This is probably the only road that runs right into the castle towers on the horizon. The closer you get to them, the higher they rise above the horizon, above the road. No, they don't scare you, but cordially invite you for an hour, and maybe, if you have enough time, for more.
If you stand facing the watchtower, you can see on the left a gentle brick ramp on arched supports attached to a brick wall from the second floor of the castle. It once led to huge greenhouses called the Italian Garden. Today, in its place, century-old lime trees rustle with huge crowns and a small pond glitters in the sun, pressed against the side of the asphalt road running next to the castle.
Gardeners and architects from Europe worked on the creation of this greenhouse. Many exotic plants and even trees brought here were safely hidden under the glass of wooden and metal frames all year round. The heat from the hot stoves protected the exotic plants from the frosty winter.
But our legend is about a young man who worked in this fabulous place as an ordinary watchman. He performed his duties flawlessly, was very modest and inconspicuous for visitors to the greenhouse.
But one day, a young girl entered the glass dome of the garden. After walking around the greenhouse for a while, she turned to the first employee she came across. And it turned out to be our familiar young watchman. The young lady mistook him for an ordinary greenhouse worker and explained to him that she had been abroad with her parents, and from Italy they had brought a small plant seedling that bloomed with extraordinarily beautiful flowers. The young child asked to plant a small sprout somewhere in a warm place and put a silver coin in the palm of the young man's hand, after which she smiled sweetly and immediately disappeared. As it turned out later, she disappeared forever.
Most likely, during that short date, a bright and kind feeling arose in the young man's chest, which remained in his soul, as it turned out, also forever. For the rest of his short and inconspicuous life…
This meeting in the greenhouse took place in the middle of spring. Unbeknownst to the greenhouse staff, the guy planted a sprout of a cute panel in a remote corner of the Italian garden. He took care of the Sprout, took care of it, and after a while, to the great joy of the guy, the plant gave the first green leaves.
During his frequent walks under the castle walls, the young watchman tried to see the young lady and please her with the news that her sprout had begun and might soon bloom. But they were not destined to meet.…
In early autumn, the war broke out, the owners hurriedly left the castle, and it was quickly destroyed by artillery shelling. The glass greenhouse was also completely destroyed. And the very first autumn frosts destroyed all the thermophilic vegetation of the once wonderful Italian garden.
.. Against the background of the first snow, an unreliable building was visible among the ruins, broken bricks and glass fragments. It's like a small greenhouse. A dim light was flashing in it, and the figure of a man shone through the transparent walls. Yes, there was a young watchman sitting there. The young lady's plant survived, and the guy managed to build something like a greenhouse over her from the wreckage of the frames. A small campfire warmed both this sprout and somehow himself. There were terrible bloody battles going on around, and no one cared about this corner of the destroyed garden.
Severe frosts soon set in, and only in the middle of winter did people who happened to be passing by find the lifeless body of a guy under the twisted frames and an old piece of matting, who was sheltering with his entourage a pair of tiny twigs of some frozen plant, on which flower buds hung on thin legs among the blackened leaves.
The small town modestly surrounded this medieval castle with its quiet streets, at the walls of which this touching and deeply sorrowful story once took place.