Satan out of heaven andinto the abyss.
Of all the saints, of all thebiblical figures they could have
dedicated this chapel to, theychose the one whose job is
slaying demons.
Inside this chapel, things geteven weirder Because medieval
(21:27):
churches.
They follow a formula, standardbiblical imagery the usual
suspects Jesus, the Virgin Mary,maybe some noble saints looking
somber and holy, but here wefind something off, a
left-handed centaur.
Now let's just let's break thatdown.
(21:49):
In medieval Europe,left-handedness was often
associated with evil.
It was unnatural, sinister.
Fun fact, the word sinisteractually comes from the Latin
for left and centaurs.
They weren't just mythicalfigures, they were used as
symbols of chaos, paganism,something untamed and dangerous.
(22:12):
And this left-handed centaurisn't just chilling, playing a
lute or something, it's drawinga bow, aggressive, a figure of
attack.
Then there's another fresco,one that shows a beast attacking
a human.
This isn't Christ the Redeemeror saint figures being saintly.
(22:32):
This is a warning you don'tdecorate a chapel like this
unless you are telling a veryspecific story.
And if we go with the sealtheory, that this castle was
never meant to house nobles orsoldiers or anyone at all, then
this chapel isn't just a placeof worship.
It's part of the prison, aspiritual containment unit, a
(22:54):
massive holy lid over somethingthe people of the time believed
should not be allowed to roamfree.
What if they were right?
Not be allowed to roam free?
What if they were right?
All right, so we've establishedthat Hauska Castle was built
under extremely questionablecircumstances in the 13th
century, over a pit that peopleclaimed was literally spewing
out winged monsters.
(23:14):
We've talked about its bizarrearchitecture, its lack of basic
human necessities and the theorythat it was built less like a
fortress and more like a giantsupernatural pressure seal.
But after all that, after allthe effort it took to build this
thing in the middle of nowhere,what happened next?
And the answer is we don'treally know.
(23:39):
This castle just sits there inthe historical record for
centuries, just existing but notdoing much, and to me that's
almost creepier than if it hadsome dramatic, violent history,
because castles, especially onesbuilt by powerful kings,
usually have a purpose.
They see battles, sieges, royalintrigue, but Hauska is
(24:03):
suspiciously quiet.
Now, that being said, we dohave some puzzle pieces to pick
through.
Who actually lived here?
Well, like we've covered, thecastle was supposedly used as an
administrative center for KingOttokar II's royal estates,
which is the medieval equivalentof building an entire office
(24:24):
building in the middle of adeserted highway with no roads
leading to it.
There's no actual evidence ofimportant government work ever
happening here, no majordecisions, no record of it
playing any kind of politicalrole.
Over time, hauska passed throughthe hands of different noble
families, but most notably theBerke and Duba family, but even
(24:46):
they didn't seem to treat itlike a real residence no
expansions, no renovations tomake it more livable, almost
like everyone just left it alone.
Then the 1600s roll around andthings get dark again.
Roll around and things get darkagain.
During the Thirty Years' War,from 1618 to 1648, hauska was
(25:12):
reportedly occupied by a Swedishmercenary commander named
Oronto.
Now, this guy wasn't just amilitary leader.
He was also rumored to be analchemist and a practitioner of
black magic, which I don't knowabout you.
But if I were an aspiring darksorcerer, a creepy abandoned
castle built to seal a literalhellmouth is exactly where I'd
set up shop.
The local villagers wereterrified of whatever he was
(25:33):
doing in there.
Stories spread that he wasperforming occult rituals,
trying to harness the power ofwhatever was buried beneath.
Eventually they'd had enough.
Two hunters from a nearbyvillage reportedly broke into
the castle and straight-upassassinated him.
But I still have questions.
(25:54):
What exactly was he doing?
That was so bad that two randomguys decided he needed to be
eliminated.
Did they find anything weirdinside when they killed him?
Did anyone take over hisresearch?
We don't have those answers,because after Oronto's death,
the castle falls silent again.
(26:18):
By the 18th century, it's clearthat no one is really living
here anymore.
By the 18th century, it's clearthat no one is really living
here anymore.
The castle falls into disrepair.
No one wants to live in acursed fortress.
After all, it's just sittingthere, a crumbling,
unexplainable landmark full ofbad vibes and weird stories.
(26:38):
Then, in 1823, someone makes aneffort to restore it, likely to
preserve its historicalsignificance.
Eventually, in 1897, it getssold to Princess Hohenlohe, a
German spy and professionalblackmailer, and later, in 1924,
it's purchased by Josef Simonek, the president of Skoda Works,
(26:59):
one of the largest industrialcompanies in Czechoslovakia at
the time.
At this point, it's no longer afunctioning castle.
It's more of a historiccuriosity, something rich
aristocrats and industrialistskeep in their family because
it's old and weird and probablymakes for a great conversation
starter at dinner parties.
(27:20):
And then the Nazis show up.
And then the Nazis show up.
So up to this point, hauskaCastle has existed in this weird
liminal space between legendand history, a castle that
shouldn't be where it is builtover a pit that shouldn't exist,
with a chapel designed less forworship and more like a
(27:46):
spiritual containment unit.
But then we hit the 20thcentury and of all the people in
history who could have lookedat this ominous, possibly
haunted, probably cursedfortress and thought, yes, that
is exactly where we need to be.
Of course it was the Nazis, andto understand why they set up
shop here, we need to talk aboutsomething that sounds like it
(28:06):
belongs in a conspiracy theorybut is absolutely, verifiably
true.
The Nazis were obsessed with theoccult, so I need to emphasize
this up front.
Mysticism and the occult wasn'tjust a weird side project for
them.
The belief in supernaturalpower was woven directly into
(28:29):
Nazi ideology.
Mysticism, supernatural powerand ancient esoteric traditions
weren't just tolerated in Nazileadership.
What the Nazis were doingwasn't just about power in the
traditional sense.
It was about belief, and beliefin the wrong hands can be just
as dangerous as any weapon.
(28:53):
If there was one person at thecore of this occult obsession,
it was Heinrich Himmler.
Himmler wasn't just the head ofthe SS or one of the architects
of the Holocaust.
He was also a man who sawNazism as a spiritual movement.
He wanted to reshape the world,not just through war and
genocide, but by creating a newreligion, one that fused, warped
(29:17):
interpretations of Germanicmythology, occult rituals and
Nazi ideology into oneterrifying belief system.
And he didn't just talk aboutit, he built it At Velsberg
Castle.
Himmler essentially tried tocreate the SS equivalent of King
Arthur's Camelot.
(29:37):
This wasn't a military base, itwasn't a government building,
it was a temple.
The North Tower was meant to bethe spiritual center of the SS,
a place where high-rankingofficers could take part in
secretive initiation rituals.
The Hall of the Dead contained12 pedestals meant to hold the
(29:57):
ashes of SS officers, creatingan almost knightly, supernatural
order of fallen warriors.
The Black Sun emblem, whichstill appears in neo-Nazi occult
circles today, was embeddedinto the castle floor.
Its origins murky, but likelytied to ancient esoteric
traditions.
Himmler envisioned the SS asmore than just an army.
(30:20):
It was a priesthood, abrotherhood of chosen men who
would lead a new world orderguided by ritual, blood and
prophecy, and this wasn'tpassing interest.
This was policy.
(30:43):
In 1935, the Nazis founded theAnnenerbe, an SS think tank that
was essentially their versionof the X-Files.
Officially, their goal was toresearch the archaeological and
cultural history of the Aranrace, but in reality they were
searching for proof ofsupernatural power.
Their work spanned continentsIn Tibet, they tried to find
evidence that Aryans weredescended from an ancient
god-like race.
In France they searched for theHoly Grail.
(31:05):
In Austria they seized theSpear of Destiny, the lance said
to have pierced Christ's sidebecause Hitler genuinely
believed it had supernaturalpower.
And in the Arctic theyinvestigated the possibility of
a lost Aryan homeland, possiblyeven Atlantis.
The Anunnerbe's work directlyinfluenced Nazi military
(31:26):
strategy, from astrology-basedbattle plans to attempts at
harnessing supernatural energyfor warfare.
You'd think this level ofobsession with the supernatural
would be confined to the weirdercorners of the Nazi regime, but
Hitler himself bought into it.
He relied heavily on astrologyprophecies and mystical advisors
when making military decisions.
(31:48):
He was deeply superstitious,reportedly fearing certain
relics and objects.
He became fixated on historicalartifacts, believing they held
power that could influence thefate of the war.
One of the best documentedexamples of this was his
obsession with the Spear ofDestiny.
The spear was rumored to grantunstoppable power to whoever
(32:10):
possessed it.
Hitler, convinced of itssignificance, ordered it, seized
from Austria in 1940 and had itstored in Nuremberg.
Here's where it gets eerie.
Legend has it that whoeverloses the spear loses their
power.
And in 1945, just hours afterAmerican forces recovered it,
(32:31):
hitler committed suicide.
But the fact that Hitler evenbelieved in such a connection
tells us everything we need toknow.
So yeah, when you look at thisthrough the lens of what they
actually believed, suddenly theidea of Nazis conducting
experiments at Hauska Castledoesn't seem so far-fetched.
But what exactly were theydoing?
(32:54):
When the Nazis occupiedCzechoslovakia in 1938, they
took over Hauska Castle andcontrolled it until 1945.
And here's where things get alittle murky, because there is
no surviving officialdocumentation that tells us what
exactly they were doing inside.
But what we have is witnessaccounts.
(33:14):
Locals who lived near Houskareported strange lights coming
from the castle at all hours ofthe night.
They heard inhuman screams.
Some even claimed that peopleprisoners were brought into that
castle and never seen again.
And when the war ended, theNazis destroyed any records
(33:35):
related to their experimentsthere.
So let's talk about sometheories.
Since we don't have directrecords, we have to piece
together what could have beenhappening at Hauska based on
what we do know about Nazioccult research.
First, supernaturalexperimentation.
Given the Hellmouth legend,it's possible that they were
(33:55):
trying to tap into somethingbeyond the physical world.
Remember, himmler was alreadyexperimenting with esoteric
rituals, runic magic and ancientreligious sites around the
world.
Were they trying to summonsomething, perhaps communicate
with something?
Second is occult warfareresearch.
(34:16):
The Nazis had serious programsinvestigating psychic abilities,
remote viewing and mind control.
The idea of using paranormalforces as weapons was not sci-fi
to them.
It was an actual, theyperceived, achievable goal.
Perhaps they were using Hauskaas a testing ground for
something.
Even today we still don't fullyunderstand.
(34:38):
And the last theory is humanexperimentation.
And the last theory is humanexperimentation.
The Nazis had zero hesitationwhen it comes to using prisoners
as lab rats for horrificexperiments.
If they believed that the pitat Hauska had supernatural
properties, were they sendingpeople into it?
And no matter what the realityout of these theories might be,
(35:00):
what is the worst possibility?
What if they succeeded inopening something?
And what would happen when theyleft?
By 1945, the Nazis abandonedHauska Castle.
They burned records, destroyedevidence and left the site
behind, and ever since then thecastle has been well different.
(35:25):
Visitors report an oppressiveatmosphere in the rooms.
The Nazis used Strange coldspots, an overwhelming sense
that something is still there.
Whatever they were doing,whatever they were trying to
uncover, they left in a hurry.
And another question I keepcoming back to in all of this is
if they were trying to uncover,they left in a hurry.
(35:45):
And another question I keepcoming back to in all of this is
if they were looking for power,if they truly believed Hauska
held something dark beneath it.
Did they find what they werelooking for?
Now, take all of this and placeit in the context of Hauska
Castle, a remote, unsettlingfortress rumored to be built
over a literal gateway to hell.
(36:05):
Are we really supposed tobelieve?
They occupied this place forseven years and were just
hanging out?
Not a chance.
They were looking for something.
But whatever the Nazis believed, one thing is clear they didn't
think that power came just fromweapons and technology.
They believed power could bepulled from the ancient, the
(36:28):
unseen, the supernatural.
When the war was lost, when theNazis abandoned Hauska and they
destroyed the records, why, ifthis was a military outpost.
Why erase the evidence?
Unless whatever they found,whatever they tried, whatever
(36:51):
happened inside that castle wassomething they didn't want
getting out?
And if that's the case, maybeit's still there?
After it was abandoned in 1945,the castle was returned to the
Simenek family, who had owned itbefore the war.
But the world was changing fastand Hauska, already isolated
(37:14):
and already strange, became justanother forgotten relic of a
brutal time in history.
It spent the next severaldecades in a state of limbo.
Czechoslovakia fell undercommunist rule and, like many
historical sites, houska wasn'texactly a priority.
It wasn't preserved, it wasn'tmaintained, it just sat there,
(37:37):
quiet, aging, waiting.
Maybe that's the eerie thingabout this period of Houska
history.
Maybe that's the eerie thingabout this period of Hauska
history After everythingcenturies of fear, legends of
demons and hellmouths after theNazis themselves spent seven
years inside these walls no onetouched it, no one moved in, no
(37:59):
one repurposed it, no one evertried to turn it into anything
else.
For decades it remained empty.
Then, in the 1990s, after thefall of communism, the Simeonek
family finally began restorationefforts and in 1999, for the
first time in its entire historyHauska Castle opened its doors
(38:25):
to the public.
Now visitors can walk the samehalls where Nazis once conducted
their secret experiments.
They can stand in the Gothicchapel, the one built directly
over the pit.
They can even explore thefading medieval frescoes with
their unsettling depictions ofhalf-human creatures and pagan
symbols.
Hauska became a legend.
There are plenty of hauntedplaces in the world, plenty of
(38:48):
castles and ruins with darkhistories and whispered ghost
stories.
But Hauska's is differentBecause this was never a place
for the living, because eversince the war ended, people who
visit Hauska have reported thatsomething is still there.
The castle has always beenstrange, a place built for no
(39:11):
logical reason on land.
People refused to settle over apit that terrified medieval
villagers.
Spend any time researchingHauska Castle and you'll start
seeing patterns in the reportsof what happens here.
People describe an immediatephysical reaction upon entering
the castle An oppressive weighton the chest, nausea, dizziness,
(39:33):
almost like the castle itselfis pressing down on you like it
doesn't want you there.
Some people report disembodiedvoices whispering in languages
they don't recognize.
Others have heard growls comingfrom rooms that are completely
empty.
And then there's the figuresNot ghosts exactly, at least not
(39:53):
in the way most people thinkabout ghosts.
The things people see at Hauskadon't seem human, shadowy
figures that move just at theedge of your vision, dark shapes
lurking in doorways watchingbut never fully stepping into
view.
A faceless entity that has beenseen standing in the castle
courtyard staring at visitorsbefore vanishing.
(40:15):
And let's not forget the soundscoming from the pit, because,
yes, the pit is still there, thechapel was built over it, but
that doesn't mean it's gone.
Multiple people, includinginvestigators from Ghost, mean
it's gone.
Multiple people, includinginvestigators from Ghost Hunters
International and Expedition X,have reported hearing something
moving scratching beneath thefloor, a shuffling, scraping
(40:37):
sound, sometimes whispers andsometimes a sound that's almost
a voice.
One of the most bizarre andrepeated stories at Hauska is
the sighting of a bizarrehalf-human, half-animal creature
.
One visitor described it asfrog-like, another called it
humanoid but distorted.
It has been seen standing inthe courtyard at night watching
(41:00):
people, before vanishing intothin air.
Now remember, the oldestlegends about Hauska claim that
winged creatures used to crawlout of the pit at night.
The villagers believed thesewere demons trying to escape
from hell.
So if people are still seeingsomething non-human lurking
about the castle, what does thatmean?
And is it possible thatwhatever the Nazis were doing
(41:24):
here reawakened something thathad been locked away for
centuries.
So what did the Nazis unleash?
The paranormal history of Hauskagoes back centuries.
People were terrified of thisplace long before World War II,
but the Nazi occupation seems tohave made things worse.
Seems to have made things worsethe sudden increase in shadow
(41:46):
figures, disembodied voices,unexplained noises and bizarre
sightings.
It all started after the war.
Did the Nazis try to open thepit, and did they succeed?
Because if they did, and if thelegends were right about what
was trapped inside, then whatexactly is still inside Hauska
(42:07):
Castle today, after everything?
We've uncovered centuries offear, missing records,
unexplainable encounters.
The question remains what isHauska Castle, what really lies
beneath its foundation and why,after all this time, does the
(42:27):
fear still linger?
Let's break it down.
Here are some of my theories.
Number one let's start with theone that made Hauska infamous A
true gateway to hell.
The oldest stories about thisplace don't mention kings or
castles.
They talk about a pit, a holein the earth so deep no one
(42:49):
could see the bottom, A holewhere creatures with twisted
half-human forms and blackleathery wings would crawl out
at night.
What if we take these storiesat face value?
What does that mean?
Could this really be ahellmouth.
The idea of a physical entranceto hell isn't just local
folklore.
It appears in medievalChristian theology, pagan
(43:11):
traditions and stories acrosscenturies and cultures.
Maybe Hauska isn't literallysitting over a doorway to hell,
but maybe it is sitting oversomething ancient, something we
aren't meant to find.
Let's go to another theory.
Let's step back even further,before the castle, before the
(43:32):
medieval world, before evenChristianity ever touched this
land.
Hauska sits in Bohemia, a regionwith long pre-Christian history
.
Slavic paganism was alive andthriving long before the
Catholic Church arrived, and inmany cultures deep pits, caves
and chasms were seen as sacredplaces, places where gods and
(43:54):
spirits resided.
In many ancient religions,sacrifices were made at openings
in the earth because it wasbelieved that those sacrifices
would reach the gods or spiritsbelow.
It was believed that thosesacrifices would reach the gods
or spirits below.
Could Hauska's infamous pithave once been a place of ritual
sacrifice?
Maybe what medieval Christianssaw as a hellmouth was, to older
(44:16):
civilizations, something elseentirely not a doorway to hell,
but a place of power, a placepeople worshipped, feared and,
maybe through misunderstanding,tried to close.
Now, of course, not everyonebelieves Hauska is sitting over
some portal to the underworld.
There's another theory, mythird one, one that doesn't
(44:38):
require demons or ancientrituals.
And maybe this so-calledbottomless pit was never
supernatural after all.
Let's take out the demons, therituals, the winged creatures
and ask could this just be acave, albeit a very deep one?
The region around Hauska ischaracterized by limestone
(44:59):
formations which are prone todeveloping karst landscapes,
which are terrains distinguishedby sinkholes, caves and
underground rivers.
It's plausible that the chasmbeneath the castle is a karst
sinkhole, a common geologicaloccurrence in areas with
substantial limestone deposits.
In such landscapes, carbonicacid in rainwater dissolves the
(45:23):
soluble limestone over time.
Acid in rainwater dissolves thesoluble limestone over time,
creating voids that can collapseand form deep pits.
These natural processes couldexplain the formation of a
seemingly bottomless pit.
Moreover, subterranean gaseslike methane or hydrogen sulfate
can accumulate in theseunderground spaces.
When released, they mightproduce strange noises and foul
(45:46):
odors, potentially giving riseto tales of demonic entities or
gateways to hell.
It's also worth noting thatoptical illusions within deep,
dark pits can make them appearendless, especially before the
advent of modern lighting.
The human mind seekingexplanations for the unknown
might interpret these naturalphenomena as supernatural.
(46:07):
While the geological anomalytheory doesn't capture the
imagination, like tales ofdemons and gateways to the
underworld.
I suppose it offers a possiblerational explanation for the
mysterious chasm beneath it.
However, the lack ofcomprehensive geological studies
of the site leaves room forspeculation.
And my last theory takes intoaccount the human side of all
(46:30):
this, because sometimes thescariest thing in the world
isn't necessarily what's real,it's what we believe.
Maybe Hauska isn't hiding someancient horror.
Maybe it's just a castlesitting in an unlucky place,
wrapped in centuries of fear andfear.
Fear has a way of making placesfeel haunted.
(46:53):
A cold draft becomes a ghost, adistant echo becomes a whisper,
a shadow at the end of yourvision becomes something
standing there watching.
I suppose we have to take intoaccount the possibility that
maybe Hauska isn't supernaturalat all.
Maybe it's a perfect storm ofpsychological horror, a place
(47:15):
with all the right elements tomake the human brain spiral into
stories.
And yet there are hauntedhouses, there are cursed lands,
and then there's Hauska, a placethat feels like it was never
meant for us at all.
There are places with ghoststories, where the dead refuses
(47:36):
to move on, but Hauska's fear isolder than death.
The fear here isn't aboutwhat's lingering, it's about
what's locked away, and Isuppose what I keep coming back
to is this.
If this was a legend, it wouldhave faded.
If this was a story, it wouldhave lost its power.
(47:57):
But it hasn't.
It has survived kings, wars andoccupations.
It has survived logic andskepticism.
Did they build this castle totrap a story or did they build
it to hold something back?
And if it's the second, are thebones, the stones still holding
(48:19):
?
If you're standing inside thatchapel staring down at the
sealed pit beneath your feet,would you feel it?
Would you hear somethingscratching from beneath the cold
stones and, more importantly,would it know that you're there?
Thank you, you.
The first thing you need to understand about Hauska
Castle is that it shouldn't bethere.
Castles are built to keepthings out Armies, invaders, the
creeping hands of time.
But Hauska Hauska was built inthe middle of nowhere.
(00:30):
Why Not on the edge of abattlefield, not along a river
or a trade route, but deep inthe forests of the Czech
Republic, in a place with nostrategic value, no natural
defenses, nothing that wouldjustify the effort.
It just sits there, defyinglogic, and the deeper you dig
into its history, the strangerit gets.
(00:50):
The first time I read aboutHauska, I kept circling back to
this same question why?
Why build a fortress with notown, no water source and for no
army?
They say Hauska Castle wasn'tbuilt to keep something out.
It was built to keep somethingin that beneath its foundation
(01:13):
is a pit so deep no one has everfound the bottom that before
the castle existed, people sawcreatures claw their way out of
it Twisted bodies, blackleathery wings that when the pit
couldn't be filled, they builta fortress over it instead.
They feared this pit so muchthey didn't just try to cover it
(01:36):
, they built an entire castle totrap it.
And then there's the Naziconnection, because of course
there is.
The SS took over Hauska duringWorld War II, drawn to its dark
reputation.
Some believe they weresearching for something in the
depths below.
Others say they found it.
(01:56):
I don't know what's real yet,but I do know this when a place
is built for no reason except toseal something in, that's worth
looking into.
Maybe it's just a story, maybethat's all it ever was.
But Hauska isn't just a hauntedcastle.
It's every question we've everhad about what could be A place
(02:21):
that almost taunts us with theanswers we'll never get in this
lifetime and that makes me leanin closer.
This is when walls can talk,where we may never find all the
answers, but we'll sure as helllisten and try.
I don't recall exactly when Istarted listening.
(02:51):
Maybe I always have.
Some people are drawn to whatthey can see, what they can
prove.
I've never had that luxury.
The world has always spoken tome in ways I couldn't quite
explain Through the heavy weightof a silent, empty room,
through a story no one rememberstelling, through a voice in my
(03:16):
head I'm not entirely sure wasmy own.
I used to wonder if I wasimagining it, if I was just
another person looking forpatterns in the noise.
But the older I got, the more Irealized the past doesn't go
quiet just because we stoppedlistening.
I don't know if I'll everunderstand what it all means.
Maybe I'm not supposed to, butI do know this.
(03:39):
I will never stop searching.
This might be my journey, butthese are their stories.
I'm Jeremy.
Stop searching.
This might be my journey, butthese are their stories.
I'm Jeremy Haig, and this iswhen Walls Can Talk.
(04:15):
The podcast, season five.
Let's play a game.
You're a medieval lord.
You have power, wealth and theability to build just about
anything.
You want A fortress, a palace,a monument to your own ego, for
all intents and purposes.
But if you're going to sinkmoney into a massive stone
(04:39):
castle, you do it for a reason.
You build it somewhereimportant, somewhere strategic,
somewhere that serves a purpose.
And yet Hauska exists.
It's buried deep in the forestsof the Czech Republic, far from
any trade route, any kingdom'sborder or any natural defense
(04:59):
point.
There's no real water source,no river, no well, nothing that
could sustain a population.
It's just there, a castle inthe middle of nowhere, doing
nothing for no one.
Many of the windows are fake,just glass panes with solid
stone behind them.
The layout is completelynonsensical.
(05:22):
There's no sign it was everdesigned for anyone to actually
live there.
No kitchen, no central hearth,no great hall where noblemen and
soldiers would gather.
If this was meant to be adefensive stronghold, someone
forgot to plan for peopleactually living in it.
Just outside the castle, thereare ruins of what were likely
(05:42):
homes for the laypeople, theblacksmiths, the servants, the
laborers who would havesupported the castle's function,
whatever that function was.
And yet here those ruins arethe only sign of habitation.
Outside of that, nothing, noreason, no logic behind why
Hauska should exist in thisplace at all.
(06:05):
And this place, this dense, dark, claustrophobic stretch of
wilderness, feels like it's beenholding secrets for a long time
.
The forests in this region areancient, tangled and thick
enough that even daylightstruggles to get through.
The trees seem to lean in onyou, pressing close, muffling
(06:36):
sound.
It's the kind of place wheresilence isn't peaceful, it's
oppressive, it's watching.
If you are expecting afairytale castle with towering
spires and grand, sweepingstaircases, yeah, no, hauska is
wrong in a way that's hard toput your finger on at first.
It's imposing, but not grand.
Old but not majestic.
It just sits there, hunched ontop of a limestone cliff, buried
(07:02):
in the dense forests ofnorthern Bohemia, like it's been
deliberately tucked away fromthe world.
Right at the center of thecastle, directly over what the
legend says is a bottomless pit,there's a tiny, dimly lit
chapel.
Its walls are lined withancient frescoes, angels, demons
and strange not-quite-humanfigures locked in battle.
If the goal was to sanctifywhatever was beneath it, they
(07:24):
sure weren't subtle about it.
Everything about Hauska feelsoff like a prison with no guards
, a fortress with no army, adoor locked from the inside.
And that's the part that keepsme up at night, because if this
place wasn't built to keeppeople out, then what the hell
(07:45):
was it trying to keep in?
If you're like me, this iswhere your brain really starts
itching, because in the 1200syou didn't just waste priceless
resources like this for noreason.
If you were going to haul stoneinto a remote forest and build
something as massive as Hauska,it had to be for a damn good
(08:05):
reason.
And here's where things getinteresting, because before
there ever was a castle, theland itself already had a
reputation.
The people who lived nearbydidn't just avoid it, they were
terrified of it.
They were terrified of it.
Imagine it's the 13th century.
(08:26):
You're a villager in Bohemia.
The forests surrounding yourvillage aren't just trees and
wildlife, they're alive, in away that almost feels aware.
You don't walk alone at nightbecause you know deep in your
bones that something could bewatching from the dark.
And this isn't paranoia, it'snot fear for fear's sake,
(08:48):
because people have seen things.
And when you live in a timewhen everything sickness, storms
, war is out of your control,you pay attention to the
warnings that get passed down.
So where exactly are we?
This is Bohemia, 13th centuryCentral Europe, a land of dense
(09:09):
ancient forests, rolling hillsand small, scattered villages.
This isn't just medieval Europein the vague Game of Thrones
sense.
This is a very real place witha very specific identity.
It's part of the Holy RomanEmpire, ruled at this time by
Autocar II of Bohemia, apowerful king expanding his
(09:30):
territory.
But most of the people livinghere don't care about empires.
They care about surviving.
You and your fellow villagerslive off the land, growing
barley wheat and rye, tending tolivestock when you can afford
them.
You don't own the land.
The land owns you, and it's ahard life.
(09:50):
You work from sunrise to sunset, your entire world dictated by
the changing of the seasons.
Winter isn't just cold, it'sdeadly.
If the harvest was bad.
People starve.
There is no safety net.
Your home is small, made ofwood and clay, with a thatched
(10:12):
roof and a single room whereyour entire family sleeps, cooks
and eats.
There's no privacy, but that'snot really a concept that exists
.
Yet Life is communal.
Your survival depends on yourneighbors as much as your own
strength.
And yet, despite theback-breaking labor, despite the
(10:32):
constant fight to stay alive,there's something even more
terrifying than hunger or war ordisease there's the unknown.
Here's the thing about this timeperiod People don't separate
the physical world from thespiritual one.
If a storm destroys your crops,if a child dies unexpectedly,
(10:54):
if you see something move in thetrees that shouldn't be there,
there is always a reason, andthat reason isn't random chance
or bad luck.
It's the devil or demons orspirits.
The Catholic Church is powerful, yes, but Christianity didn't
erase older beliefs, it justlayered itself over them.
(11:18):
Your village still holds on toold pagan traditions, the ones
that say certain places arecursed, that spirits can be held
at bay with salt and iron, thatsome land does not belong to
humans and that brings us to thepit.
No one knows how long it's beenthere deep in the vicious woods.
(11:40):
No one remembers a time beforepeople feared it.
But there is a gaping hole inthe earth in the middle of the
forest and it is wrong.
There is no bottom.
At night, strange sounds risefrom its depths Whispers,
screams, the rustling ofsomething moving down there too
(12:01):
far to see.
People claim that things havecrawled out of it twisted
half-human creatures with blackwings and sunken faces.
They emerge under the cover ofdarkness, dragging themselves
onto the land, only to vanishbefore sunrise.
No one will settle near the pit.
Even hunters don't go near it.
(12:23):
And, the worst part, no oneknows how far it goes.
People have tried to measure it.
They've dropped stones, torches, bodies, even Nothing ever hits
the bottom.
And because humanity is nothingif not morbidly curious, someone
maybe a local lord, maybe thechurch, maybe some sick bastard
(12:48):
just looking for a thrill comesup with an idea.
If this is truly a gateway tohell, why not test it?
They take a condemned prisoner,someone already sentenced to
death, and offer him a deal.
If he agrees to be lowered intothe pit and report back what he
(13:08):
sees, he'll be set free.
Now, if I were this guy, I'dhonestly be weighing my options
pretty hard here Death byexecution or death by whatever
the hell lives at the bottom ofthis thing.
But here's the thing.
Several people take the deal.
They tie a rope around hiswaist and start lowering him
(13:31):
down and within seconds hestarts screaming Not just
panicked screaming,Blood-curdling, animalistic
terror, the kind of screamingthat makes your stomach drop,
because, whatever he's seeing,his brain cannot process it.
They yank him back up and whatthey pull out of that pit is not
(13:53):
the same man they sent down.
His hair is white, his eyes arewild, unfocused, his face is
twisted in such horror that hecan't even speak.
They carry him away and henever recovers.
He dies days later, stillraving about whatever he saw.
(14:15):
No one else volunteers to godown after that.
Now we know that the legend ofHauska's bottomless pit goes
back centuries.
The villagers believed it was agateway to hell and that's the
version of the story we hear themost A chasm so deep no one
could see the bottom, exudingfoul air, with creatures
(14:37):
crawling out at night.
But where did this beliefactually come from?
Because in the 13th century,fear of hell wasn't just a
metaphor To a medieval villager.
Heaven and hell weren'tabstract ideas, they were
physical places, and sometimesthose places bled into our world
(14:58):
.
Deep pits, caves and chasmswere seen as portals.
Deep pits, caves and chasmswere seen as portals, not just
in Christianity, but in olderpagan traditions as well, places
where spirits and demons couldcross over.
And these beliefs weren't justwhispered in villages, they were
(15:18):
enforced by the church.
Think about it If you're apriest in the Middle Ages and
you hear stories of a gapinghole in the earth, spewing smoke
and strange noises, wheremonsters were supposedly
crawling out at night, what areyou going to assume?
You're going to assume it's ahellmouth.
Hellmouths were a real,documented belief in medieval
(15:39):
theology.
They were thought to bephysical entrances to hell
itself.
They were thought to bephysical entrances to hell
itself.
In fact, medieval art is fullof horrifying images of beasts
and demons emerging from giantgaping mouths in the ground,
consuming the damned.
So when the villagers of thisregion refused to go anywhere
near Hauska's pit, that fearwasn't irrational to them.
(16:01):
It was spiritual survival.
And this brings up anotherquestion.
What if this belief wasn'tirrational to them?
It was spiritual survival, andthis brings up another question.
What if this belief wasn't new?
Because before Christianity everarrived in Bohemia, this land
belonged to older traditions.
Pagan cultures saw deep naturalformations, caves, chasms and
(16:22):
sinkholes as sacred places.
Some were used as ritual sites,some were feared as places of
dark power, and whenChristianity spread through
Europe, many of these olderbeliefs were absorbed and
repurposed.
A place that was once seen as adwelling of ancient gods now
it's a gateway to hell.
(16:43):
A pit once used for ritualsacrifices, now it's a cursed
place that must be sealed.
So maybe the legend of HauskaCastle wasn't something that
started in the Middle Ages,maybe it was something much,
much older.
So now you have a problem.
You have a hole in the groundthat no one will go near, where
(17:07):
monsters supposedly crawl out atnight and where that one guy
who did get lowered into it cameback broken.
And in the 1200s, when thechurch has absolute power, when
demons and hell mouths anddivine punishment are just part
of reality, there is only onething to do if you can't destroy
it, you seal it, and divinepunishment are just part of
(17:28):
reality, there is only one thingto do If you can't destroy it,
you seal it.
So a decision was made, or atleast so the story goes.
A fortress will be builtdirectly over the pit, not for
protection, not for war, but asa lid.
A chapel is placed directlyover the opening, because holy
ground has power and if anythingtries to crawl out, maybe, just
(17:50):
maybe, the weight of Godhimself will hold it down.
They begin construction, stoneby stone, sealing the abyss
beneath them.
But here's the question that Ikeep coming back to Is this all
just one big story, a medievalhorror tale exaggerated over
(18:10):
time, or did these people reallysee something?
Did they know something that wedon't?
All right, so we know.
The land beneath Hauska Castlewas feared long before anyone
decided to slap a fortress ontop of it.
We know about the pit, thewinged creatures, the prisoner
who came back just wrong.
(18:33):
And here's where things get evenweirder.
The official story, if you caneven call it that, is that
Hauska Castle was commissionedin the mid-1200s by Ottokar II
of Bohemia, a powerhouse rulerwho was out here expanding his
kingdom like it was a game ofrisk.
Now, ottokar II loved castles.
He built a lot of them, usuallyfor strategic purposes
(18:56):
protecting borders, securingtrade routes, reinforcing
military power.
But again, hauska is nowherenear a border.
It has no natural defenses.
It's not close to any majortrade route, river or major city
.
There was no pre-existingsettlement here, no town that
(19:18):
needed protecting and nofarmland to oversee.
It's in the middle of theforest, in the middle of nowhere
.
There was nothing here, whichmeans the most logical
explanation is, as the legendsuggests, that Hauska wasn't
built for people at all.
So what was Hauska really for?
(19:42):
There's a lot of debate here.
Some historians argue that itwas just an administrative
center for Autokar II's estates,but honestly, that doesn't hold
up.
Castles built foradministration still had
kitchens, wells, places to sleep.
They weren't built with fakewindows and walls designed to
(20:03):
reinforce something from theinside.
Others say it was a huntinglodge, but again, why fortify it
like this?
You don't need that muchsecurity for a weekend hunting
trip.
So we're left once again with aquestion that has haunted this
place for centuries Was HauskaCastle built to protect Bohemia
(20:24):
or to protect the world fromwhatever was beneath it?
Because if the people who builtit truly believed they were
sealing away something dangerous, then we have to ask ourselves
the next question Did theysucceed or did they just make
sure that eventually someonewould come looking?
And at the very heart of thisfortress, standing directly over
(20:46):
the infamous pit itself, is achapel, and not just any chapel,
a chapel dedicated to ArchangelMichael.
In Christian tradition, michaelisn't just some angelic figure
floating around playing a harp.
He's God's top warrior, the onewho leads heaven's armies into
(21:06):
battle, the one who is literallydescribed in scriptures as
casting Satan out of heaven andinto the abyss.
Of all the saints, of all thebiblical figures they could have
dedicated this chapel to, theychose the one whose job is
slaying demons.
Inside this chapel, things geteven weirder Because medieval
(21:27):
churches.
They follow a formula, standardbiblical imagery the usual
suspects Jesus, the Virgin Mary,maybe some noble saints looking
somber and holy, but here wefind something off, a
left-handed centaur.
Now let's just let's break thatdown.
(21:49):
In medieval Europe,left-handedness was often
associated with evil.
It was unnatural, sinister.
Fun fact, the word sinisteractually comes from the Latin
for left and centaurs.
They weren't just mythicalfigures, they were used as
symbols of chaos, paganism,something untamed and dangerous.
(22:12):
And this left-handed centaurisn't just chilling, playing a
lute or something, it's drawinga bow, aggressive, a figure of
attack.
Then there's another fresco,one that shows a beast attacking
a human.
This isn't Christ the Redeemeror saint figures being saintly.
(22:32):
This is a warning you don'tdecorate a chapel like this
unless you are telling a veryspecific story.
And if we go with the sealtheory, that this castle was
never meant to house nobles orsoldiers or anyone at all, then
this chapel isn't just a placeof worship.
It's part of the prison, aspiritual containment unit, a
(22:54):
massive holy lid over somethingthe people of the time believed
should not be allowed to roamfree.
What if they were right?
Not be allowed to roam free?
What if they were right?
All right, so we've establishedthat Hauska Castle was built
under extremely questionablecircumstances in the 13th
century, over a pit that peopleclaimed was literally spewing
out winged monsters.
(23:14):
We've talked about its bizarrearchitecture, its lack of basic
human necessities and the theorythat it was built less like a
fortress and more like a giantsupernatural pressure seal.
But after all that, after allthe effort it took to build this
thing in the middle of nowhere,what happened next?
And the answer is we don'treally know.
(23:39):
This castle just sits there inthe historical record for
centuries, just existing but notdoing much, and to me that's
almost creepier than if it hadsome dramatic, violent history,
because castles, especially onesbuilt by powerful kings,
usually have a purpose.
They see battles, sieges, royalintrigue, but Hauska is
(24:03):
suspiciously quiet.
Now, that being said, we dohave some puzzle pieces to pick
through.
Who actually lived here?
Well, like we've covered, thecastle was supposedly used as an
administrative center for KingOttokar II's royal estates,
which is the medieval equivalentof building an entire office
(24:24):
building in the middle of adeserted highway with no roads
leading to it.
There's no actual evidence ofimportant government work ever
happening here, no majordecisions, no record of it
playing any kind of politicalrole.
Over time, hauska passed throughthe hands of different noble
families, but most notably theBerke and Duba family, but even
(24:46):
they didn't seem to treat itlike a real residence no
expansions, no renovations tomake it more livable, almost
like everyone just left it alone.
Then the 1600s roll around andthings get dark again.
Roll around and things get darkagain.
During the Thirty Years' War,from 1618 to 1648, hauska was
(25:12):
reportedly occupied by a Swedishmercenary commander named
Oronto.
Now, this guy wasn't just amilitary leader.
He was also rumored to be analchemist and a practitioner of
black magic, which I don't knowabout you.
But if I were an aspiring darksorcerer, a creepy abandoned
castle built to seal a literalhellmouth is exactly where I'd
set up shop.
The local villagers wereterrified of whatever he was
(25:33):
doing in there.
Stories spread that he wasperforming occult rituals,
trying to harness the power ofwhatever was buried beneath.
Eventually they'd had enough.
Two hunters from a nearbyvillage reportedly broke into
the castle and straight-upassassinated him.
But I still have questions.
(25:54):
What exactly was he doing?
That was so bad that two randomguys decided he needed to be
eliminated.
Did they find anything weirdinside when they killed him?
Did anyone take over hisresearch?
We don't have those answers,because after Oronto's death,
the castle falls silent again.
(26:18):
By the 18th century, it's clearthat no one is really living
here anymore.
By the 18th century, it's clearthat no one is really living
here anymore.
The castle falls into disrepair.
No one wants to live in acursed fortress.
After all, it's just sittingthere, a crumbling,
unexplainable landmark full ofbad vibes and weird stories.
(26:38):
Then, in 1823, someone makes aneffort to restore it, likely to
preserve its historicalsignificance.
Eventually, in 1897, it getssold to Princess Hohenlohe, a
German spy and professionalblackmailer, and later, in 1924,
it's purchased by Josef Simonek, the president of Skoda Works,
(26:59):
one of the largest industrialcompanies in Czechoslovakia at
the time.
At this point, it's no longer afunctioning castle.
It's more of a historiccuriosity, something rich
aristocrats and industrialistskeep in their family because
it's old and weird and probablymakes for a great conversation
starter at dinner parties.
(27:20):
And then the Nazis show up.
And then the Nazis show up.
So up to this point, hauskaCastle has existed in this weird
liminal space between legendand history, a castle that
shouldn't be where it is builtover a pit that shouldn't exist,
with a chapel designed less forworship and more like a
(27:46):
spiritual containment unit.
But then we hit the 20thcentury and of all the people in
history who could have lookedat this ominous, possibly
haunted, probably cursedfortress and thought, yes, that
is exactly where we need to be.
Of course it was the Nazis, andto understand why they set up
shop here, we need to talk aboutsomething that sounds like it
(28:06):
belongs in a conspiracy theorybut is absolutely, verifiably
true.
The Nazis were obsessed with theoccult, so I need to emphasize
this up front.
Mysticism and the occult wasn'tjust a weird side project for
them.
The belief in supernaturalpower was woven directly into
(28:29):
Nazi ideology.
Mysticism, supernatural powerand ancient esoteric traditions
weren't just tolerated in Nazileadership.
What the Nazis were doingwasn't just about power in the
traditional sense.
It was about belief, and beliefin the wrong hands can be just
as dangerous as any weapon.
(28:53):
If there was one person at thecore of this occult obsession,
it was Heinrich Himmler.
Himmler wasn't just the head ofthe SS or one of the architects
of the Holocaust.
He was also a man who sawNazism as a spiritual movement.
He wanted to reshape the world,not just through war and
genocide, but by creating a newreligion, one that fused, warped
(29:17):
interpretations of Germanicmythology, occult rituals and
Nazi ideology into oneterrifying belief system.
And he didn't just talk aboutit, he built it At Velsberg
Castle.
Himmler essentially tried tocreate the SS equivalent of King
Arthur's Camelot.
(29:37):
This wasn't a military base, itwasn't a government building,
it was a temple.
The North Tower was meant to bethe spiritual center of the SS,
a place where high-rankingofficers could take part in
secretive initiation rituals.
The Hall of the Dead contained12 pedestals meant to hold the
(29:57):
ashes of SS officers, creatingan almost knightly, supernatural
order of fallen warriors.
The Black Sun emblem, whichstill appears in neo-Nazi occult
circles today, was embeddedinto the castle floor.
Its origins murky, but likelytied to ancient esoteric
traditions.
Himmler envisioned the SS asmore than just an army.
(30:20):
It was a priesthood, abrotherhood of chosen men who
would lead a new world orderguided by ritual, blood and
prophecy, and this wasn'tpassing interest.
This was policy.
(30:43):
In 1935, the Nazis founded theAnnenerbe, an SS think tank that
was essentially their versionof the X-Files.
Officially, their goal was toresearch the archaeological and
cultural history of the Aranrace, but in reality they were
searching for proof ofsupernatural power.
Their work spanned continentsIn Tibet, they tried to find
evidence that Aryans weredescended from an ancient
god-like race.
In France they searched for theHoly Grail.
(31:05):
In Austria they seized theSpear of Destiny, the lance said
to have pierced Christ's sidebecause Hitler genuinely
believed it had supernaturalpower.
And in the Arctic theyinvestigated the possibility of
a lost Aryan homeland, possiblyeven Atlantis.
The Anunnerbe's work directlyinfluenced Nazi military
(31:26):
strategy, from astrology-basedbattle plans to attempts at
harnessing supernatural energyfor warfare.
You'd think this level ofobsession with the supernatural
would be confined to the weirdercorners of the Nazi regime, but
Hitler himself bought into it.
He relied heavily on astrologyprophecies and mystical advisors
when making military decisions.
(31:48):
He was deeply superstitious,reportedly fearing certain
relics and objects.
He became fixated on historicalartifacts, believing they held
power that could influence thefate of the war.
One of the best documentedexamples of this was his
obsession with the Spear ofDestiny.
The spear was rumored to grantunstoppable power to whoever
(32:10):
possessed it.
Hitler, convinced of itssignificance, ordered it, seized
from Austria in 1940 and had itstored in Nuremberg.
Here's where it gets eerie.
Legend has it that whoeverloses the spear loses their
power.
And in 1945, just hours afterAmerican forces recovered it,
(32:31):
hitler committed suicide.
But the fact that Hitler evenbelieved in such a connection
tells us everything we need toknow.
So yeah, when you look at thisthrough the lens of what they
actually believed, suddenly theidea of Nazis conducting
experiments at Hauska Castledoesn't seem so far-fetched.
But what exactly were theydoing?
(32:54):
When the Nazis occupiedCzechoslovakia in 1938, they
took over Hauska Castle andcontrolled it until 1945.
And here's where things get alittle murky, because there is
no surviving officialdocumentation that tells us what
exactly they were doing inside.
But what we have is witnessaccounts.
(33:14):
Locals who lived near Houskareported strange lights coming
from the castle at all hours ofthe night.
They heard inhuman screams.
Some even claimed that peopleprisoners were brought into that
castle and never seen again.
And when the war ended, theNazis destroyed any records
(33:35):
related to their experimentsthere.
So let's talk about sometheories.
Since we don't have directrecords, we have to piece
together what could have beenhappening at Hauska based on
what we do know about Nazioccult research.
First, supernaturalexperimentation.
Given the Hellmouth legend,it's possible that they were
(33:55):
trying to tap into somethingbeyond the physical world.
Remember, himmler was alreadyexperimenting with esoteric
rituals, runic magic and ancientreligious sites around the
world.
Were they trying to summonsomething, perhaps communicate
with something?
Second is occult warfareresearch.
(34:16):
The Nazis had serious programsinvestigating psychic abilities,
remote viewing and mind control.
The idea of using paranormalforces as weapons was not sci-fi
to them.
It was an actual, theyperceived, achievable goal.
Perhaps they were using Hauskaas a testing ground for
something.
Even today we still don't fullyunderstand.
(34:38):
And the last theory is humanexperimentation.
And the last theory is humanexperimentation.
The Nazis had zero hesitationwhen it comes to using prisoners
as lab rats for horrificexperiments.
If they believed that the pitat Hauska had supernatural
properties, were they sendingpeople into it?
And no matter what the realityout of these theories might be,
(35:00):
what is the worst possibility?
What if they succeeded inopening something?
And what would happen when theyleft?
By 1945, the Nazis abandonedHauska Castle.
They burned records, destroyedevidence and left the site
behind, and ever since then thecastle has been well different.
(35:25):
Visitors report an oppressiveatmosphere in the rooms.
The Nazis used Strange coldspots, an overwhelming sense
that something is still there.
Whatever they were doing,whatever they were trying to
uncover, they left in a hurry.
And another question I keepcoming back to in all of this is
if they were trying to uncover,they left in a hurry.
(35:45):
And another question I keepcoming back to in all of this is
if they were looking for power,if they truly believed Hauska
held something dark beneath it.
Did they find what they werelooking for?
Now, take all of this and placeit in the context of Hauska
Castle, a remote, unsettlingfortress rumored to be built
over a literal gateway to hell.
(36:05):
Are we really supposed tobelieve?
They occupied this place forseven years and were just
hanging out?
Not a chance.
They were looking for something.
But whatever the Nazis believed, one thing is clear they didn't
think that power came just fromweapons and technology.
They believed power could bepulled from the ancient, the
(36:28):
unseen, the supernatural.
When the war was lost, when theNazis abandoned Hauska and they
destroyed the records, why, ifthis was a military outpost.
Why erase the evidence?
Unless whatever they found,whatever they tried, whatever
(36:51):
happened inside that castle wassomething they didn't want
getting out?
And if that's the case, maybeit's still there?
After it was abandoned in 1945,the castle was returned to the
Simenek family, who had owned itbefore the war.
But the world was changing fastand Hauska, already isolated
(37:14):
and already strange, became justanother forgotten relic of a
brutal time in history.
It spent the next severaldecades in a state of limbo.
Czechoslovakia fell undercommunist rule and, like many
historical sites, houska wasn'texactly a priority.
It wasn't preserved, it wasn'tmaintained, it just sat there,
(37:37):
quiet, aging, waiting.
Maybe that's the eerie thingabout this period of Houska
history.
Maybe that's the eerie thingabout this period of Hauska
history After everythingcenturies of fear, legends of
demons and hellmouths after theNazis themselves spent seven
years inside these walls no onetouched it, no one moved in, no
(37:59):
one repurposed it, no one evertried to turn it into anything
else.
For decades it remained empty.
Then, in the 1990s, after thefall of communism, the Simeonek
family finally began restorationefforts and in 1999, for the
first time in its entire historyHauska Castle opened its doors
(38:25):
to the public.
Now visitors can walk the samehalls where Nazis once conducted
their secret experiments.
They can stand in the Gothicchapel, the one built directly
over the pit.
They can even explore thefading medieval frescoes with
their unsettling depictions ofhalf-human creatures and pagan
symbols.
Hauska became a legend.
There are plenty of hauntedplaces in the world, plenty of
(38:48):
castles and ruins with darkhistories and whispered ghost
stories.
But Hauska's is differentBecause this was never a place
for the living, because eversince the war ended, people who
visit Hauska have reported thatsomething is still there.
The castle has always beenstrange, a place built for no
(39:11):
logical reason on land.
People refused to settle over apit that terrified medieval
villagers.
Spend any time researchingHauska Castle and you'll start
seeing patterns in the reportsof what happens here.
People describe an immediatephysical reaction upon entering
the castle An oppressive weighton the chest, nausea, dizziness,
(39:33):
almost like the castle itselfis pressing down on you like it
doesn't want you there.
Some people report disembodiedvoices whispering in languages
they don't recognize.
Others have heard growls comingfrom rooms that are completely
empty.
And then there's the figuresNot ghosts exactly, at least not
(39:53):
in the way most people thinkabout ghosts.
The things people see at Hauskadon't seem human, shadowy
figures that move just at theedge of your vision, dark shapes
lurking in doorways watchingbut never fully stepping into
view.
A faceless entity that has beenseen standing in the castle
courtyard staring at visitorsbefore vanishing.
(40:15):
And let's not forget the soundscoming from the pit, because,
yes, the pit is still there, thechapel was built over it, but
that doesn't mean it's gone.
Multiple people, includinginvestigators from Ghost, mean
it's gone.
Multiple people, includinginvestigators from Ghost Hunters
International and Expedition X,have reported hearing something
moving scratching beneath thefloor, a shuffling, scraping
(40:37):
sound, sometimes whispers andsometimes a sound that's almost
a voice.
One of the most bizarre andrepeated stories at Hauska is
the sighting of a bizarrehalf-human, half-animal creature
.
One visitor described it asfrog-like, another called it
humanoid but distorted.
It has been seen standing inthe courtyard at night watching
(41:00):
people, before vanishing intothin air.
Now remember, the oldestlegends about Hauska claim that
winged creatures used to crawlout of the pit at night.
The villagers believed thesewere demons trying to escape
from hell.
So if people are still seeingsomething non-human lurking
about the castle, what does thatmean?
And is it possible thatwhatever the Nazis were doing
(41:24):
here reawakened something thathad been locked away for
centuries.
So what did the Nazis unleash?
The paranormal history of Hauskagoes back centuries.
People were terrified of thisplace long before World War II,
but the Nazi occupation seems tohave made things worse.
Seems to have made things worsethe sudden increase in shadow
(41:46):
figures, disembodied voices,unexplained noises and bizarre
sightings.
It all started after the war.
Did the Nazis try to open thepit, and did they succeed?
Because if they did, and if thelegends were right about what
was trapped inside, then whatexactly is still inside Hauska
(42:07):
Castle today, after everything?
We've uncovered centuries offear, missing records,
unexplainable encounters.
The question remains what isHauska Castle, what really lies
beneath its foundation and why,after all this time, does the
(42:27):
fear still linger?
Let's break it down.
Here are some of my theories.
Number one let's start with theone that made Hauska infamous A
true gateway to hell.
The oldest stories about thisplace don't mention kings or
castles.
They talk about a pit, a holein the earth so deep no one
(42:49):
could see the bottom, A holewhere creatures with twisted
half-human forms and blackleathery wings would crawl out
at night.
What if we take these storiesat face value?
What does that mean?
Could this really be ahellmouth.
The idea of a physical entranceto hell isn't just local
folklore.
It appears in medievalChristian theology, pagan
(43:11):
traditions and stories acrosscenturies and cultures.
Maybe Hauska isn't literallysitting over a doorway to hell,
but maybe it is sitting oversomething ancient, something we
aren't meant to find.
Let's go to another theory.
Let's step back even further,before the castle, before the
(43:32):
medieval world, before evenChristianity ever touched this
land.
Hauska sits in Bohemia, a regionwith long pre-Christian history
.
Slavic paganism was alive andthriving long before the
Catholic Church arrived, and inmany cultures deep pits, caves
and chasms were seen as sacredplaces, places where gods and
(43:54):
spirits resided.
In many ancient religions,sacrifices were made at openings
in the earth because it wasbelieved that those sacrifices
would reach the gods or spiritsbelow.
It was believed that thosesacrifices would reach the gods
or spirits below.
Could Hauska's infamous pithave once been a place of ritual
sacrifice?
Maybe what medieval Christianssaw as a hellmouth was, to older
(44:16):
civilizations, something elseentirely not a doorway to hell,
but a place of power, a placepeople worshipped, feared and,
maybe through misunderstanding,tried to close.
Now, of course, not everyonebelieves Hauska is sitting over
some portal to the underworld.
There's another theory, mythird one, one that doesn't
(44:38):
require demons or ancientrituals.
And maybe this so-calledbottomless pit was never
supernatural after all.
Let's take out the demons, therituals, the winged creatures
and ask could this just be acave, albeit a very deep one?
The region around Hauska ischaracterized by limestone
(44:59):
formations which are prone todeveloping karst landscapes,
which are terrains distinguishedby sinkholes, caves and
underground rivers.
It's plausible that the chasmbeneath the castle is a karst
sinkhole, a common geologicaloccurrence in areas with
substantial limestone deposits.
In such landscapes, carbonicacid in rainwater dissolves the
(45:23):
soluble limestone over time.
Acid in rainwater dissolves thesoluble limestone over time,
creating voids that can collapseand form deep pits.
These natural processes couldexplain the formation of a
seemingly bottomless pit.
Moreover, subterranean gaseslike methane or hydrogen sulfate
can accumulate in theseunderground spaces.
When released, they mightproduce strange noises and foul
(45:46):
odors, potentially giving riseto tales of demonic entities or
gateways to hell.
It's also worth noting thatoptical illusions within deep,
dark pits can make them appearendless, especially before the
advent of modern lighting.
The human mind seekingexplanations for the unknown
might interpret these naturalphenomena as supernatural.
(46:07):
While the geological anomalytheory doesn't capture the
imagination, like tales ofdemons and gateways to the
underworld.
I suppose it offers a possiblerational explanation for the
mysterious chasm beneath it.
However, the lack ofcomprehensive geological studies
of the site leaves room forspeculation.
And my last theory takes intoaccount the human side of all
(46:30):
this, because sometimes thescariest thing in the world
isn't necessarily what's real,it's what we believe.
Maybe Hauska isn't hiding someancient horror.
Maybe it's just a castlesitting in an unlucky place,
wrapped in centuries of fear andfear.
Fear has a way of making placesfeel haunted.
(46:53):
A cold draft becomes a ghost, adistant echo becomes a whisper,
a shadow at the end of yourvision becomes something
standing there watching.
I suppose we have to take intoaccount the possibility that
maybe Hauska isn't supernaturalat all.
Maybe it's a perfect storm ofpsychological horror, a place
(47:15):
with all the right elements tomake the human brain spiral into
stories.
And yet there are hauntedhouses, there are cursed lands,
and then there's Hauska, a placethat feels like it was never
meant for us at all.
There are places with ghoststories, where the dead refuses
(47:36):
to move on, but Hauska's fear isolder than death.
The fear here isn't aboutwhat's lingering, it's about
what's locked away, and Isuppose what I keep coming back
to is this.
If this was a legend, it wouldhave faded.
If this was a story, it wouldhave lost its power.
(47:57):
But it hasn't.
It has survived kings, wars andoccupations.
It has survived logic andskepticism.
Did they build this castle totrap a story or did they build
it to hold something back?
And if it's the second, are thebones, the stones still holding
(48:19):
?
If you're standing inside thatchapel staring down at the
sealed pit beneath your feet,would you feel it?
Would you hear somethingscratching from beneath the cold
stones and, more importantly,would it know that you're there?
Thank you, you.
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