The Haunted Castle ( nl, Spookslot) was a haunted attraction in the

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

Efteling Efteling () is a fantasy-themed amusement park in Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands. The attractions reflect elements from ancient myths and legends, fairy tales, fables, and folklore. The park was opened on May 31, 1952. It evolved from a nature ...

in the

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. It was designed by

Ton van de Ven Ton van de Ven (1 January 1944 – 16 September 2015) was a Dutch industrial designer. He is best known as the creative director at the Efteling theme park. Van de Ven was born in Eindhoven, Netherlands, where he also studied at the Design Acade ...

and was the first attraction built outside the

Fairy Tale Forest The Fairytale Forest (''Sprookjesbos'' in Dutch) is a wooded section of the amusement park Efteling in the Netherlands, where a number of well-known fairy tales and fairy tale figures are depicted by animatronics and buildings. Most of the figure ...

History and details

On July 24, 1976 the announcement on the making of the world's biggest haunted castle appeared in

Brabant Brabant is a traditional geographical region (or regions) in the Low Countries of Europe. It may refer to: Place names in Europe * London-Brabant Massif, a geological structure stretching from England to northern Germany Belgium * Province of Bra ...

's daily newspaper, ''Het Brabants Dagblad''. The article mentions that the castle would be built between the Fairy Tale Forest and the rowing and canoeing pond. This was a strategic choice, because the location of the attraction would attract visitors to the normally ‘forgotten’ southern part of the park. The main reason for this mega-attraction was declining numbers of visitors at Efteling. Aiming for a more general public, with an attraction that didn’t depend on the weather conditions, Efteling authorized their young designer Van de Ven to start designing the ride. Van de Ven designed the castle as a walk-through attraction and, in the style of

Anton Pieck Anton Franciscus Pieck (19 April 1895 – 24 November 1987) was a Dutch painter, artist and graphic artist. Hiworksare noted for their nostalgic or fairy tale-like character and are widely popular, appearing regularly on cards and calendars. He i ...

, the castle was designed to look old and decayed. It is meant to look as though it was once beautiful and majestic, but is now haunted and in ruins and somewhat romantic. The construction took about 18 months and the castle was officially opened May 10, 1978. On May 12 a television special was broadcast with

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...

singing in and around the castle. She had a big hit around the globe with "

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moorland, moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their tur ...

" at the time. On January 24, 2022, Efteling announced the attraction will close permanently on September 4th of that year. It will be replaced by a new ride in the same theme, inspired on the music used in the current attraction,

Danse Macabre The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ) (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of ...

. The opening is planned for 2024. Along with the closure, Efteling posted 3 videos on their YouTube channel to forever preserve the castle: a walkthrough of the castle (including the queue, preshow and main show), a 360 degrees video of the main show of the castle, and a tour behind the scenes, recorded by three previous and current employees who worked on building the castle in 1978. On the 4th of September, at 9 'o clock, the queue closed for the very last time. The queue was well outside of its intended length, spanning across the square and adjacent path behind the castle. After the last visitors had left the show, the employees who worked at the castle witnessed the last show ever performed. The process of the demolition of the ride started the very next day, but the building would not be torn down until all of the elements of the show had been carefully removed and preserved for the archives, and possible reuse for the new attraction.

Ride statistics

*Ride time: 6:27 minutes *Capacity: 800 visitors per hour (estimated) *Cost: €1,588,823 (40% overspent)Fansite
(in Dutch)

Ride details

Looking closely at the exterior of the Spookslot, a number of faces can be seen in the ruins. The largest can be seen above the main entrance: two windows are the eyes and the entrance itself is a gaping mouth, through which the visitors enter. When it rains, one window appears to be crying. Two of the tombstones outside the mansion carry the logos of the National Railway Organisation and the

Rabobank Rabobank (; full name: ''Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A.'') is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands. The group comprises 89 local Dutch Rabobanks (2019), a central organisation (Raboban ...

. The waiting hall is a dimly-lit area, with several spooky items, of which an eastern ghost with a crystal bowl is the most notable. The glass uses the

pepper's ghost Pepper's ghost is an illusion technique used in the theatre, cinema, amusement parks, museums, television, and concerts. It is named after the English scientist John Henry Pepper (1821–1900) who began popularising the effect with a theatre ...

technique to show a beautiful woman turning into a skull. Another famous effect, added in 1979, are dogs lying behind a door, who start to rattle their chains when someone pulls the doorknob. In the tower area a hairy arm stretches from the roof, holding a big

chandelier A chandelier (; also known as girandole, candelabra lamp, or least commonly suspended lights) is a branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. Chandeliers are often ornate, and normally use incandescent li ...

. Once in a while one might have a glimpse of three horrible demonlike creatures, (vlederikken) leering down at the visitors. As told in narration, the castle once belonged to the fourth

viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

Capelle Capelle (also ''Kapelle'') is a village in the Netherlands, Dutch province of North Brabant. It is located about 6 km west of Waalwijk. The village was first mentioned in 1257 as Capella, and means chapel. The original village was flooded i ...

van

Kaatsheuvel Kaatsheuvel () is a town in the province of North Brabant, Netherlands situated along highways N261 and N628. With a population of roughly 16,600, it is the largest town in and the capital of the municipality of Loon op Zand, which also consists o ...

, who collected many of the stories found within the Efteling. A wicked witch named Visculamia sought to steal the viscount's stories for herself, but was caught by a gardener and sentenced to death by three judges. She laid a curse onto those that wronged her, with the count being forced to search for his missing daughter Esmeralda for eternity. Upon entering the main attraction hall, a number of scary statues and scenes prepare the audience for the main course: a look into the inner court, graveyard, and the ruins of a monastery at night. When the clock strikes twelve, a violin (a uv lighted animatronic) starts playing the

of Saint-Saëns and the witch's curse brings the graveyard to life. A number of skeletons and ghosts are visible, with the gardener hanging from a noose and the three judges being reduced to howling undead creatures. One tombstone is labeled in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

"Puella Innocenta" (innocent girl). The years on her stone (in Roman numbering) reveal that she has been living backwards in time, however, it is possible that it is merely a mistake of the artist who made the stone. There is also a tombstone inside the mansion with the name "

Den Hegarty Denis "Den" Hegarty (born 13 September 1954, Dublin, Ireland) is a rock and roll, doo-wop and a cappella singer, television presenter, and psychology lecturer. Biography Darts (1976–1978) At an early age Hegarty moved to Brighton, Eng ...

", an Irish rock singer who happened to be on the radio when the stone was made. Also, it is said that the main show's appearance was influenced by the 1971 horror film "

Tombs of the Blind Dead ''Tombs of the Blind Dead'' is a 1972 Spanish-Portuguese horror film written and directed by Amando de Ossorio. Its original Spanish title is ''La noche del terror ciego'' ( English: ''The Night of the Blind Terror''). The film was the first in ...

Music

The main theme of the show is a shortened version of the

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...

. The movements of the

animatronics Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...

are synchronized with the music; the

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

that opens and closes the main part of the show demonstrates this. The show itself has been adapted four times. During the opening season in 1978, the show lasted about 12 minutes. Three months later it was cut back to 8 minutes. In 1987 the show was renewed and in 1989 the final version was completed. Leading up to the Dance Macabre is a prelude which contains - as part of the soundscape - two pieces of music: "Claws" was composed by Marc Rosen in the '80s for the Stock-music-library Omnimusic. "Terza Età", from the album "Città Notte" (1972) was composed by

Egisto Macchi Egisto Macchi (4 August 1928 – 8 August 1992) was an Italian composer. Biography Born in Grosseto, Macchi moved to Rome to study composition, piano, violin and singing with Roman Vlad (1946–51) and Hermann Scherchen (1949–54), among othe ...

. "Terza Età" was already used before in the first version of the show at its premiere in 1978.

References

{{coord, 51, 38, 56, N, 5, 02, 55, E, region:NL_type:landmark_source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title Efteling Dark rides Haunted attractions (simulated) Animatronic attractions