Creepy houses in the Ardennes at Trois Ponts (Château de Petit Spay) any info

[ironcross13]

maybe you guys could help me with these pics i found 2 abandoned houses next to Trois-Ponts. i know the oldest was in a battle read different things about what happened there, was told by a local that the SS killed loads of kids in the basement. he told me how to find it.
the place did feel very odd quiet and freaky it's about a mile walk up a big hill with nothing around only woods and bushes
lots of battle damage also

but the first one up the hill still has stuff in and i must say they was very spooky looking did not feel right up there.looks like people just got up and left there.
all windows broken and old furniture in there all messed up.
Felt like something bad happened there
i read the owners were shot but i'm not sure if its true

i had a quick look in but my wife wanted me out as soon as i stepped in she was really scared
also you can see the spooky doll on the chair next to the front door and the one hanging from the top window

[ironcross13]

up the hill more

[ironcross13]

Château de Petit Spay

[Killerbee]

Interesting and certainly has the creep factor. Now you need to go visit at NIGHT...

Jim

[juoneen]

I'm not sure if you have ever heard of Evp's but you go at night and use recorders and video cameras to catch spirit interaction from the past. I am positive these places have haunting in them...so unless you know what you are doing to do that right I would say don't go back, and trust your inner feelings that your gut feelings are spot on.
Spirits can follow you home , so look from a distance , and don't enter unless you know how to protect yourself properly... Although metal detecting outside may be interesting to see what turns up.

[Totenhead]

I do not think any children were killed in the building.

It was a CP for the Leibstandarte.

" It was commandeered by KG Knittel on Dec 19th 1944 and used as a CP throughout the following days. At that time, the only man in the Chateau, a chaplain who was unwell, was led away and his body was found in the woods after the battle. It is now thought that Knittel visited the Chateau immediately after the fighting with the 82nd Airborne on the uper road and may have ordered the summary execution of 11 US paratrooper POWs behind the Chateau. Their bodies were found, shot through the head with pistols, after the battle. "

[ironcross13]

Interesting and certainly has the creep factor. Now you need to go visit at NIGHT...

Jim

No i don't think i would visit at night lol

I'm not sure if you have ever heard of Evp's but you go at night and use recorders and video cameras to catch spirit interaction from the past. I am positive these places have haunting in them...so unless you know what you are doing to do that right I would say don't go back, and trust your inner feelings that your gut feelings are spot on.
Spirits can follow you home , so look from a distance , and don't enter unless you know how to protect yourself properly... Although metal detecting outside may be interesting to see what turns up.

No i just Googled them but i know what they are now.
i am a catholic and i do believe in spirits and demons so i know quite a lot about them. i do believe that places like this do have stuff haunting them also makes it more creepy. as you said they can follow people. was a interesting place.

I do not think any children were killed in the building.

It was a CP for the Leibstandarte.

" It was commandeered by KG Knittel on Dec 19th 1944 and used as a CP throughout the following days. At that time, the only man in the Chateau, a chaplain who was unwell, was led away and his body was found in the woods after the battle. It is now thought that Knittel visited the Chateau immediately after the fighting with the 82nd Airborne on the uper road and may have ordered the summary execution of 11 US paratrooper POWs behind the Chateau. Their bodies were found, shot through the head with pistols, after the battle. "

Ahh thanks for the info. really so 11 dead bodys. its full of bullet homes inside also. i found this vid online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRUnLkKesEU
on the comments is this i dont know how true it is

"Not much was found so far about the early history of the “Château de Petit Spay”. The château was owned by the Demeure family. In the 1930‘s it was home to a Benedictine community. During the war, a private charitable society, “Les Foyers Léopold III” was founded. This society, raised in different parts of the country and assisted by the National Youth Society and the Belgian Red Cross, homes meant for children between the ages of 6 and 18 chosen from debilitated or malnourished children of all classes of the population, and especially children from Belgian prisoners of war. The Château de Petit Spay accomodated one of those homes from the end of 1943 onwards. The organisation in Petit Spay was based on the methods used by the Scouts. The director, Mrs. Van der Beken, was called Akela (cubmistress). She was assisted by a nurse and 4 women teachers, all of them quite young.
Monique van Caster, one of the teachers, remembers: In the morning of 19 December 1944, Petit Spay was suddenly encircled by the SS. My first contact was when I ran down the stairs with the children. A little kid stepped out of the line and shook the hand of an SS soldier, saying “Hello Mr. American!”. I was treated with an icy glance, but he let us descend. The first question from the German was: “are there any men here?” The director (Miss Marguerite Jacobs) mentioned the presence of a sick army chaplain. He was taken away. Several months later his body was found in a curve of the Amblève near the Coo waterfall.
In addition, one of the 41 children, Alois van Loo, remembers: I was the tallest of the group. For that reason, our chaplain, Father Prégardien, has chosen me to serve the mass, celebrated in the chapel of the chateau. One afternoon, I went to the vestry. Since I had the habit to enter without knocking, I surprised the Father in a big conversation with men armed with sub- machine guns. As soon as they saw me, they got up and left. Father Prégardien made me promise not to tell anything to anybody, not even to my own comrades. It was our secret. This happened in the summer of 1944, so before the liberation. But then December came, and the SS arrivede. The SS took Father Prégardien away. We thought that our chaplain would soon be back. When our director questioned the SS, one of them swayed his sub-machine gun in a menacing way, saying: “This is what your priests carry”. We never saw our Father Prégardien again.
Father Prégardien had been taken to the river side, near the bridge across the Amblève, and shot. His body was thrown into the river. It should be noted that halfway the slope between the château and the bridge is a farmhouse (now abandoned and a ruin). The farming couple that lived there, Mr. and Mrs. Nicolet, were shot as well...
The Château de Petit Spay (or Kinderheim as the Germans called it) served as a command post of Obersturmführer Wägner’s 4./SS Pz.Aufkl.Abt. 1, Hauptsturmführer Böttcher’s III./SS Pz.Gren.Rgt. 1, and probably Hauptscharführer Auge’s 5./SS Pz.Art.Rgt. 1. These units were all part of the 1. SS Panzer Division “Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler”.
Monique van Caster continues: In order to be protected, the director had displayed a huge Red Cross flag next to the château. She removed it after the arrival of the big German tanks that encircled the château, out of fear that the Germans would use the flag to protect their tanks. At this time, the Americans still occupied the road along the Amblève, at 500 metres from us. They did not wait long with their reply. In Trois Ponts the Americans were aware of the children in the château, but they did not have any choice. They had to defend themselves. We came under full fire from the Americans. Very quickly the children were sent to the cellars. The first grenades exploded in the dining hall. The children ate in the cellars which they would not leave for 12 days. A first mean trick by the SS: To pour a kilo of salt into the soup! It became inedible. They were laughing maliceously as they watched the wry faces of the children. This really was the attitude of the SS: Hard and mean!
However, it should be noted that none of the children or teachers were ever harmed and all survived. After Christmas, the entire 1. SS Pz. Div. was transferred to the area southeast of Bastogne. The SS troops that had occupied the château were now relieved by Wehrmacht units, probably from Volksgrenadierregiment 293 or 294, which belonged to the 18. Volksgrenadier Division of the Wehrmacht. They were responsible for the evacuation by truck of the children and their teachers in the first days of January to the Château Orban de Xivry in
Farnières. After three days there, they were liberated by the Americans. Not long after that, the area of Petit Spay itself was liberated (by the 517th PIR ?).
A more complete article of the fights around the “Kinderheim”, which includes source references, can be found in Info CRIBA, volume 4 of 2013"

[Dean Perdue]

To each their own in believing in ghost and such.
I see a place rich in history and spectacular stonework.

[birdie]

Great pics

Too bad you didn't take pics inside...I would in an instant.

[ironcross13]

Too bad you didn't take pics inside...I would in an instant.

i wanted to i stepped inside but my wife did not want to come in and did not want me in there.
The place had a spooky odd feel to it isolated also was like the texas chainsaw massacre lol
i plan to visit when it snows so will go back then

[birdie]

So cool

i wanted to i stepped inside but my wife did not want to come in and did not want me in there.
The place had a spooky odd feel to it isolated also was like the texas chainsaw massacre lol
i plan to visit when it snows so will go back then

I'd be all over that place,, well with company, in the daytime

[ironcross13]

I'd be all over that place,, well with company, in the daytime

that's my plan leave the wife at home lol.
was very interesting watch the vid i posted shows it a lot more

[birdie]

Watched

that's my plan leave the wife at home lol.
was very interesting watch the vid i posted shows it a lot more

watched it,,very interesting.

[juoneen]

Some folks never have paranormal experiences, so you may not ever either, but just giving you a heads up that these things do exist. Like messing with Oiga boards portals can be breached , and like messing with exorcism if you are not trained...you can end up with problems.
Of course we collect dead people's stuff all the time...and there are stories of things brought in to your domain that can be problemental even if you don't believe in such things .
So let us know how you make out and hopefully you will never experience such things.

I'm sure some here have stories they could tell that is about unexplained phenomena ...as could I ...but when you feel you are being watched...most likely you are...and when you feel that don't go down in the basement feeling, it's likely you shouldn't....but even the city of Paris is built on a mass catacomb of bones...yet people flock romanticly to go there.

I hope you have no problems exploring there...what I wonder is why nobody has restored these places and live there now? You may want to ask around just out of curiosity. These are the inspirations for folks like Steven King to write stories about. Sorry I mentioned it....don't give it another thought. I look forward to your next visit and what you find there. I still think a metal detector would be nice to take along.

[Top Buzzer]

Yes

As a builder and developer these houses would make excellent restoration projects. The condition is not too bad.... I have developed worse. All houses have a history..... Even the ones you guys reading this will be living in right now. People dropping dead.... Suicides... Murder or death by illness..... I have bought old houses and once a child died in after falling on a fire..... Read it in an archival 100 year old newspaper. I once took a woman home and when myself and my wife dropped her off I asked if she knew the history of her house....The history was the family died 15 years previously caused by carbon monoxide from a faulty gas fire......

We have a programme on tv called "Grand Designs"..... People buy these projects all the time and turn them into brilliant holiday homes. If you want spooky houses I can show you loads. I once bought one from a family were the man was a schizophrenic and had committed suicide. Satanic drawings all over the walls along with crazy poems about death.... No one would buy it.... Now it's a lovely family home.
Those houses you have posted.... Imaging a nice garden.... Grow your own vegetables and put a hot tub in.... Amazing..... I want to buy that house!!!! Someone told me France has loads of these projects lying around.... Is this true?

I have visited places and once went to an old warehouse were lights flickered and things were thrown at you. I took other non believers there to witness it. They had the place looked at by spiritualists who blessed the place but it still continued. There was no reason for it.... Built in 1929 it was a library then a nightclub before it was bought as a place to fix and sell washing machines..... No bad history whatsoever but it had a poltergeist.... I hope ghost do not follow you home because I would go there and take photographs asking it to show itself and it would cause mayhem. I have a lot of spooky Militaria but have not witnessed anything in my own house yet. They say an object can cause the trouble. I have heard certain members say they have had funny going ons with items in their collections.... That would excite me.... Prove that its a "been there" item. I have bought and handled some battle damaged ground dug SS helmets from Russia. You can feel and smell the death on these items..... Anyone witnessed that? It's like a sixth sence....

As a confirmed non practicing catholic myself I do not think that makes any difference if you believe in spirits or not. Hitler was an anti Christ and the Vatican fully supported them during and after the war with the "rat line". Their wealth was never touch by the nazis. Jews and jehovas witnesses stood against them and suffered for it. There is plenty of things on YouTube and the Internet to back up what I'm saying and I have not even begun to mention the capers of the priests and nuns..... That's another story. Hence the reason all these Catholic Churches are closing and being turned into houses. Google "Stephen Fry and the Catholic Church". He explains it clearly and perfectly.

Someone probably lived in the house post war and vacated 20 years ago..... I doubt you walked into the Mary Celeste. You want to make it sound more spooky than it probably was. Not exactly something out the Evil Dead. I can show you an old cottage I recently bought that has been empty 20 years.... Looks the same. You want to believe because the place is empty and in the Forrest that it must be haunted and in doing so your mind will play tricks and you will start driving yourself mad.
If you go to a true haunted house it's not a scarey experience. Blood isn't running down walls or anything like the exorcist or Amityville. It's more intriguing. The dead do not hurt you.... Only the living can do that.

Mike