A site survey of Olsany Cemetery, Prague. During the month of September, 2014, I travelled across the Czech Republic (the ancient kingdom of Bohemia) seeking out sites which have real paranormal provenance. In a city famous for its many reputed hauntings and ghosts (after consulting with local occultists and paranormal investigators) I was directed to Olsany Cemetery - the largest and oldest municipal cemetery within the city - and epicentre of all ghost sightings. In 1679 the city of Vienna suffered a pandemic of The Black Death, or Bubonic Plague, which claimed 76,000 victims. This became known as The Great Plague of Vienna - though in fact it was just an offshoot of a much larger pandemic across all of Germany. During this pandemic many thousands of Viennese citizens fled to Prague to avoid the horrific effects of the disease. The result was that they brought the disease with them. The streets of Prague became filled with Plague victims - forcing the Bohemians to react with emergency measures - their own graveyards not being able to cope with such a high mortality rate. In 1680 Olsany cemetery was created to deal with the many thousands of Plague corpses, with the hope to avoid a full scale pandemic within Prague itself. The hope was a false hope. A pandemic in Prague ensued. . . . And by the end of 1681 The Black Death claimed 83,000 of Prague's population. Within less than 2 years of Olsany Cemetery being created, over 100,000 victims of the Plague had been buried. The entire site being a giant Plague Pit. Such a collective enormity of death had not been witnessed since 1349. All of the successive burials of all successive ages lie upon a rotting carpet of Plague dead, many metres deep. Most of the current mausoleums, charnel houses and momento mori gravestones are Victorian in origin. There have been so many ghost sightings within Olsany across the centuries that it is impossible to try and identify the spirits seen - but they seem to span many historical ages. A large proportion of the ghosts seen however are from the Plague dead. The spectres display the dreadful and horrific symptoms of Plague, large black pus filled swellings (buboes) upon the neck, armpit and groin. Though these hauntings, this procession of death, is terrifying to behold - the ghosts themselves do not seem intent of hurting the living. Indeed, they do not seem to notice the living at all. Haunted Prague - and The Plague Dead Ghosts of Olsany Cemetery

• published: 27 Sep 2014
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