Once you leave the famous Prague castle complex, most people tend to saunter down the hill back to the city centre. This is a shame as the sheer quantity of impressive architecture around the castle district can be a perfect backdrop to a quiet walk. And you might miss seeing the statue of a bearded lady.

Well, maybe not quite. Like all legends and folk tales, there is a simple explanation behind this.

Loretanske Namesti (Loreto Square) is a few minutes’ stroll from the castle.

Regular readers may recognise this name from the church that has cannonballs embedded in its facade.

On the eastern side of the square lies the imposing Loreto Monastery. This is allegedly a replica of the Virgin Mary’s house (which was miraculously carried by angels from Nazareth to Northern Italy)

Flying angels aside, one of the chapels inside the monastery contains a statue of a bearded lady – St Wilgefortis.

According to legend, in the 1600s Wilgefortis’ father (sometimes mentioned as a Portuguese king) promised her to a pagan Sicilian nobleman. This troubled the pious Wilgefortis so much that she prayed for a miracle to prevent her getting married. She immediately grew a beard which helped cancel the engagement. Her father, so enraged at this miracle, had her crucified. This led to her being an inspiration to all unhappily married women around the globe. The statue commemorates this.

There are several easy-to-spot flaws in this.

First, the 1600s were a time when most of Roman Catholic Europe was united against the threat of the Ottoman Empire. The Mediterranean was the primary battleground between the two cultures and Sicily was completely Catholic at the time. It is impossible to believe that Sicilian nobility wouldn’t have been Catholic.

It is also unlikely that a father would have crucified his own daughter for this. We like to think that our ancestors were barbaric – and that makes us feel better about ourselves – but this act of cruelty is a step too far.

But let’s assume that I’m wrong about both of these facts.

The statue is based on a carving of the crucifix believed to have been the work of Nicodemus (the Pharisee mentioned in the Bible). He portrayed Jesus wearing a full length tunic. This conflicts with the accepted image of a crucified Jesus who is portrayed wearing a loin cloth. The latter image became common in religious iconography from the 11th century onwards.

This unfamiliar image confused Westerners – why would there be a statue of a cross-dressing Jesus? This can’t be Jesus and must be someone else … and that led to the development of a story which became accepted as the truth.

The Chapel containing this statue is in the south-western corner of the monastery. As you walk in, you need to walk around the perimeter of the monastery before you get to it.
But you can’t miss it.

When was the last time you saw bearded icons, pre-Eurovision?