Hans Puchsbaum was a stonemason at St. Stephan’s Cathedral, making pillars and altars with finely carved figures and decorations on them. Master Prachatitz, the Master stonemason, was very satisfied with his work and even entrusted him with the construction of the huge nave. However, Hans was not only working hard, he was also in love with the Master’s daughter Mary and wanted to marry her. Mary loved him too and so he asked the Master, if he would allow them to become man and wife.
Master Prachatitz, whose wife had recently died, loved his only daughter very much and did not want to give her away so easily. He therefore challenged Hans with an enormous task, such that he would only be allowed to marry Mary, if he managed to build the North Tower as big as the South Tower within one year.
At first poor Hans was shocked by this demand, but since he loved her so much, agreed to take on the challenge and started the new task immediately.
At first the building of the new tower developed quite well, but Hans soon realised that they were not fast enough to finish within one year. He grew more and more anxious and checked the building work himself every night. Once, while he was working desperately to complete the work on the tower, an ugly old man in a black coat and red hat joined him. After watching him for a while and asking him all sorts of questions, the old man offered to finish the tower for him within the requested time. Although Hans didn’t really believe that the man could do this, he asked him what he would want in exchange for it. The old man just asked him to promise never again to mention the name of God or any other holy names in his life, otherwise the old man would take his soul. Hans thought that this couldn’t be so difficult and accepted the offer. From that time on, the construction work progressed much more quickly.
The Viennese, walking past the cathedral almost every day, suddenly noticed that the work was being completed extremely fast and whispered that only the Devil could work at such speed.
Was the old man in fact the Devil?
During the months of intensive work on the tower, Hans had not been able to see his beloved Mary. All the greater was his joy, when he suddenly noticed her crossing the square. He leaned over the scaffolding and tried to attract her attention by shouting her name: “Mary, Mary!” Unfortunately this was not only her name but also the name of the “Virgin Mary”, a holy name which he had promised not to use. Immediately the plank under his feet gave way and Hans plunged to the ground, the whole scaffolding collapsing on top of him, fulfilling the devil’s curse.
The terrible event shocked the people of Vienna so much that the North Tower was never finished to the height of the South Tower.