Ghost Chasers Episode 5

In this episode the team investigated paranormal activity in one of Belgium’s spookiest cities, Namur which has a long history of warfare. Our first stop was the massive stone fortress called The Citadel where we explored the dark labyrinth of tunnels below.

No visitor can miss the Citadel of Namur, dominating the hill at the convergence of the Meuse and the Sambre. The huge stone fortress is not just a local must-see, but one of Belgium as a whole. It is the site of the oldest permanent settlement in the Benelux, and remains the most extensive construction in the country, with a circumference of several kilometres.

The citadel was the site of the Celtic Oppidum Aduatucorum where Julius Caesar defeated the Belgic Gauls, it developed into a Roman stronghold against Germanic invasions in the 3rd and 4th century.

In the 10th century, the Count of Namur replaced the Roman ruins by a wooden tower. A stone castle was built between 1235 and 1245, and further expanded in the 14th century.

Emperor Charles V of Habsburg had a complete citadel built between 1542 and 1555. It was named 'La Médiane' and was meant to function as a real city in the events of a war.

The Citadel's walls were doubled in the 17th century and it became one of the most fortified constructions in Europe. Napoleon had part of the Citadel dismantled in the early 19th century.

The view over Namur and the Meuse valley from the castle of the counts, at the eastern tip of the citadel, are breathtaking. There are numerous paths and cobbled streets leading up to the citadel, and many more underground passageways within the fortress.

It is within these tunnels that we did our investigation for the first part of this episode. My blog is going to concentrate on the mysterious voice we heard and also what happened after that didn't make the final cut for the episode.

This is the clip of the noise we heard (without the backing track) What is strange about this clip although the sound is short is wasn't just the noise that freaked us out. It was the feeling of somebody tearing down the tunnel at us that made me initially run and start pushing everybody out of my way. I have since been given the nickname of Bolt after winning the Ghost Chasers 100M sprint!

Here is the audio now of Paul Venturing back up the tunnel its interesting to note that Paul being the most sceptical of the team does describe the are in an unusual way he himself was actually feeling a difference in the atmosphere of the area.

This for us was the most frightening experience we had encountered so far on our Ghost Chasers road trip but it didn't end there. We had another encounter in the tunnels shortly after where Kay started hearing military bugle calls coming down from the entrance to the tunnels. This didn't make the show but I have the audio here.

So what did we discover?

Well this one had a natural explanation. When we reached the top of the tunnels we discovered a group of horn players doing a late night practice session at the top of the Citadel away from civilisation not knowing that they were freaking out an already on edge group of ghost hunters. At least it did lighten our mood!

The following night we ventured out to the 500 year old Chateaux de Lavaux-Sainte-Anne which, it is claimed, is cursed and haunted by malevolent spirits. The chateaux has a dramatic history, replete with plague and death.

This fortified castle dates back to the 15th century. It is made up of three corner towers and a cavernous keep; it represents the only example of an Ardenne Castle in an open countryside.

The castle which combines Middle Age and Renaissance architecture was well equipped to resist long enough against the enemy's offensives while waiting for external support.

During the Renaissance, the fortress with the big stony towers was added with red bricks and bulbous roofs. The castle also houses three museums: the first one consists of an introduction to the manorial life in the 17th & 18th centuries. The second museum displays a rich collection of the rural life in Lavaux Sainte-Anne in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century.

What is most impressive about this location is the massive collection of taxidermy which is said to be the largest single collection throughout Europe. It certainly added to the atmosphere with hundreds of eyes staring at you from every corner.

At most of the locations during free time a lot of pranking went on. The following clip shows part of a walk round Paul myself and Ian did prior to the shoot with Ian getting his own back on me for trying to make him jump at a previous location. Also me trying to prank Paul which I nearly succeeded in doing.

The location from the perspective of myself and Paul was fairly quiet with the main event of the night being Ian helping the spirit of the young lady cross over. The only anomaly caught for us to analyse was the Polaroid image of the green distortion but nothing conclusive.

Here are a few images from the Castle can you spot the ghosts of me and Paul?

I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we did for more insights into the making of this episode don't forget to check out Pauls Blog at www.paulhobday.com