Nemerlaer Castle
Nemerlaer Castle was originaly build in the twelfth century as a hunting lodge by Godfried III of Brabant. First it was a fortified tower, but at the end of the sixteenth century it had to be a large castle. The rebuildings of 1718 and 1880 gave the house the looks it has today.
The last private owner, Baron D. van den Bogaerde van Terbrugge, left a very curious will. He decided that nobody was allowed to live at this castle, nor at his other one, the famous Heeswijk Castle, till his youngest heir was eighty years old. At that very moment the youngest heir was twelve years old. That meant that both the houses had to remain empty for almost seventy years. The baron decided also, that nothing should be sold.
Because the heirs coudn't sell anything, nor live at one of the houses, they didn't take care for them, so they were left to decay. When the family got hold of their property again in 1964, they sold the house and the surroundings to the "Foundation Landscape of Brabant." They restored the house and the park and settled themselves in the outbuildings.
Nemerlaer Castle
One of the lords of the castle killed his pregnant wife, because she wanted to leave the house and go to her family in France. The murderer chopped her body in three pieces and threw them into the swamp behind the castle. Sometimes on misty days, you can see three spirals of mist coming out of the swamp shaping into the form of a pregnant woman, who always disappears into the direction of the castle.
In 1969 a fire ruined the castle again, and on a picture made during the fire, we can see very clear the shape of a pregnant woman looking out of a window. Thanks to the work of the castellan, the writer Anton van Oirschot and his wife, the house was rebuild again.
