Of all the city's buildings, none has as many ghost stories as this fortress of 1679. That is hardly surprising: for a century and a half it was barracks, court and prison, and within these walls there were trials, torture and executions.

1The governor's curse

This much is documented: Pieter Gysbert Noodt was governor of the Cape from 1727 to 1729 and had a reputation as a harsh, unpleasant man. Under his rule several soldiers who had tried to desert were sentenced to death. Noodt died suddenly in April 1729, sitting in his chair, and many in the town saw it as divine punishment.

Tradition supplies the rest. It is said that one of the condemned men cursed him from the gallows and summoned him to answer before God, and that same afternoon the governor was found dead, a look of surprise on his face. Ever since, the legend goes, he can be heard cursing in the corridors.

Noodt's sudden death is documented; the curse and his night-time ravings belong to the Castle's legend.

2Other shadows

Guards and guides tell more tales: a very tall figure leaning out between the Leerdam and Oranje bastions, a black dog that leaps at visitors and vanishes, and the bell over the entrance, said to have rung on its own after a soldier hanged himself with its rope. None rests on anything more than oral tradition, but they are part of the life of the place. What is certainly real is the Donker Gat, the ‘Dark Hole’, a cell without light where prisoners were locked up.

3What to look for

  • The bell tower above the gate, the setting of the bell story.
  • The angled bastions, where the tall figure is said to walk.
  • The moat: at dusk the fortress's outline is reflected in the water.
The De Kat Balcony in the inner courtyard of the Castle of Good Hope
The De Kat Balcony, from which proclamations were read. It is in the inner courtyard.

Documented

Pieter Gysbert Noodt, governor from 1727 to 1729, died suddenly in April 1729 amid the dispute over the sentencing of some deserting soldiers; the Donker Gat was a real cell in the Castle.

Oral tradition

The curse from the gallows, the governor's ghost, the tall figure, the black dog and the bell that rings by itself belong to the Castle's oral tradition.

Sources and credits

Castle of Good Hope (official website, ‘Discover Castle's ghostly past’); Eric Rosenthal, ‘Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa’ (entry on Noodt); Eric Rosenthal, ‘300 Years of the Castle at Cape Town’ (1966).

Photos:

  • Entrance gate of the Castle of Good Hope with its bell tower: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • The De Kat Balcony in the inner courtyard of the Castle of Good Hope: Martinvl, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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