In the narrow Platnéřská Street not far from the town hall in the Old Town, there stood a strange stone statue. It represented a knight in heavy armor, and people started calling it the Iron Man. According to an old legend, the brave knight and courtier Jáchym Berka is cursed inside the statue. He was once a very honest guardian of justice. He fell in love with the ordinary daughter of a local wise blacksmith. The girl returned his strong love. She willingly promised to wait for him until he returned from afar from the war.

Years later, Jáchym successfully returned home as a famous hero. However, on the very first day in the city market, he met an evil and slanderous woman. Out of envy, she told him terrible and deceitful things about his sweetheart. Unfortunately, Jáchym immediately believed all the slanders and publicly and grossly rejected his honest blacksmith girl. He wanted to hurt her even more, so he rather immediately married out of spite. He took another, very rich and proud burgher woman from the edge of the city.

His former innocent fiancée simply could not bear all that terrible public humiliation. Out of unhappy and deep grief, she then jumped into the cold Vltava River and ended her life. Shortly thereafter, Jáchym learned of her cruel death and also the sad truth about her innocence from the old blacksmith. Remorse completely drove him out of his right mind. In a fit of madness, he therefore first strangled his slanderous new wife. After that, he rather hanged himself in the yard out of despair. His frightened soul found no forgiveness with God and changed into a silent iron statue forever.

The cursed Iron Man stood at the intersection of streets ever since as a dark scarecrow for future generations. According to a mysterious old legend, the cursed knight gained a single hope for redemption. Only once every hundred long years, he was allowed to come alive into human form for a mere hour. If he met a sincere maiden on the street at that time who would speak to him without fear, he would be freed from the curse. However, no girl ever found such courage within herself in the dark night. Therefore, people eventually rather moved the famous statue of the old Iron Man. Today people can meet it in the corner of the nearby New Town Hall building on Mariánské Square.