Calvados

Calvados Castle in Normandy, France was built on the ruins of an unidentified earlier building. In 1875 to January 30th 1876 the castle’s occupants were terrorized by a highly active poltergeist.

The first paranormal incident was witnessed by the tutor of the masters son. He saw a chair suddenly move across the floor, and later on that evening heard loud banging coming from the walls of his bedroom. The next evening loud bangs were heard all over the castle. The master and servants searched the castle but nothing odd was found. These loud bangs on walls and door continued throughout the night for the next 3 months.

The parish Priest was invited to come to the castle and spend the night, he recalled the next day that he had heard the heavy footsteps of what must have been a giant figure or creature descending the stairs in the early morning. He believed that events at the castle were of a supernatural nature, and left the castle as fast as he could, fearful of what might happen.

On Halloween the paranormal activity saw a marked increase, at the center of the activity was the Green Room. Loud bangs and and heavy footsteps were heard in the room which kept the occupants up until the early hours.

It was during a violent November rainstorm that the ghost acquired a voice. The household heard a long shriek that at first sounded like a woman outside in the storm calling for help. The next cry sounded from within the castle. Finally three sorrowful moans sounded coming from the direction of the staircase.

The next evening sobs and cries were heard coming from the green room. The cries seemed to be those of a woman in terrible suffering. During the next few nights, the activity seemed to become intensified and the cries of the sorrowful woman in the green room had become shrill and despairing.

The cousin of the masters wife came to visit, he was an army officer and he scoffed at the wild stories the members of the household told him, and against all their pleas, he insisted upon sleeping in the green room. They need not worry about him, he assured them, he always had his revolver at his side.

The officer strode boldly to the green room, left a candle burning as a night light, and went straight to sleep. He was awakened a short time later by what seemed to be the soft rustling of a silken robe. He was instantly aware that the candle had been extinguished and that something was tugging at the covers on his bed. In answer to his gruff demands to know who was there, he felt a cold breath of air blow out the candle he had re-lit and the rustling noise seemed to become louder, and something was definitely determined to rob him of his bedclothes. When he shouted that whoever was there must declare himself or he would shoot, the only response to his demand was an exceptionally violent tug on the covers.

It was a simple matter to determine where his silent adversary stood by the sound of the rustling and the pull on the bedclothes, so he decided to shoot three times. The bullets struck nothing but the wall, and he dug them out with a knife that next morning.

The Sons tutor suffered the worst of the haunting more so than any other member of the household. Whenever the cleric left his room, he always made certain that the windows were bolted and his door was locked, and the key to his room was secured to his waist. Upon returning, the cleric would inevitably find his couch overturned, the cushions scattered about, his windows opened, and his armchair placed on his desk. Once he tried nailing his windows closed. He returned to find the windows wide open, and by way of punishment, the couch cushions were balanced precariously on the outside windowsill. On another occasion he came back to his room to find every one of his books on the floor, only the Holy Scriptures remained on the shelves.

The most vicious attack on the cleric occurred once when he knelt at his fireplace stirring the coals. Without warning, a huge deluge of water rushed down the chimney, extinguishing the fire, and blinding the cleric with flying sparks, and covering him with ashes. The tutor woefully concluded that such actions could only be the work of the devil. Most of the events recorded are what is now considered as classic Poltergeist behavior.

One night the invisible creature roamed the corridors as if it were a lonely wayfarer seeking admittance to the rooms of each of the members of the household. It knocked once or twice on the doors of several bedrooms, then, true to pattern, it paused to deal 40 consecutive blows to the cleric’s door before it returned to thump about in the green room.

The household only received respite during the stay of reverend father H. L., a Canon, sent there by the bishop. From the moment the Reverend Father entered the castle until the moment he left, there was not the slightest sound from the poltergeist. But after the clergyman had made his departure there was a sound as if a body had fallen in the first floor passage, followed by what seemed to be a rolling ball delivering a violent blow on the door of the green room and the haunting began again.

On January 20th, 1876, The Master left for a two day visit to his brother, leaving his wife to keep up the journal of the haunting. Madame. de X. recorded that she heard an eerie bellowing, like that of a bull, which bothered everyone during the master’s absence. A weird drumming sound was also heard, and a noise much like someone striking the stairs with a stick.

Upon the master’s return to Calvados, the ghost became more violent than it had ever been before. It stormed into the rooms of Auguste the gardener and Emile the coachman and turned their beds over. It whirled into the master’s study and heaped books, maps, and papers on the floor. The midnight screams increased in shrillness and urgency and were joined by the roaring of a bull and the furious cries of animals. For the first time, the rapping’s seemed to direct themselves to the door of Maurice, the son of the Master and Madame. de X. Terrible screams sounded outside his room, and the violence of the successive blows on his door shook every window on the floor.

On January 20th, 1876, The Master left for a two-day visit to his brother, leaving his wife to keep up the journal of the haunting. Madame. de X. recorded that she heard an eerie bellowing, like that of a bull, which bothered everyone during the master’s absence. A weird drumming sound was also heard, and a noise much like someone striking the stairs with a stick.

Upon the master’s return to Calvados, the ghost became more violent than it had ever been before. It stormed into the rooms of Auguste the gardener and Emile the coachman and turned their beds over. It whirled into the master’s study and heaped books, maps, and papers on the floor. The midnight screams increased in shrillness and urgency and were joined by the roaring of a bull and the furious cries of animals. For the first time, the rapping’s seemed to direct themselves to the door of Maurice, the son of the Master and Madame. de X. Terrible screams sounded outside his room, and the violence of the successive blows on his door shook every window on the floor.

On the night of January 26th, the parish priest arrived with the intention of conducting the rites of exorcism. He had also arranged for a Novena of Masses to be said at Lourdes that would coincide with his performance of the ancient ritual of putting a spirit to rest. The priest’s arrival was greeted by a long, drawn-out cry and what sounded like a stampede of hoofed creatures running from the first floor passage. There came a noise similar to that of heavy boxes being moved, and the door to Maurice’s room began to shake as if something demanded entrance.

The rites of exorcism reached their climax at 11:15 on the night of January 29th. From the stairway came a piercing cry, like that of a beast that had been dealt its deathblow. A flurry of rapping’s began to rain on the door of the green room. At 12:55, the startled inhabitants of Calvados Castle heard the voice of a man in the first-floor passage. The Master recorded in his journal that it seemed to cry Ha! Ha!, and immediately there were 10 resounding blows, shaking everything all around. A final blow struck the door of the green room; then there was the sound of coughing in the first-floor passage.

The family rose and cautiously began to move about the castle. The priest slumped in exhaustion, sweat beading on his forehead from the long ordeal. There was no sound of the hammering fist, no raucous screams, no shaking of doors, no shifting of furniture. They found a large earthenware plate that had been broken into 10 pieces at the door to Madame. de X.’s room. No one had ever seen the plate before that night.

Although it appeared that the haunting was over, several days after the exorcisms had been performed, Madame. de X. was sitting at a writing desk when an immense packet of holy medals and crosses dropped in front of her on her paper. It was as if the ghost was making the occupants aware that it had not gone for good.

Towards the end of August, soft knockings and rapping’s began to be heard. On the third Sunday in September, the drawing room furniture was arranged in horseshoe fashion with the couch in the middle. A few days afterward, Madame. de X. lay terrified in her bed and watched the latch to her room unbolt itself, the door slowly opened then slammed shut again. Her husband was out of the castle for a few days on business, and she was alone with the servants.

The duration of the phenomena was much briefer this time, and the restless ghost seemed to be content to play the organ and to move an occasional bit of furniture about the room of Maurice’s new tutor. Eventually the phenomena became weaker and weaker until the only thing that haunted Calvados Castle was the memory of those terrible months when the haunting phenomena had run rampant.