The legend says that Popoiel was a cruel ruler. Feeling a conspiracy to overthrow his authorityby cousins claiming to the throne, at the urging of his wife Gerda, he poisoned them during an organized feast by serving poisonous wine. To hide a vile crime, the cruel king of the dead drowned the bodies of the dead in Lake. After this event, the plague of mice took over the hillfort. Their huge number forced Popiel and Gerda to take refuge in the tower. It was in vain, as they had no way out, they were eaten there by mice. As a sign of memory, the castle tower on the lake was called the Mouse Tower.

That’s what the legend says. It is first mentioned by Gall Anonymous without specifying the exact place of the event. The legend must have been a very popular ethical message (that’s a cautionary tale) for people in power in the Middle Ages. We attribute the Polish adaptation of the legend and its transfer to Lake Goplo to Jan Dlugosz and later to Wincent Kadlubek, who wrote the legend of Popiel as the genesis of the Piast family (dynasty).

Today’s Mouse Tower on Lake Goplo is the remains of the ruins of the 14th castle built in Kazimierz Wielki. It is not the legendary wooden tower described in the short story by Gall Anonymus. Popiel never appeared in the Piast lineage. We also know that before the winter period, mice usually sought shelter in human settlements and settlements, arousing incomprehensible fears and stimulating the imagination of traveling storytellers. But what would the castle ruins tower on Lake Goplo be today without the legend of Popiel? (Brux; Foto Brux; Foto Eva)