On a narrow, rocky road winding along the mountainside, at the top of which are now the ruins of the former Melsztyński Castle, one can encounter the apparition of a mounted knight in armor, riding toward the castle with a flying banner. A long, black cloak flows from the rider's shoulders, and he rides a huge black horse covered in a dark saddle cloth.
This once-magnificent castle atop a hill above the Dunajec River was built by Spycimir Leliwita, who so zealously supported Prince Władysław's struggle to unite the Polish state that when Łokietek became king, he granted him the dignity of voivode and the office of chancellor. His son, Jan, was the castellan of Kraków, the first lord in Poland, and owner of extensive estates. But—as one might suspect—the ghost of yet another Leliwita returns to Melsztyn at night: Spytek the Second, who, appointed at a young age as voivode of Kraków, perished at the age of thirty in 1399 in the Battle of Worskla against the Tatars. This chivalrous gentleman was the husband of Queen Jadwiga's favorite lady-in-waiting, Elizabeth Laczkjfi, daughter of the ruler of Transylvania.
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