Château de La Roche-en-Ardenne — Berthe's ghost

OVERVIEW

The Château de La Roche-en-Ardenne is a fortified castle on a rocky ridge above a loop of the Ourthe, in the Belgian province of Luxembourg, of which it is an emblem. It was built on the ruins of a Celtic hill fort where human presence goes back to the Neolithic; the Romans later had a fortified camp there.

HISTORY

About 844 Adelard, count of La Roche, built the first castle. The county passed in 1152 to Henry the Blind of Namur and in 1196 to his daughter Ermesinde of Luxembourg. Louis XIV held it from 1681 to 1688 and had it strengthened by a disciple of Vauban. In 1721 it was badly damaged by a fire started by lightning; Joseph II had it dismantled; vandals stripped it in the 19th century, and it was bombed in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Berthe de La Roche is a figure of Ardennes legend tied to the castle. The lord's daughter, of exceptional beauty, could not choose between her suitors, so her father held a tournament for her hand. Waleran, eldest son of the count of Montaigu, fell for Berthe and neglected his fiancée Marie de Salm, who dismissed him; he fought through to the last round — where a small, frail-looking black knight beat him easily. The marriage was celebrated at once; on the wedding night the bride was found stabbed in the castle moat. The story is told in Contes et Légendes de Belgique (2010). Every evening from early July to late August the town stages the appearance of her ghost as a sound-and-light show, with fireworks on the last Saturday of August; it is cancelled in rain or high wind.

VISITING

The ruins stand above the town; the sound-and-light show of the legend runs each evening from early July to late August. Opening times are not recorded in the sources.