Edward Kelley's Alchemist Laboratory

The building in front of you is over 1,100 years old, possibly the second oldest structure in this entire medieval quarter. For most of its life, it kept its greatest secret well hidden. That changed in August 2002, when flooding caused the square to collapse and exposed a buried world underneath your feet: the underground laboratory of Edward Kelley, the most notorious alchemist at the court of Emperor Rudolf II.

Kelley arrived from England in 1584 carrying a secret of his own. He had already lost both ears to an executioner's blade for document forgery, and he concealed them beneath long flowing hair. His explanation, when pressed, was that angels had removed his ears so he could hear their voices more clearly. Rudolf II believed him completely.

By 1590, Kelley had been knighted and granted estates across Bohemia. Down in these chambers, he blended 77 herbs with alcohol and opium, claiming he was brewing an elixir of eternal youth and working toward the Philosopher's Stone that would transmute metal into gold.

He never produced either. Rudolf eventually lost patience, arrested him in 1591, and locked him away hoping to force the gold out of him. Kelley died in prison in 1597, after breaking both legs attempting to escape through a castle window. A man who spent his career promising miraculous transformations managed to transform only himself into a cautionary tale.