Krzywe Kolo – the basilisk's cellar

Warszawa · Poland · Alley

The basilisk sat in a cellar on Krzywe Kolo. Its gaze turned the living to stone, until a poor cobbler walked down carrying a mirror.

The crooked lane behind the Old Town square gave its name to Warsaw's best-known monster. In the cellar of a ruined house here lived the basilisk: the body of a dragon, a spiked serpent's tail, leathery wings and the head of a rooster. It guarded a treasure and killed with its gaze, and whoever went down never came back up; among the lost the legend counts the children Maciek and Elzbieta. No armed party solved it. A poor cobbler did, who in other versions is a condemned prisoner, a tailor, or a girl named Magda: he carried a large mirror down with him, and when the beast reared up and roared he held it out. The basilisk met its own eyes and turned to stone where it stood. Its likeness still sits above a doorway on the square.

FAQ

Where is Krzywe Kolo – the basilisk's cellar located?

Krzywe Kolo – the basilisk's cellar is in Warszawa, Poland.

More haunted places in Warszawa