HGB Ep. 543 - Haunted Castles of the Netherlands

Moment in Oddity - Olmec Colossal Heads

Back in 400-1200BC the Olmec people resided near the Gulf Coast of Mexico, in the tropical lowlands of what is now modern-day Veracruz and Tabasco. Their society had some very unusual sculpted artwork, colossal heads. There have been 17 heads discovered so far. Each head has been carved from basalt boulders that were primarily sourced from the Tuxtla mountains, some traveling as far as 100km to their final resting place. The heads themselves average 3 meters high and 8 tons in weight. It is surmised that the boulders were transported using huge balsa river rafts as well as log rollers on land. The relevance of the heads is debatable due to no two heads being alike and each headdress on the statues have different designs on them. Some believe that the heads represent different rulers of the Olmec society, in part due to the very distinct facial features and details carved into the huge statues along with the difficulty and cost of their creation. The Olmec Colossal Heads can now be found in the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan Community Museum, Mexico City's National Anthropology Museum and Xalapa's Anthropology Museum. While the statues are quite impressive, ten foot tall stone heads dating back 2,424 years ago, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Medgar Evers Assassination

In the month of June, on the 12th in 1963, civil rights activist Medgar Evers was killed. It was just after midnight when the shot rang out in Jackson, Mississippi. Medgar was 37 years old when a bullet struck him in the back as he walked up the steps to his home and then collapsed. He was just returning home after attending a meeting of the NAACP. An army veteran, Medgar was one of many who decided to return home after the war and to continue their 'fighting', not in a war sense, but for change for black society. His first battle was to register to vote. He did so successfully, but when the time came to cast his ballot he was prevented from doing so by racist whites. In 1952, Ever's joined the NAACP and traveled around his home state, encouraging other African Americans to register to vote. While working for the NAACP for 8 years, Medgar investigated nine racially motivated murders as well as a number of alleged maltreatment cases regarding Black victims. He was heavily involved in getting witnesses and evidence for the Emmett Till murder case and many others. On the day of Evers' funeral in Jackson, the deployment of forceful police tactics could not quell the anger among the thousands of black mourners. Medgar Evers was awarded the NAACP Spingarn medal posthumously in 1963. It was a proper recognition of a man who had given so much to the organization and had given his life for its cause.

Haunted Castles of the Netherlands

Many people focus on visiting Amsterdam when they visit the Netherlands. The Red Light District is a place that paranormal enthusiasts may find a ghost or two. There's spooksteeg or "ghost alley" and Bloedstraat, which is Blood Street. But the really promising haunted locations are in the outer areas of the country, the castles. There are stories of Blue Ladies, screaming hunters, dancing ghosts and Faust. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the castles of the Netherlands.

The Binnenhof

The Hague is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands and here is a castle known as The Binnenhof. The Gothic castle known as the Binnenhof is among the oldest Parliament buildings in the world still in use and houses both houses of the States General of the Netherlands. The Prime Minister of the Netherlands also has his office here. It is believed that the grounds and homestead here were purchased by Count Floris IV of Holland from Meiland van Wassenaar in November 1229. Throughout the 1200s the homestead was expanded, adding a small keep, the Ridderzaal (or Knights Hall) and a court chapel. The Binnenhof was the residence of the Counts of Holland until the house of Holland died out in 1299. The castle was expanded even more and eventually was surrounded by buildings.

The Old Prison Gate was the only way to access the Binnenhof years ago and was originally called the Front Gate of the Courtyard. The Court of Holland would keep their prisoners here starting in the 1400s. The prison was expanded in 1428 with a courthouse and torture chamber added. Even with more cells added, up to fifteen men would have to share a cell. The cells were cold and dark and many prisoners became ill. The water prisoners were given came from a central watering pool where people washed their horses and dumped their waste. There were some prisoners who got better treatment and they were locked up in the Knights Room. Punishments were varied. Some prisoners only faced fines while others were branded for life, lost a hand or foot, were tortured in the Pain Cellar or were executed. Executions took place at de Plaats (de plots), which means The Place and the actual scaffold was called het Groene Zoodje (het hoon zoe edge), which translates to The Green because it was covered in vegetation that enjoyed blood apparently.   

The Binnenhof itself became useless under French rule between 1806 and 1810 and was almost demolished. The government moved back to the Binnenhof when the Netherlands became independent of France again. Demolition was floated again in 1848 as a new constitution was adopted and it was felt that destroying the old castle would symbolize a new era. Local residents fought to keep it. The Netherlands has a constitutional monarchy meaning that there is a monarch, but there is also a Prime Minister and a Parliament like Britain. The Dutch Government is housed in the Binnenhof. The Binnenhof is undergoing renovations until 2026 and will be inaccessible until then. Some of the features include the Ridderzaal, which has stained glass windows that depict the coats of arms of prominent Dutch towns and cities. The ceiling has 59 foot wooden beams that make it look like an upturned ship. Carved wooden heads along the walls were supposed to keep the assembly from lying. The throne of the monarchs of the Netherlands is here. This is a great hall known as the "Knight's Hall." A gilt Neo-Gothic fountain sits in the courtyard with a statue of King William II. The statue guards the Stadtholder's Gate, which dates from 1620. A Stadtholder was a medieval official that replaced a duke or count.

After 400 years, the Prison Gate was abandoned and nearly demolished before being turned into a museum in 1882. And people claim that it is haunted, which isn't surprising considering what happened here and the fact that the original tiles are still in the torture chamber. The chamber was covered in tiles because they made cleaning up the blood easier. On top of that, some of the original torture devices are still here too. Three ghosts have been seen here and are described as a limping boy, a man wearing a long, black cloak and the spirit of Cornelis de Hooghe, who lost his head because of treason.

Hoensbroek (Hoonsbrook) Castle

Hoensbroek Castle is located in the province of Limburg. This is one of the largest castle in the country and dates to around 1360. An earlier motte-and-bailey castle had been here before. The castle has 67 halls and rooms and has four wings around a rectangular courtyard. The main structure has two towers with union tops. Through the centuries, several reconstructions and expansions were done. The Lords of Hoensbroeck lived here with the last one leaving in 1787. The first lord was Sir Herman Hoen and that's where the castle gets it name. The castle fell into decay and then Count Frans Lothar owned it. He sold it to the Ave Rex Christe foundation in 1927 and they restored it between 1930 and 1940. War orphans moved into the castle in 1945 and the Carmelite Sisters watched over them. Today, the castle is a museum and one that is rumored to be haunted. The Blue Lady likes to haunt this place. She was Anna Catherina and she died in November of 1760. Two of her children died young and were said to have been buried inside the castle walls. Now she wanders the halls looking for her children.Workers claim to see her at night. A security guard heard chairs moving around in a room and there was no one in there.

Castle Rechteren

The German counts of Bentheim originally owned the land where Rechteren Castle stands. In 1190, there was a moated and fortified farm. This was located southeast of the town of Dalfsen, in the province of Overijssel. A knight named Herman van Voorst acquired the land in 1315 and he built the foundational castle that is still there today. In 1386, a man named Sweder van Heeckeren inherited the castle and he changed his name to Van Rechteren and that is what the castle is named after. The castle was expanded in the 15th century to add two extra floors to the round keep. Spanish troops occupied the castle during the 80 Years' War from 1584 to 1590. The castle lost its military purpose when the Prince of Orange acquired the castle. Several wings were added through the 18th and 19th century. Today the castle is a private residence. The interior features the vestibule, which has family portraits and there is a white salon designed in rococo style. Rococo is Late Baroque and was named for the French rocaille (Row Kigh), which features scrolling curves and elegance with light. Artificial grottoes with shell-covered rock work epitomizes Rococo. The dining room has paintings featuring images inspired by Greek mythology. The central hall contains portraits and arms of the Rechteren family. And there is a room that no one wants to go inside. The key sits in the lock, but no one ever uses it. The legend here claims that a local hunter was bitten by a rabid dog and as the disease progressed, he lost his mind. He was locked up inside this room and he would yell, scream and roar. The hunter did that for days and then it just went silent. And now no one wants to open that door for fear of letting out the ghost of the rabid hunter.

Grubbenvorst Castle

Also in the province of Limburg is the village of Grubbenvorst and it is here that Grubbenvorst Castle is located up on a hill. The village didn't become part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1815. The castle was built in 1311 by William II of Millen. It was a square castle with two wings, a small courtyard and on the south side a small and large corner tower. The castle was eventually destroyed in 1585. Ruins were all that was left and in 1944 these were blown up so that only two tower fragments remain. We're not sure why the ruins were blown up. The other thing that still remains is a legend. There was a young nobleman who discovered his girlfriend out in a boat on the Maas River with another man. He confronted the couple and this other man grabbed the nobleman and pushed him into the recesses of the ruins where he died. As the nobleman fell, he called out a curse on his girlfriend and said that she would never know peace and that her spirit would be trapped in these very ruins. The girl died three days later from a fever. And it would seem that her spirit is at the ruins. People claim to see an apparition wrapped in a white shroud. This spirit likes to dance with men and the lore goes that if she manages to grab a man, she will force him to dance with her until he dies from terror. 

Castle Singraven

Castle Singraven is in the village of Denekamp near the river Dinkel and dates back to 1382. This is a large estate with a Coach House, ancient watermill that has three wheels and the castle, which looks more like a large manor house. In 1956, the Edwina van Heek foundation acquired the property and they maintain it as a museum, event center and there is a park and arboretum. Part of the castle's history involves its use as a convent for about 10 years around the 1500s. A nun who was living at the convent was found to be guilty of not being chaste after a mock trial was held. It was decided that her punishment would be for her to be sealed behind a wall of the convent and she screamed for several days after this was carried out. The other nuns could barely take it, but she finally went quiet. The nun's spirit is not quiet though. She would appear as a pale, shapeless mist or sometimes her figure would be seen in a window. Her favorite place to appear would be above the moat's watermill. The nun brought bad luck to all the residents of Singraven. That bad luck has carried on even into the modern era. Recently, a man was trying to light a cigar after dinner and he tripped over an oil lamp and set himself on fire. He burned to death. People sometimes refer to the castle as "The Black House."

Castle Doorwerth

Castle Doorwerth was built in 1280 to take the place of a wooden keep that was burned to the ground in 1260. The castle sits on the river Rhine near the city of Arnhem and was originally the castle of the Van Dorenweerd (Doren veird) family. The castle was enlarged in the 14th and 15th century. In 1637, the bailey was rebuilt and has remained much like this up unto the present. By the 18th century the castle was basically abandoned and fell into neglect. Baron JAP. van Brakell bought the castle in 1837 and he refurbished the castle and modernized it. The Baron then died and the castle was neglected yet again. Retired artillery officer Frederic Adolph Hoefer bought the castle in 1910 and restored it and in 1913 it became a Dutch Artillery Museum. German bombing during World War II damaged the structure and repairs wouldn't be completed until 1983. At that time it was under the ownership of the "Friends of the Castles of Gelderland" (Gel Der Luhnd) Foundation and they continue to maintain it. The gatehouse was remade into a hotel and the main house is a museum with three sections: the Hunting Museum that features the history of agricultural developments from the medieval period forward, the Museum Veluwezoom (Vay Lou Zawm), which showcases the best artworks depicting the castle and the Pharmacy Museum Kisters that traces the pharmaceutical industry from the 1780s until today. The legend connected to this castle features a young maiden who starved to death in the castle and she causes some recurring phenomenon in the hunting hall in the north wing. In 2004, Most Haunted investigated the castle and it is said that they managed to photograph the ghost.

Castle Grunsfoort

The Castle Grunsfoort is just ruins today outside of the village of Renkum. This had been an important castle in the Duchy (Duh chee) of Gelre (Hell rah). One of the noblemen that had lived here was an unkind man who worked indentured servants mercilessly and didn't pay them. Villagers would be worked day and night and they had to be careful at night to make sure that they, nor any animals awakened the sleeping family. The nobleman's daughter was called "The White Missus" and she was just like him. Peasants would have to line her walk from the castle to the church with a white linen runner, so her fine shoes wouldn't get dirty. She was especially particular about the dirt from the graveyard at the church. She eventually died and nobody mourned her. Nobody really wanted to take responsibility for burying her either, but out of duty, six barons gave her a proper burial. The next day, a peasant was passing the graveyard and saw that the "White Missus'" coffin was sitting outside of the cemetery. As if it hadn't been buried. The local peasants took it upon themselves to rebury the coffin and they made sure to do it deeper. As though the coffin had wiggled its way to get above the earth or something. The next day, the coffin was outside the cemetery again. People started whispering that the graveyard was rejecting the woman because she hadn't wanted to touch it when she was alive. The peasants put the coffin on a cart and the horse bolted and whipped the cart around so that the coffin went flying off into the nearby river. The coffin disappeared below the water and it was left there. Legend soon claimed that when the moon is full, the water becomes white like a linen runner. The woman is sometimes seen as an apparition walking by the river. Stay away, she brings misery to anyone that comes near her. 

Waardenburg (Varden burr) Castle

The village of Waardenburg is located in the Gelderland Province of the Netherlands. Gelderland dates back to the Holy Roman Empire and is named for a German town. The province suffered heavy damage during World War II that can still be seen to this day. The village of Waardenburg is named after a knight who established the village and built a wooden castle where Waardenburg Castle stands today. His name was Rudolf de Cocq van Waardenburg. He was given the land in 1265 by Count Otto II of Guelders. Rudolf then built a wooden castle there in 1265 and he named that castle Hiern Castle. That building was replaced in 1280 with the castle that stands today. Well, at least part of it still stands today. It was designed in a unique polygonal shape. The walls are made from red brick and there are several turrets of varying size. Today, the castle resembles a horseshoe shape.

The castle stayed in Rudolf's family until 1401 and the name was changed to Weerdenbergh Castle at that time. Weerdenbergh translates to "washland hill." In 1568, the Netherlands began a revolution to gain independence from Spain. The war lasted until 1648 and came to be known as the Eighty Years War. It was during this war that the castle experienced its first damage. The castle was taken and pillaged. Much of the castle was destroyed in the process. The Spanish left only the heavy walls and the outer shells of the towers standing. The castle lay in ruins until 1627. A man named Johan Vijgh bought the property and began reconstruction, but this reconstruction also led to the demolishing of the south wing and entrance gate. Johan's efforts came to a stand still when his money ran dry. The castle proved to be too immense for him to maintain.

In 1895, Baron Jacob van Pallandt bought the castle and began more restoration. After the castle was restored, the Baron moved in with his two sisters. The castle would then suffer heavy damage again during another war. This time it was World War II. The Germans took the castle and pillaged it just as the Spanish had done centuries before. After the Germans were done occupying the castle, they bombed it repeatedly and today only a third of the original structure still stands. What is left is still quite large. "The Friends of the Castle of Gelderland" now own the property and use it as private offices not open to the public.

The legend of Faust has a connection to Waardenburg Castle according to the Gelderland Folk Almanac of 1842. As our listeners know, we take legends with a grain of salt and the stories that surround the life of Dr. Johann Georg Faust have taken on a life of their own. Faust was a man who really did live from 1480-1541. He was an alchemist and a practitioner of black magic who claimed to have sold his soul to the Devil to gain his powers of alchemy. He also was a pedophilic conman, so whether he was telling the truth is unknown. Martin Luther apparently knew of Faust and did claim that Faust had some kind of pact with the Devil. Faust could conjure wine from a table and when he was teaching at a university, legend claims he conjured the heroes from Homer's epics when he taught about them. He came to a horrible end when the Devil came to collect his soul. Legend states that Faust was torn apart by the Devil and that he left the remains on a dung heap and Faust's eyeballs stuck to the wall. In reality, it is believed that Faust blew himself up while experimenting with alchemy.

The Gelderland Folk Almanac claims that Faust stayed in a second floor room of Waardenburg Castle and that it was from here that he was taken by the Devil and destroyed and that blood stains near the window and on the pavement still exist today and cannot be removed due to this incident. As to the truth of these statements, we cannot be certain. Most historical accounts claim that Faust died near Wittenberg, which is some 315 miles from Waardenburg. Others claim he died in a hotel in a town in the German district of Baden-Wurttemberg called Staufen im Breisgau. What really happened? We'll never know, but the legend was made famous in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play "Faust."

Faust may just be legend when it comes to the castle, but reports of hauntings are not. Disembodied steps are heard regularly climbing up and down the stairways. Apparitions have been seen climbing the stairs. Objects disappear and then reappear. Whispering is heard in rooms where there are no occupants. Toilets flush on their own. It should be noted that the remains of bodies were found in the castle's cellar at one time. There is no historical record as to why this is the case. There are no deaths recorded at the castle either.

A Personal Haunting in the Netherlands

A personal haunting in the Netherlands as reported by Tricholoma: "Me and my family lived in a small house in a village near Amsterdam in the Netherlands. My parents bought it somewhere around 1979. At that time I was 2 years of age. The house was build somewhere around 1910 and as long as I can remember there was always something strange going on. As a young child I could frequently see strange shadowy figures upstairs and from time to time I heard someone, or something, breathing or scratching from inside the walls. I remember that at night I could regularly see these strange figures, whom looked like long black shapes, moving in a odd rhythmic way through my bedroom. And one scary thing I remember like it happened only yesterday. I was about 4 or 5 years of age and I began to notice them more often. Or let's say, I became aware of the fact that what I saw wasn't something normal and it really started to scare me. Every night it looked like they were moving closer to the edge of my bed and at a certain point they came so close that I hid myself under the sheets, so I could not see them. Of course that didn't help much, because now I started to hear them. They made a strange mumbling sound and as a child (or now as an adult) I could not make out what it was. But it scared me so much and after a few night I was so scared that kicked with my foot at the edge of my bed. To my horror I really hit something and it made a loud and eerie kind of scream.

A few seconds later my mother entered my room, asking me why I made such an awful scream. I told her what happened, but it was of no use. I could not convince her that it wasn't me, but one of the "monsters" near my bed. She tried to calm me and told me that there were no such things as ghosts or monsters. She told me that I was safe in my room and asked me to go back to sleep. It may sound strange, but from that moment on I never heard the noises again and I never saw those things again... Until 1989. In that year my mother suddenly died and left me, my father and two younger brothers to take care of ourselves. From that moment on the atmosphere changed in the house. I started to see the shadowy figures again and the scratching noises and the breathing came back. I could hear it all through the night. 

One day I noticed that our cats started to behave strange. They became very jumpy and nervous and refused to go into certain places in the house (one of these places being my room). It was like they could see things that we (well, most of us) apparently couldn't. What also spooked me was that some places in the house were freezing cold (for no reason). My father and my two brothers also seemed to be affected by whatever it was. My father kept telling us stories about ghostly appearances and a "woman figure" he had seen in our living room. My two brothers became very aggressive and violent and used course language all day through. It was like something dark (re) took possession of the house. At night things really got creepy. Something was constantly pulling my sheets away and made frightening noises from inside the walls. Downstairs I frequently heard people walking or moving things around. Our cupboards and closets were opened and shut all night through... And every time it happened I went downstairs to see who's there and every time there was nothing, but a couple of "scared" cats hiding under our couch. 

One day one of my brothers asked if I had heard the strange noises the night before. Of course I heard the noises, but I was curious about his story and asked him what he was talking about. He described all the things I heard every night. He thought that we had a burglar in the house and so he stormed downstairs to teach him or her a lesson. But there nothing there and angry and frustrated he went back to bed. In 1999 my youngest brother started to behave in such a bad manner that the authorities decided (with the consent of me and my father) to put him in a foster home. From that moment on he immediately changed and became a friendly and caring young boy. I think that whatever haunted our house had lost grip on him and therefore he changed. But I, my other brother and my father could not move elsewhere and had to deal with the house. In 2001 a friend of mine told me that whenever he came to visit our house he felt like something in our house was watching him. It made him feel uncomfortable. He also said that from the corners of his eyes it was like there were always strange black manlike shapes visible in, but also close around, our house. I had never mentioned this to anyone, not even to my father and brothers. I was shocked, but didn't have the courage to tell him what was going on. But we talked about it for a while and made some silly jokes about it.

That was a big mistake and that night I would learn the hard way. I do not recall the time, but suddenly my sheets were violently pulled off my bed. My room became freezing cold and the scratching noises came from all the walls. It was almost like something was rapidly moving through all the walls. And then I heard very loud breathing and something what felt like enormous hands grabbed me by the neck and threw me into one of the corners of my room. Apparently I lost my consciousness. When I came to my neck really hurt and it still was very cold in my room. I decided not stay there one more second and rushed downstairs. That night I slept on one of our couches, with the company of our cats. That gave me a safe feeling. Next morning father and brother had no clue what had happened that night. I asked them if they had heard something, but they both said no. They did ask if there was something wrong with my neck and I replied that I fell out of my bed and hurt my head and neck. I went to the bathroom and noticed a large bruise in my neck.

That same day my friend came to visit me again. He immediately noticed that I behaved strange and asked what was going on. I referred to our ghost stories the day before and told him that I have had the weirdest dream. That something attacked me and that I woke up in a corner of my room. Worried he asked what was wrong with my neck. Before I was able to respond he pulled my shirt up and he froze. I asked him what was there. "Do you want to know what's on your neck?", he asked. "You know that you have a bruise in the shape of a very large hand in your neck and on your shoulders." Now I really was afraid and that day I told him everything that was going. He immediately believed the entire story. My brother overheard my story and when it came to an end he told me that he was so glad that he was not going crazy. Unfortunately later that year my father's health rapidly worsened and he started to show severe signs of dementia. But now several people had noticed it and since we did not know what it was, we all decided to try to ignore it and most certainly to not to offend it anymore. That seemed to help a little. Things calmed down a bit. But we could still hear the noises and every night things still were moving around. The cold spots in the house remained and for several months I refused to spent the night in my room. But at a certain point I decided that this was ridiculous and I started to sleep there again. I don't know why, but it never bothered me again and I was never attacked again.

Somewhere around 2002 my father's condition worsened and he could not live in the house any longer, so we all moved out. I moved to a small apartment near my old house and my brothers moved somewhere else. The house was sold to our next door neighbor. He always wanted to buy the house, so he could make one big house of both houses. I moved in my apartment and for a while I feared that something had followed me to my new apartment. Again I felt like I was being watched and again I saw something but this was different. It did not feel bad. The cats (I kept them after moving out the old house) were not spooked and one day I saw something that was as clear as day. It was an old lady, a friendly looking old granny. I was not afraid of her and spoke into the room right at the exact spot where I had seen her. I said that I did not mean to intrude, but that it was now my house. That I lived there now, but if she wanted, she was welcome to stay. Immediately something changed in my apartment. Everything suddenly felt so serene and peaceful and I have never seen her again.

Later I heard from my new next door neighbor that an old brother and sister had lived in my apartment. The sister took care of her brother, but then the sister died and the brother couldn't stay there so he was moved to a nursing home. That was shortly before I moved in. The woman my neighbor described was the woman I had seen. At the same time my old neighbor had his own problems with the old house. Because he did not have the funds to immediately cost the renovation, he decided to rent the place out. Not a single one of his tenants stayed there for very long, but the most striking case was a young woman who rented the house. She told my old neighbor that she simply loved the place and even paid him two months in advance. A few days later my old neighbor came home from his work and noticed a large truck in front of the house and several movers taking her stuff out.  He wanted to know what was going on and one of the movers told him that the woman did not want to spent another minute in that house. She did not even want to get near to it and gave them the key. My old neighbor could keep his rent. The man could not tell my neighbor what had happened to her, but something scared the living daylights out her. Up to this day I still do not know what it was. Some of my friends say that it most likely was a poltergeist, another friend said that maybe it was a demon and one girlfriend even mentioned that maybe it was the spirit of my deceased mother, although I refuse to believe that. Things were already off before she died and I don't believe that she would ever turn to violence." 

The Dutch don't speak much about ghosts and such, but they clearly have some interesting legends connected to their beautiful and historic castles. A walk through any of them would be amazing. Is it possible that one might run into some paranormal activity at these structures? Are they haunted? That is for you to decide!