Tourism portal of the Capital Schwerin

Our feisty castle ghost

The Petermännchen (Little Peter)

On the ground where the Palace stands today, once there was the temple building of a pagan god. He had been worshipped by the people all around, but when Christianity took over, the pagan god fled to the bottom of the sea, as legend has it. His servants - the ghosts - though, stayed behind. Soon the pagan site by the Schweriner See disintegrated. The pagan ghost servants left and took residence under the hill Petersberg. Only little Peter remained in the Palace.

“Petermännchen” appeared to the people in different guises. Sometimes he appeared as an old man with a deeply lined face whose white flowing beard hung down to his chest, his long black frock almost reaching his shoes. He wore a white collar round his neck and a round cap on his head.

On other occasions, he had been seen as a medieval horseman with a smart moustache. He then wore a short waistcoat, high riding-boots with spurs, a sword, a feather hat and a rattling key chain on his belt. Little Peter liked changing the colour of his clothes . Often he was seen in a grey robe, but when a war broke out he wore a red gown. He was only dressed all in black whenever someone died.

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