Haut-Koenigsbourg castle, where the White Lady appears every year on New Year's Eve.

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G.

VARELA / 20 MINUTES

  • This Saturday is Halloween, the opportunity to tell horror stories.

    20 Minutes

    makes you discover those of cursed places or haunted houses all over France.

    As at the famous Haut-Koenigsbourg castle, also haunted.

    Several legends surround the place, including one that leads to a White Lady.

  • Originally, this former lord of the land wanted "to haunt the place for a hundred years so as to atone for a serious fault committed".

  • This White Lady would appear every year on New Year's Eve, before going around the castle three times and going up to the dungeon.

A quiet little meal, an evening at a restaurant or with friends… Forget all your plans for the next December 31st.

There is more exciting and it happens at the famous castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg, in Alsace.

At midnight exactly, you may then have the chance to see the famous White Lady ...

“I had never seen her but I would like to”, laughs Lucia.

This passionate about legends and the paranormal went specifically to the scene in order to feed her Youtube channel to more than 2,000 subscribers, "Les mystères de la Renarde".

It must be said that the legend is worth the detour ...

“Each year, she appears and goes around the castle three times before going up to the keep, from where she contemplates the plain,” explains the storyteller.

And from there, she predicts the future.

If he looks radiant, she smiles;

otherwise, she moans.

Then, before evaporating, she extends her arms and calling a blessing to the valley.

"

" She is nice "

A version that Gérard Leser, historian-ethnologist, contests slightly.

In his book

Ghosts and ghosts in Alsace, the treasure of legends

, he evokes the same apparition but speaks of another journey on the part of the White Lady.

After having "expressed her good wishes to the inhabitants of the valley, [she] spreads a white sheet on a meadow and sows a few handfuls of grain on it, which she seems to want to dry.

Before disappearing.

But the two agree on other points: this famous visitor of New Year's Eve is a former lord.

"Before dying, she had wanted to haunt the place for a hundred years in order to atone for a serious fault committed", continues Lucia, who evokes a "protective white lady".

“Unlike most of the others that can be found in many châteaux, it's nice,” says Delphine Brunel, responsible for event programming at Haut-Koenigsbourg.

The Haut-Koenigsbourg castle (Bas-Rhin) welcomes 550,000 visitors per year.

Its new management intends to develop business tourism, online ticketing and a restaurant area at the Bastion.

(Archives) - G.

VARELA / 20 MINUTES

The building with "more than 500,000 visitors per year" communicates relatively little about its evanescent occupant.

"At Christmas, we will evoke her veil during events and it is mentioned during the elven walks that we organize", she specifies, trying to explain where the legend could come from.

“There are a lot of Celtic beliefs and German pantheon references around.

And in this mythology, Odin's wife, Frigg, was all dressed in white.

"

In the castle, another story refers to a "yellow lady".

This is visible only to… children born on a Sunday.

"If a lucky chosen one manages to follow her to the underground passages, he can then leave with all the treasures," Lucia further details.

But for that, you must not utter the slightest word, which no child has ever succeeded.

The poor ghost still haunts the place… ”

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