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Wizard in Vinné The legend about the castle
The first written record dates back from 1330. At the time the castle belonged to the Sztaray family. In 1466 it was destroyed in the battle between the king Matej Korvín and the Polish king Kazimír IV. Later, it was partly renewed, but at the beginning of the 18 th century it was pulled down.
Wizard in Vinné It is the name of the legend about the Vinné castle and its owner – Štefan Eodenfi who was a very strange man and, according to people, a magician, too.
From his early childhood Štefan showed an interest in far and exotic countries. All he wanted to do was to travel and experience adventures. His father, however, was against this because Štefan was his only heir.
Anyway, he was not even thirty, when his father suddenly died. Now, there was nobody to stop Štefan from leaving the castle and going into the world. He also decided to leave because he was tired of continuous arguments over the family fortune.
Especially his aunt – the countess Sztaray from Michalovce was very mean and all she longed for was to become the owner of the castle Vinné. Consequently, she could not wait to see young Štefan off.
As soon as he left, she went up the hill to the castle and took everything valuable from there – gold coins, silver and gold jugs, bowls and cutlery. As if that was not enough, she came back the next day and even took valuable mirrors from Venice, paintings and expensive carpets. To excuse her actions, she said she wanted to save all these things from thieves.
In the meantime, Štefan was wandering all over the world. He visited Africa, fought as a soldier in Spain against France, in Italy against the Turks and visited Greece, too. After several years he decided to come back home. On his way he stopped in Germany where he met the alchemist Kunkel von Levenstein. He showed Štefan various magic tricks and taught him magic spells.
When Štefan returned home, he found out everything about his aunt and the fortune she had taken. Despite that, he decided not to dislike her. But he said that everything she had taken would change into stones one day.
After that, Štefan lived in solitude, accompanied only by his loyal servant. He never went anywhere and he never let anybody into his castle. Most of the time, the castle was peaceful and quiet. Only from time to time, it was well lit and people could hear loud music from there.
Rumour said that Štefan sold his soul to a devil . Most of the stories and rumours were told by his aunt Sztaray. More rumours, more curiosity.
At that time a young lord from Austria called Vešeléni came to the region of Zemplín. He had heard about Štefan and wanted to meet him. He wrote him a letter and to his surprise, Štefan invited both him and his aunt Sztaray to his castle.
At the castle gates they were welcomed by Štefan´s butlers in gold uniforms and then by a tiny and thin old man– Štefan himself. He greeted them warmly and let them in.
The tables in the guest room were full of delicious meals, fruits from exotic countries and there were gold jugs with imported wine.
After the feast they all moved to the next room where the beautiful music was being played. The young ladies asked all the men for a dance. However, when one of the men dropped his handkerchief on the floor, he was shocked to find out that all the dancing ladies had a hoof instead of one leg.
The man warned his companions as well as the countess Sztaray and they were getting ready to leave. At the door, there was the owner of the castle who was handing out expensive gifts – gold jugs, belts, guns and gold coins. They all got lots of food and drinks, too.
As they were coming down the castle hill, all of a sudden a terrible storm started. In the heavy rain and the dark the carriages lost their way and wandered in the woods. They could not see or hear anything. Only the terrible laughter was coming from the castle.
At the dawn they finally found their way. Wet and cold, they realized they were hungry. They remembered the food and drinks they got but were surprised to find out that all the food changed into stones and the drinks into muddy water. Their gifts changed into stones, too.
The aunt Sztaray was furious at first, but soon she realized it was her fault and revenge from Štefan.
The story of how he punished his selfish and mean aunt spread all over the country. Many people came to the castle gates to find out about the whole mystery. But Štefan did not tell anyone and took his secret into the grave... The End
