Legends

The rose bush

Not far from Uherský Brod, above the Volenov farm, there used to stand a castle. The couple in the castle lacked just one thing to make them completely happy – a child. Eventually, the solemn pleas they made daily to heaven, were heard. How to repay a gift from heaven?

One night in February the lady of the castle had a dream in which the Mother of God ordered her to set off on a journey in the morning. She described it exactly. “In the forest, where you see a flowering rose bush, have a little chapel built in my honour.” The lady did as she had been told. After an arduous journey she saw amidst the trees a green bush heavy with red roses growing out of the snow. When the snows had melted, the couple had a little wooden chapel built.

The legend of the miraculous bush attracted a lot of pilgrims. Many settled here, establishing the town we now know as Uherský Brod. The sovereign himself also came to pay tribute to the bush. He then had a stone church built on the site of the little chapel. The flowering bush grew where the rosary altar was later built in the Dominican church.

The origins of the Dominican church date back to the 17th century. Did a smaller shrine really once stand in its place?

Author of text: Mercedes Zimová

Black Janek

During the Turkish wars one count from Uherský Brod went away to fight in battle. When he came back, he brought with him a little black boy, who became his wife’s manservant. However, the count had been wounded in battle and died soon after his return. The countess remarried, but her new husband did not like the boy and wanted to drive him away. Fortunately, the boy was taken in by a guard at the lower Nivnice gate and his wife, who did not have any children.

The Turks invaded again and the soldiers and craftsmen fought to keep them out. Many of them were killed, and so they started to retreat. This time, however, many citizens from the town were also killed and the soldiers became fatigued and fell asleep before all the bodies were buried. They thought that the enemy had already withdrawn back into Hungary, but they were mistaken. The Turks had hidden and were waiting for a suitable opportunity to attack. There was no one to stand guard and the mist was so thick that nothing could be seen anyway. 

However, the little black boy woke up at the lower gate. He heard a noise and when he saw the spies, he leapt up to the bell and started to ring for help. The town was roused immediately, the siege began and the town again managed to defend itself.

This little boy was called Black Janek; he had learned to speak in the Moravian dialect and everyone in Brod liked him. However, when he had sounded the alarm in the town by ringing the bell, he looked out of the window and was shot in the head. He was given a grand funeral, as everyone knew that it was he who had saved the town from the Turks. When the Town Hall was later built, they had a commemorative statue of him made from wood, which they placed on the tower. They put a rope in his hand and he always rings before the clock strikes.

Legend taken from the book entitled Monuments of Uherský Brod by Václav F. Letocha