The legend of the army that sleeps in Kaunas

In the middle of the 16th century, the Grand Duke Žygimantas of Lithuania presented the Old Kaunas to his wife Bona Sforza. She used the Castle of Kaunas to accommodate her army, which later, one day, got swallowed underground. Since that day, the army has been quietly waiting for a major hardship to hit Kaunas so that it could re-emerge and protect the city. People speak that at night one can even hear the chattering of soldiers, the clanging of arms, and the neighing of horses from beneath the earth.

Once very early in the morning, a farmer who lived near the Castle of Kaunas went to the grazing land to look for his horses. Suddenly a man appeared before him and asked:

‘Is it time?’

Assuming this was his neighbour asking whether it is time to get up, the villager replied that it was very early in the morning and that he had better wait as it was still dark outside. The stranger reproached bitterly:

‘Oh, a miserable man – why did you ask to wait? Had you told me that the time has come, a cursed army would have walked out of the underground and won freedom for our homeland. But now after you said it wasn’t yet the time, who knows how long these men will have to wait for their hour.’

Having said that, the stranger vanished.