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HRE Charles IV

Prague, 1589: The Royal Crypt of the Bohemian kings was renovated.

The HRE Rudolf II renovated the Royal Crypt of the Bohemian kings in Prague – which is found in the St. Vitus Cathedral.

For that purpose, they had to exhume the bones of the kings from their resting place. 

To the astonishment of all those involved, two bodies stayed completely intact: 1) King Ladislaus the Posthumous, who died 132 years earlier in the year 1457, and 2) King Charles IV, who died 211 years earlier, in the year 1378.

R’ David Ganz of Prague mentions that some Jews of Prague came to see this unusual sight, and were even allowed to touch and feel the hands of the dead bodies, one of them was the Jewish Judge, R’ Avraham Katz (who, as his name indicates was a Cohen).

Portrait: King Charles IV

Source: Tzemach David vol. II 1589

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