Mrs Zahrádková's Walnut Tree

In the courtyard, on the left in the corner by the low house, an iron maiden is said to have stood; and further to the right, where the walnut tree grows, Mrs Zahrádková is said to have been beheaded, the last person executed here — the tree is said to have been planted in her memory and was called Zahrádka. In the tower the guide also points out the place where Mrs Zahrádková is said to have drawn a likeness of her husband on the wall in her own blood. That woman, born Odkolková of Újezd, was forced to marry the elderly Mr Zahrádka Sovinský of Eulenfels and came to an arrangement with a forester to rid her of her unwanted husband. The murderer was executed and she was indeed sentenced to death, but she feigned madness, and so in 1732 she was sentenced to prison — in which she then truly lost her reason. She died in the gaol at the New Town hall twenty years later. The story about the Zahrádka tree is therefore an idle tale.