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The Castle and Fort Thread

Another old stomping ground of mine and often combined with a visit to the nearby Beacon Hill Battery mentioned upthread .
In that case you might like this:

Harwich Redoubt 1821.jpg
 
I used to live very close to Arundel Castle.

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the only trouble with living next to it and having an American school down the road (towards Ford very open Prison) is the number (and size) of American tourists that turn up
 
Neither a site, nor a story, that I was familiar with.

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'Houska Castle is an early gothic castle, located on the slopes of mount Zámecký vrch that overlooks the village of Houska in the Česká Lípa district of the Czech Republic.

'The castle was first built around the mid-13th century, with some historians attributing the construction to Přemysl Ottokar II of Bohemia, also called the “Iron” and “Golden King” of the Přemyslid dynasty, to administer his royal estates in the region before the founding of nearby Bezděz Castle.

'With the outbreak of WW2, Houska Castle was confiscated by the German army and the regional staff of the SS, to be used as a repository for housing archives and documents (mainly Jewish and Masonic books from Europe) of the Reich Main Security Office, an organisation subordinate to Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as Chef der Deutschen Polizei (Chief of German Police) and Reichsführer-SS, the head of the Nazi Party’s Schutzstaffel (SS).

'Another side to the history of Houska Castle revolves around folklore and the occult. According to legend, the castle was situated on a chasm or bottomless pit to stand guard over a gateway to hell where animal-human hybrids, and dark-winged creators crawled out from.

'Unconfirmed accounts have sensationalised the myth of the supposed pit, where various modern sources claim that during the castle’s construction, prisoners sentenced to death were offered a pardon if they consented to be lowered into the chasm. Legend suggests that the first prisoner to be lowered was heard screaming, upon being hoisted back up appeared to look as though he aged 30 years, grown wrinkles and his hair had turned white from fear.

'Other legends revolve around an alleged sorcerer searching for immortality who now haunts the castle, and a figure in a black monk’s hood with no face who appears in and around the vicinity of the castle.

'Some sources even claim that the castle was used by the SS for occult practices and experimentation during WW2, although there’s no surviving documentary evidence to corroborate.'


 
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