A Halloween Tale from The Netherlands

For our last Halloween pic, we're in the eastern part of The Netherlands in the town of 's-Heerenberg. It's a sleepy little town, most famous for the Kasteel Huis Bergh which dates from the 13th century.

On the darker side, it's said that this little village in 1605 hosted one of the last witch burnings in The Netherlands. Poor old Mechteld ten Ham didn't pass the "water test" -- which means that she floated instead of sank after being thrown into a body of water. Conclusive proof of being a witch, in those days.

She's remembered by this statue ... to me it looks like she's forever cursing her accusers.

On that note, we wish you a Happy Halloween! We hope you've enjoyed the various spooky pics from our travels in Europe.

Ghastly Battle

A monumental bronze work commemorating the 1288 Battle of Worringen stands in the old town area of Düsseldorf, Germany.

The battle, which is said to have claimed more than 1100 lives, led to the granting of Düsseldorf's town charter.

The sculpture (Stadterhebungs-Monument) was created in 1988 for the city's 700th year jubilee.

Spooky features abound, like the skeleton and this fellow, his face frozen in fear as the battle rages on around him.

Sands of Time...

In the graveyard of the Church of the Holy Rude in Sterling, Scotland, there are many graves with the skull and crossbones motif. What caught our eye on this stone were the date (1696) and the hourglass (see it -- right in the middle of the date). I guess time was up for Mr. John Foreman!

Were it not in such a pretty setting, this would rank as a pretty spooky graveyard.

Trying to get in or out?

One of the many artistic gravesites in Paris' Cimitiere du Pere Lachaise. If you browsed the CDPBs on October 1 theme day, you might have seen some of the more famous graves like Jim Morrison or Chopin. The combination of eeriness and pathos caught our eye on this grave.

In yesterday's comments, JoAnn asked what fascinates us about Halloween and all the scary imagery. For me, it's a couple of things. First, I think that making fun of scary things makes them a bit less scary. Some cultures even celebrate death (in the states, we learn a lot about the Dia De Los Muertos celebrations in Mexico). Second, there's a bit of a rush to being scared. Third, it's just plain fun when you're a kid and you get to dress up, go trick-or-treating, get loads of candy, and get sick eating said candy. Fourth, even adults celebrate ... we were woken up at 5:30AM this morning with a phone call from our friends at their annual Halloween bash (thanks alot, Bob, Lynn, Joan & Jim). Anyway, we do miss the Halloween celebrations.

BTW, here's a fuller, color shot of the gravesite. I don't know why, but I prefer b/w for many of these "grave" photos.

Shivering Timbers

In the Normandy town of Rouen, there's a courtyard tucked away behind some shops on a street. It's so inconspicuous that we missed it the first time we passed the entrance.

And if you walked through it without really looking, the courtyard of Aitre St-Maclou might look like any other courtyard; not much going on, a couple of nice trees, some half-timbered construction.

But if you look closely at the timbers, you'll see some pretty spooky imagery. The building was used as an ossuary during the time of the plague, and the timbers are all carved with macabre symbols of death.

So macabre, in fact, that it is said that these carvings inspired Camille Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre.

Very Grave Grave

Detail from a gravestone in the Sint Jans-kathedraal in the town of 's-Hertogenbosch (luckily, normally referred to as "den Bosch").



The grave is dated 14 October 1380 and as you can see, it has a large vertical crack in it. Still, it's not in bad shape for being over 600 years old.



I like the bird (heron? stork? eagle?) in the coat of arms.



St Jans is a beautiful church; like many such churches, during gothic times it was transformed. This stone dates from the period when the major gothic construction began (1340).

Flat (and slightly punctured) Stanley

Continuing on our Halloween theme...last year we had a visit from Flat Stanley (click on the name if you're not familiar with his story).

He picked a great time to visit, as we toured The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, and London. One of our stops was the Bouillion castle in Belgium.

At the castle, Stanley found himself in a precarious position on one of the torture devices in the dungeon.

Even though Stanley survived the ordeal, in the end we decided that this pic should not be included in the report back to the elementary school students.

Evidently, Death is fluent in Latin

Leading up to Halloween, over the next week we'll break with our usual format to show you some of the more macabre sights we've seen during our travels throughout Europe.

At right we see Death inscribing the name of Sophie Charlotte, Queen of Prussia, into the book of eternity.

This moment is immortalized (can I use that word when speaking of Death?) at the base of Sophie's monument by Andreas Schlüter in the Berliner Dom.

BTW, thanks to the multiple bloggers who've tagged us; we need a day to recuperate from our travels, so check back tomorrow.

UPDATE: To see this pic in color, click here. Although the gold-plated original is striking, I thought the b/w version is better for the season.