The Ghost of Rauheneck

Niederösterreich · Austria · Castle ruin

The ghost in the ruin waits on a tree. Only when its wood becomes a cradle and that child becomes a priest can the spell break.

Above the Helenental west of Baden rises the ruin of Rauheneck, once the key to the valley. Folk legend says the crumbling masonry is haunted. A ghost walks there, sighing and lamenting, and nobody knows who he was or what rank he held in life. In other versions it is Turso, the castle's last lord and builder of its tower, condemned for his oppression and greed to guard a hidden treasure for ever. His release hangs on a single tree. From the wall of the tall triangular keep a sapling grows; only when it has become a strong trunk, been worked into a cradle, and the Sunday child laid in that cradle becomes a priest with a pure heart and reads his first mass, can the spell be lifted. Every twelve hours the ghost creeps round the tower to look at his tree.

FAQ

Where is The Ghost of Rauheneck located?

The Ghost of Rauheneck is in Niederösterreich, Austria.