Oude Biezen Castle

Night after night, the same thing occurred. When the stable hand made his morning rounds, he found the horses had escaped from their stalls again. No locks were forced, no boards were broken. The animals simply stood outside the stable, as if some invisible force had driven them out.

The castle owner ordered all the horses to be driven back and the stables to be more securely locked. But every following night, the same thing happened: horses mysteriously vanished from their stalls. It was as if something unseen kept calling them away into the darkness.

Yet one horse seemed different from the rest. This animal, stronger and more stubborn than the others, refused to be herded back. Whenever the men approached it, it would jump away wildly and hide in places where ordinary horses should not venture.

On a particular night, something occurred that would haunt the people of the castle forever. The stubborn horse—the only one that resisted the supernatural force—fell into a strange state. It jumped over the dung heap and began to grow, becoming larger and larger, until it reached gigantic proportions.

The men who witnessed this were frozen with fear. What unfolded before their eyes defied all rational understanding. The horse had been transformed into something supernatural, something that did not belong in the normal world.

Soon after, the creature disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. Whether it fled somewhere or simply dissolved into nothing, no one could say. But the event had left a deep impression on everyone who heard of it.

The horses were not the only creatures afflicted by this haunting. Strange things also occurred on the castle walls. At a particular spot on the stone wall of the castle, a black cat would repeatedly appear. She always sat in the same place, staring at the castle with eyes that some claimed were “not of this world”.

For many castle dwellers, the black cat was a sign of nocturnal evil. Was she the messenger of the ghost? Or was she herself the haunting, taking animal form? The villagers did not know, but they certainly did not trust this creature.

One day, several men decided enough was enough. They saw the cat in her usual spot on the wall, and without hesitation, they struck her down. The animal fell and disappeared. But what happened afterward would haunt the castle and its inhabitants for years to come.

Many villagers believed that killing the black cat had been a terrible mistake. The ghost of the castle, whether in cat form or otherwise, was not meant to be harmed. It was a warning, a messenger from another world.

After the cat's death, the nocturnal disturbances seemed only to worsen. The horses grew even more restless, the atmosphere in the castle ever more oppressive. It was as if the spirit felt insulted by what had been done to its messenger.

To this day, people in Rijkhoven still speak of Oude Biezen Castle and the night when the horses grew larger than life, when black cats were the speakers of a world we cannot see. It is a story passed down through generations, a warning to be cautious with what we do not understand, and to show respect for the secrets of the night.