The area around the Czech Republic is filled with many castles, but there's one in particular that seems to be straight out of a horror film.

Around the 1200s, locals spoke about demons and winged creatures flying around a particular area in the forest.

Now, without much context here, the local duke was ignoring all of this and was determined

to build a castle right there.

Now, he probably had no idea about the local legend, but he wanted it constructed.

Locals did tell him that the whole went on forever, and villagers tried and tried to fill

it with stones, but it was never enough.

But in his desperation to build his castle,

the Duke needed to know what was down there. He found men from his local village and gave them a deal

they could not pass on. The men were all sentenced to life in prison already, and the Duke told them,

Let us tie this rope to your waist. You will be lowered, as far as you can go, and you will be pulled back up to the surface.

Tell us what you saw in the hole. Do this and you shall be pardoned. You will be free.

Of those who took the deal, none survived.

The Duke kept trying. He found a new prisoner, and like the rest, the prisoner agreed

to the Duke's terms. The rope was fastened around the man, and he was lowered and lowered

until a blood-curdling scream was heard. Only a few minutes had gone by, and he was pulled up.

And when he surfaced, something was wrong. The prisoner had aged 30 years.

His dark short hair was now long and gray, and he told the Duke what he experienced in that hole.

A horrible stench, distant screams, and red demonic eyes in the darkness.

The prisoner died a few days later, and what he saw was dismissed as just babbled.

Every prisoner, the Duke lowered, met the same fate.

They either died in the hole or a few days later.

...