Tradition: Czech Mythology
Alternative Names: Bayreck Giant, Giant of Bayreck Castle
Category: Giant
The Myth
The Bayreck Giant was a giant who lived in Bayreck Castle, a ruined stronghold nestled in the mountain forests near Mount Osser in the Bohemian Forest. According to local legends, giants once inhabited the surrounding mountains and maintained friendly relations with their relatives living in neighboring strongholds. The Bayreck Giant regularly hurled his snuffbox across to the Giant’s Mountain near Kauth so that his cousin could use it. He also exchanged daily greetings with the giant who lived in the castle at Gewinzi, shaking hands across the hills and valleys. When the people of Neuern needed hammers, the Bayreck Giant would simply throw them down to the town.
The giant’s family occasionally descended into the human world. One day, the giantess went down into the countryside and scooped up a farmer, together with his plow and oxen, carrying them back to the castle. Her father was displeased by her actions and ordered her to return the little human to the place where she had found him. He warned that these small people would eventually bring about the giants’ destruction. The story portrays the giants as immensely powerful beings whose interactions with ordinary humans could have dangerous consequences, even when their actions were not necessarily intended to cause harm.
Bayreck Castle was also associated with an extensive network of underground tunnels. According to one tale, a goose chased into a passage beneath the castle emerged from the well at Klenau. On another occasion, someone lit a fire in the castle’s cellar, and the smoke reportedly travelled for miles before appearing at the Black Tower in Klatovy. These passages have since been filled in, but they remain part of the castle’s mysterious reputation.
An enchanted treasure is said to lie beneath Bayreck Castle. Every Palm Sunday, while High Mass is celebrated in Neuern, a chasm opens and reveals the way to the hidden wealth. Once, a priest, a sacristan, and a poor shepherd entered the opening in the hope of becoming rich. Inside, they discovered the devil sitting on an iron chest, with its key held between his teeth. They tried sprinkling him with holy water and pulling him away, but he refused to move. When they asked what he wanted in exchange for the treasure, he breathed fire and demanded a soul. The priest and sacristan offered him the shepherd’s soul, but the devil rejected it because the shepherd was an honest man. Finally, the devil agreed to surrender the chest if they carried him to Klenau in a nine-cornered sack. Unable to find such a sack, the three men abandoned their attempt, and the treasure remains hidden beneath Bayreck Castle to this day.
Sources
“Schloss Bayreck.” SAGEN.at – Böhmerwald-Sagen. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/tschechien/watzlik/schlossbayreck.html