A ghostly black dog also haunts the Good Hope Castle and has been known to attack visitors before mysteriously vanishing, leaving its “victims” unmarked…
Castle Ghosts and Ghouls
The Cape Castle is unmissable, especially if you take the Strand Street offramp from the M3 highway. The name “Strand” means Beach in Afrikaans, and this street is named as such for good reason: Strand Street is where the waterline of the ocean began when the castle was first built.
The seawater would fill the moat surrounding the castle, adding to the defense of the structure. Construction began in 1666, making this one of the oldest colonial buildings still standing in South Africa. The Castle lies in a star shape with 5 bastions. Ghostly occurrences began in 1915 when the two meters tall specter of a man was seen on the ramparts. In 1947 this ghost was again seen, this time on several occasions over two weeks. He was also seen jumping over the side of the castle walls and walking between Leerdam and Orange, two of the bastions of the castle.
A Ghostly Figure Plummets To The Ground
The Castle is now closed at night but a drive past the Castle may reveal this ghostly two-meter figure popping up in front of you or perhaps plunging downward off the side of the castle wall, it’s the Ghost Of Pieter Gysbert Van Noodt.
One of the better-known ghosts haunting the Cape Castle is governor P.G.Van Noodt. This strict and militant man died on 23 April 1728 during the hanging of seven soldiers who had been caught attempting to escape. Van Noodt had overruled the soldier’s original sentence and condemned them all to death for desertion.
He did not attend the hanging and one of the soldiers cursed him and requested he watches their execution, which he refused to do. Later on that day, Van Noodt was found dead, having died of a heart attack. Those who found his body, where he had been sitting at his desk, claimed that he had a look of terror on his face.
Mysterious Lady In Grey
The lady in grey as she is known is another famous ghost who haunts the Good Hope Castle. Her ghost has not been seen since recent excavations when an unknown woman’s body was exhumed. Before this, the ghost frequently appeared along corridors inside and also outside the castle. She was always weeping bitterly and covering her face. A few centuries ago, a guard had hanged himself using the bell-rope in the bell tower. Shortly after this, the tower was bricked up leaving the bell hanging from its original wooden beams, as it still does today. The bell was originally cast in 1697 by Claude Fremy in Amsterdam. It sometimes rings of its own accord.
Read about other such strange apparitions in Monaco.
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