The Rosenkrantz Tower in Bergen Norway is one of the oldest buildings still standing and was once the house for kings. Today it is used as a museum and perhaps they also have some of the oldest ghosts still lingering in the dungeon.
On the old dock in Bergen city you mostly find old buildings dating all the way back to the middle ages when Bergen was the capital in Norway throughout the city’s time as a Hanseatic trading city. Today the fortress the Rosenkrantz Tower is a part of a museum and is considered one of the most important renaissance monuments in Norway.
One of the old buildings is Rosenkrantz Tower, which still is one of the taller buildings in the city and was once known as “The Castle by the Sea” as it used to be a residence for kings when Bergen was the capital in Norway.
The Kings Tower
Rosenkrantz Tower was originally built for the king Magnus Lawmender in 1270 and a lot of the original building can still be seen today. King Magnus Lawmender got his nickname after working extensively on the laws in his country, and much of today’s Norwegian constitution comes from his work.
After the capital in Norway was moved to Oslo and Norway became a part of the Danish kingdom, the keep the tower is part of lost its importance as a royal seat, but was still used as a military keep.
Although the cannons in Rosenkrantz Tower have only been fired one day during war in 1665, the tower has seen its fair share of war. In 1944 during world war two the Rosenkrantz Tower was heavily damaged when a cargo ship with explosives exploded right outside. The upper floors collapsed, but the foundations of the tower still remained, like the dungeon in the tower. And deep down in the darkness of the dungeon in the tower, some former prisoners are said to still linger.
The Haunted Dungeon
The dungeon in Rosenkrantz Tower was added on to the tower around 1500 and the final tower as we see it today was finalized in the 1560s by Erik Rosenkrantz who was a governor of Bergen Castle during a time when Norway was under Danish reign. He was at the time one of the wealthiest men in Denmark-Norway and work on the tower was done by Scottish builders, explaining the Scottish look from the time.
The
The dungeon served as a prison where they kept the prisoners who were considered to be very violent and often some of the poorest. These are the prisoners that are rumored to be still haunting the dungeon.
An architect named Peter Blix reported in 1884 that old people living at the time still remembered the last prisoner in the cell in Rosenkrantz Tower. So perhaps the dungeon was used in the early 19th century?
You can walk inside of the tower and follow the hollowed and wobbly stairs down to the basement where you can barely stand up straight. The cells are small and the only light is from the cracks in the walls. Still to this day you can see claw marks from the prisoners that were confined into the dark small cells when it was used from the 16th to the 19th century.
The irony of it all is that so many of the prisoners were convicted by the laws that the original builder, King Magnus Lawmender, made during his reign just a couple of floors above the dungeon they are forever kept.
In the ruins of Lyse Abbey there are rumors about the ghost monks haunting the ruins as well as a white lady roaming the roads around it.
Lyse Abbey or Lyseklosteret is a former cistercian monastery that was built in Os, right outside of Bergen in Norway. There are only ruins of it today, as many of the monasteries were destroyed during the reformation from catholicism to protestantism in 1536.
In 1578 stones were removed from the monastery and shipped to Denmark and used in Kronborg Castle, as Norway at the time was a colony in Denmark. The stones were also used to build the Rosenkrantz tower in Bergen.
Ghost Monks
The monastery called Coenobium Vallis Lucidae ( The Monastery in the Valley of Light) in Latin and named after the fjord, Lysefjorden (The Light Fjord) was founded by English monks in From Fountain Abbey in North Yorkshire 1146 and the building was built over the next hundreds of years. They also brought fruits like apples to Hardanger, a place now renowned for its tasty apples.
Lyse Abbey: The ruins of the old monastary is said to be haunted by ghost monks// source
It is said that the monks that first built the monastery never left and haunts the location even to this day. Many have reported about seeing cloaked silhouettes walking about as if they are working on the building.
There have also been heard moans from the ruins of the once great monastery, especially on foggy nights, making people believe that the old ruins are haunted by Ghost Monks.
The ghost monks are however not the only ones that are rumored to haunt the place. Apparently there are stories about a “white lady” that walks around in the ruins of the monastery at night time and in the evening. According to legend there was a terrible accident involving a tractor in 1960 when she was bicycling along the road nearby and a tractor ran her over.
It is unclear if it actually was an accident since it was her neighbor driving the tractor. Anyway, since then, there have been multiple reports about a woman in white around the weeks leading up to Christmas, often described as a white morning robe, wandering restless around the monastery, just looking straight ahead.
At Den Nationale Scene theater in Bergen there is a ghost named Octavia that haunts the place. She is said to be a helping ghost, taking care of the staff and helping the actors remember their lines.
There is a rule somewhere that every theatre needs a ghost, even if the building is new or old. In Bergen in Norway, they have Octavia at the oldest theater in Norway, Den Nationale Scene, in the beautiful art-nouveau building that opened in 1909. But as house ghosts go, she’s not so bad to have hanging around as she is said to be very friendly.
Octavia Sperati
In the early and living days she was one of the actresses at the theater named Octavia Sperati that lived a long life as a working actress as her children did after her as well. She was born as Salmine Svendsen in Kristiansand, south in Norway, but took her middle name and married as Octavia Sperati which became her stage name as well.
Octavia Sperati was an actress who died in March 1918 in Bergen and had worked for many years at the theater in the city, dedicating her life to it and according to popular belief, she is still hanging out in the theatre, long after her death.
She is remembered for her characters of the famous playwrights like Holberg and Ibsen where she played the character of Gina Ekdal in the first production of the play The Wild Duck and one of Ibsen’s most famous plays.
Haunting at Den Nationale Scene
One of Octavia Speratis portraits still hangs in the lobby at Den Nationale Scene and is one of the things that are said to be haunted. The portrait has survived most things like multiple bombings during the second world war and fires that broke out in the theatre.
In a fire in 1983, her portrait was one of the only things intact after a fire at Den Nationale Scene. A man named Jørgen Fogge who worked there claimed to have heard her voice calling out in the flames.
There have been several sightings of her over the years, most of them claiming she is in a white dress, flying around in the corridors or sitting in her kept seat in the front, watching the plays. Someone claims to have seen her with a hat, parasol and a pink ball gown in the attic.
Before seeing her, you can hear her knocking, or her footsteps through the corridors. In some cases it is said that paintings are falling off the wall, or even the sound of her voice can be heard when the theater is quiet.
The Helpful Ghost
Although a paranormal specter, the staff, actors and audience are not particularly afraid of her, and she is rather a dearly beloved ghost. She is said to be a helpful ghost, and her only goal is to take care of the building and the staff working there as she once did.
She is particularly known for helping the actors to remember the lines and if they are stuck on them on stage, she will suddenly appear to help them.
There is not only one ghost story inside of the Natural History Museum in in the cobbled streets of Bergen in Norway. From everything from the ghost of a former zoologist, cursed Egyptian statues and an executed revolutionary, the museum has it all to see at the price of an entrance ticket.
The Natural History Museum in Bergen, west in Norway, was built at the end of the 1800s at Nygårdshøyden close to the city center in the cobbled streets were it only seems to go uphill. On top of it all, close to the Dragon Top, you find the place that has been operating as a museum since it opened and has several famous collections from all over the world. And some of the artifacts are said to be of the haunted kind.
There have been reports about several strange and disturbing things occuring at the Natural History Museum in Bergen, especially at night time when there is no one around for many years, even from before the museum was built. Several people working as staff claimed to have heard footsteps and seen strange shadows and the exhibitions seems to have a will of its own and moves around when the lights are off and the living has gone home.
The Resting Zoologist Haunting the Museum
The ones that have looked into the supposed hauntings have usually attributed it to a former zoology worker working at the Natural History Museum in Bergen named James Alexanderssøn Grieg. After he donated his skeleton to the museum after his death, strange things started happening. The people working there have a theory about him needing a place to rest as he was known for working long nights at the museum and frequently sleeping there as well.
But there can be someone older that has taken the steps inside the museum as well. Because, even though the museum itself only opened in the 1800s, the location it is built upon has a much longer history.
Rakkerdammen or the Swamp of the Executed
Outside in the garden belonging to the Natural History Museum in Bergen, there is a small pond known as the Rakkerdammen with only a couple of water lilies to show for its once grandeur. It was here long before the building was made and perhaps it will stay there long after, although it is much smaller now than it used to be.
Rakkerdammen used to be a swamp that were much larger and it was also the place where they executed people. Rakke means executioner and Dammen means The Pond. Many convicts met their unfortunate end at this place.
A long time ago, children were warned to not go near the swamp as they were told that the ghost of the executed people would drag them into it. According to the legends, there are some of the executed that are still haunting the place. Perhaps the children are not warned to go close to the pond today, and the warnings have been forgotten.
Rakkerdammen in the Botanical Garden: Outside of the Natural History Museum in Bergen you will find a small pound thought to be haunted by the people that died there when it was used as a place for executions: //Source//May Lis Ruus 29.05.2013
The last execution at Rakkerdammen took place in 1803 when Anders Lysne from Lærdal led a farmers’ revolt against the forced military service. For this he was beheaded at this place.
Along with former workers at the museum and revolutionaries, there are also reports about the ghost of a monk haunting the church exhibition area. Who this monk is suppose to be or from were he originated from is uncertain, but the story goes that he shows himself in the darkest of nights.
The Haunted Egyptian Statues that Moves
Perhaps the strangest thing happening at the Natural History Museum in Bergen is the moving statues that are believed to be the most haunted, and the little statues even made the national news because the staff working in the museum was so freaked out by them.
Inside the Natural History Museum in Bergen they have a huge collection of Egyptian artifacts they started collecting as soon as the museum opened. Some of them are 3000 year old statues that are concealed inside a glass case that is the location of the haunting.
Restless Statues in the Museum: The ushabti or shabti was a funerary figurine used in ancient Egyptian funerary practices. Ushabtis were placed in tombs among the grave goods and were intended to act as servants or minions for the deceased, should they be called upon to do manual labor in the afterlife. The figurines frequently carried a hoe on their shoulder and a basket on their backs, implying they were intended to farm for the deceased. They were usually written on by the use of hieroglyphs typically found on the legs. They carried inscriptions asserting their readiness to answer the gods’ summons to work. Source// The NRK article of the Shabti at The Natural History Museum in Bergen
The Natural History Museum in Bergen opened the exhibition in 2001 and the staff noticed soon after opening that something strange was happening with the statues. When the guard at the museum came to work, he kept noticing strange things happening. Allegedly they turn and move around inside the glass, but the staff have no idea how it is happening.
The glass the statues is locked and no one have been close to the statues at all except the staff working there. Still, they kept moving, bit by bit until it became so noticable the staff couldn’t ignore it any longer. One of the statues has moved over five centimeters and turned towards the door. Three of the total seven statues are about to turn.
The staff at the Natural History Museum in Bergen tried to speculate how this can be explained by something else than the supernatural.
Maybe there are vibrations in the floor, but why is it just on this floor and in this glass case they move? asked Saure, one of the staff. Perhaps someone was pulling a prank, but they knew everyone that had access to them. And when you know the history of the little statues, you know they have a rumor of being haunted.
The Runaway Shabtis at the Natural History Museum in Bergen
The statues in question are shabtis , or death helpers and had, according to legend, magic powers. They were put in the coffins together with the mummies with the idea that they would work for the dead one in the coffin when they reached the death realm. Rich people had maybe over 300 shabtis statues buried with them, while poor people had maybe one or two, if any.
But what exactly are they? Many believe that the Egyptians used these statues to entrap souls of servants or family to make them more manageable to travel with them to the afterlife. That is why the shabtis is thought in many ways to carry the souls of servants of the rich.
The shabtis statues were brought up from the basement of the Natural History Museum in Bergen where they had been gathering dust for over 100 years.
But it isn’t just the shabtier statues that are restless inside their glass cases. There is also a female God figure in wood that appears to have turned 180 degrees and facing towards the wall in the case. Specks of dust show she has moved many centimeters already, although other figures in the same glass case have not moved at all. Is this also a case of vibration of the class cage solely?
The Natural History Museum in Bergen is not the only place where the shabtis statues have exhibited strange things when left alone. Hans Frode Storaas, responsible for the Egyptian collection at the Natural History Museum in Bergen, said he was contacted by many having experienced the same.
People from all over the world contacted him about similar experiences with the shabtis. And several merchants in Egypt wouldn’t have them exhibited in their shop because of strange things happening. He told this to the NRK broadcast site in 2012.
So if you have a look at the Egyptian collection of the museum, don’t only look at the huge statues, mummies and coffins in the collection. Have a look at the smaller ones instead and see if there is a trail of dust that shouldn’t be there.
The Medieval buildings on the old harbour in Bergen, there is a restaurant that has continued with the old tradition. And on Bryggen Tracteursted, it is said that a ghost still lingers.
Behind Bryggen in Bergen, Norway there are small restaurants and shops in the old Hanseatic wooden buildings that are an old fusion of German and Norwegian culture. Bryggen Tracteursted was one of the schøtstuene or an assembly room that people gathered to eat, originally built way back in 1708.
Today Bryggen Tracteursted is a fancy restaurant serving traditional food in the UNESCO world heritage place as it has done since medieval times when the schøtstuene started to be a thing. But although the restaurant has been modernized, there are still some ghosts from the past still clinging to the old buildings.
The Ghost in the Kitchen
Of course this old building filled with history is allegedly haunted, and many of the guests as well as the staff working at Bryggen Tracteursted have a story or two to tell.
A chef was working one night while he played some music to keep him going. Suddenly, all the pans on the shelves came flying up. As the chef was all alone in the kitchen, he was sure that there had to be something supernatural afoot.
Why was this particular place haunted? According to the legends, it is by one of the former apprentices that worked there that died. They had a rather peculiar hazing ritual for the newcomers.
The Hazed Apprentice
On Bryggen in the 1700s they had a particular punishment towards the apprentices that misbehaved or did something wrong. They gathered a lot of trash and lit a pyre in the outhouse with a fireplace where they processed food. The apprentice was placed over the fire and had to hang there for half a day. If you lived you were considered to be a true hanseater and forgiven.
Unfortunately not everyone survived the trials and it is said that more than one of the apprentices diede and are now haunting the place. Because the place they were hazed today is located where the kitchen of the Bryggen Tracteursted restaurant now is.
Before it was renovated, the staff working at Radisson Blu Hotel in Bergen kept seeing the same ghostly guest over and over that never checked out.
The Radisson Blu Hotel is built all the way on Bryggen in Bergen and is some of the oldest parts of the city. And although the way it looks now seems modern enough, some old things are maybe still lingering.
Before they did some major renovations at the Radisson Blu some years ago, the staff that worked at the hotel kept noticing strange things on the second floor close to the nightclub located inside the hotel.
According to them, the staff kept seeing the same guest over and over again around the hotel but when they looked further into it, strange things about this man were revealed. Turns out, no one had checked him in, but then again, no one had checked him out either.
The Ghost on the Dancefloor
In the mornings the staff would bump into him in the hallways, especially around the second floor. The man would look like he was ready to party and he would be holding a glass of beer. Other stories from the staff was that they kept finding the glass lying around even if they were certain they had cleaned everything the day before.
There were also stories about something making the revolving door into the kitchen move without there being someone entering. The ones working there blamed the supposedly eternal guest from the dancefloor.
The employees at the Radisson Blu Hotel felt so uneasy and they kept reporting about a shadow that followed them through the corridors or seeing someone on the dancefloor, long after closing.
The Haunted Elevator
It was especially in the elevator that they noticed strange things that seemed out of place. To use it you had to have a special code and was reserved for staff use. But it started to stop at the second floor, close by the nightclub constantly. When the door opened, there was no one there, and the hallway was dark.
So who could the ghost that never left the hotel? Some unfortunate soul that ended his days on the dancefloor, or perhaps just a man that roamed around the hotel without a room?
An online magazine about the paranormal, haunted and macabre. We collect the ghost stories from all around the world as well as review horror and gothic media.
