The Flying Monk Cyprian

In the Red Monastery, above the Dunajec River, there once lived a monk named Cyprian (his real name was Franz Ignatz Jäschke). Like other monks, he was interested in herbs and used them to make medicines - he was the monastery's pharmacist and doctor. He also collected ordinary plants from the Pieniny and Tatra Mountains, which he placed and described in his herbal book (which can be seen in the museum in Tatranská Lomnica).

According to legend, Cyprian was not only interested in herbs and other plants, but also in flying. Supposedly, he built a glider for himself and flew from the Three Crowns to the courtyard of the Red Monastery. Other legends say that he flew all the way to the Tatras from the Three Crowns, or that he flew over the Morskie Oko lake and then turned into a rocky boulder, which is still called the Monk today.