CHATEAU DE LA ROCHE-EN-ARDENNES
Castle Ghost at the Jewel of the Ourthe
The southeast Belgian town of La Roche-en-Ardennes, between the steep banks of the River Ourthe which cuts in a wandering path through the hills of the Ardennes forest has been a destination for tourists since the 1ate 1800’s. The English came for the fly fishing. The Dutch came for the bucolic mountains they didn’t possess in their own flat fields. The town today is popular for kayaking, biking, its cuisine Ardennais, and its castle of legends, the Chateau de La Roche. The Romans were the first to build a fort at a strategic curve in the river. After the Germanic Franks replaced the retreating Romans, King Pepin made the place a hunting getaway. A feudal castle was constructed in the middle-ages of the 9th Century, expanded into large fortified stonework in the high medieval 11th century, and eventually abandoned by the 1700’s when unable to resist French artillery. The castle is a very interesting ruin with the walls seeming to grow from the rocky shale of the mountain on which it sits, still dark and ominous. From a single battlement point, almost a full 300 degree view looks down on the river approaches.
The most famous resident of the Chateau de La Roche castle was the Countess Berthe de la Roche, daughter of count of the castle who in a very curious story of medieval romance, power lust and murder-suicide, was killed by the jealous betrothed of the Count de Montaigu. A great tournament was held in which the winner would receive the hand of Berthe and therefore the lands of her father. Montaigu was a powerful a knight and likely to win the contest and the prize, even though he was already betrothed to anther woman, the Countess Alix de Salm. The mighty Montaigu was defeated and killed in the battle by a mysterious small armored adversary, who won the right to marry Berthe, but turned out was in truth the jilted other woman who threw herself and Berthe out a castle window to the rocks of the Ourthe River below. Or since no blood or bodies were found, but only a black spot and white spot, signifying the evil and good, perhaps really eloped together in a medieval feminine pact. In any case, the Ghost of Berthe La Roche still haunts the castle. She appears on the battlement above the spot where she presumedly fell. Her ethereal ghost form appears around 10 pm every night in summer, accompanied by a light show, except if it’s raining. One might suspect that the ghost of Berthe is as much a put-on as the disguising of a jilted lover in a suit of armor, pulling off a marriage without anyone looking under the helmet, but as entertaining. Entrance to the castle ruins is a 4 euro.
The ghost show is free from below. La Roche-en-Ardennes was a major battle site in WWII and The Battle of the Ardennes Museum takes up three floors of a storefront, filled with memorabilia, weapons, uniforms and other history of the war (see La Roche Battle of the Ardennes Museum) Other museums in town or nearby are a Milling Museum in a 19th Century waterwheel mill, a Crockery Museum and a Wild Game Park and Arboretum reachable by the Tourist Train which runs from the 1st of May to the end of September. La Roche-en-Ardennes does not have direct rail service, but a regional bus connects with area towns. © Bargain Travel Europe
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SEE ALSO:
DURBUY - PRETTY TOWN ON THE OURTHE RIVER
ORVAL
ABBEY MONASTERY BELGIAN TRAPPIST BEER
GODFEY'S
CRUSADER'S CASTLE BOUILLON
CASTLE FRANCHIMONT RUINS THEUX
GRAVENSTEEN
- COUNT'S CASTLE - GHENT