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Cell Number 11: Whispers in the Attic of the Norwegian Justice Museum in Trondheim

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Is Cell Number 11 in the former prison for the criminally insane haunted? The attic of the Norwegian Justice Museum in Trondheim, Norway has had many who come out, claiming so. 

High above Erling Skakkes gate in Trondheim in Norway, beneath the slanted roof of an old and imposing building, lies a place many claim they will never forget. The former criminal asylum, now known as the Norwegian Justice Museum, is steeped in legal history, human suffering, and quiet despair. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway

Among its many rooms, one small space has earned a reputation that continues to unsettle visitors long after they leave. This is Cell Number 11.

The Haunted House: Almshouse (“Det nye fattghuset”, built 1843, in front, to the right) and Norwegian National Museum of Justice (Norwegian: Justismuseet, built as prison in 1833) in Erling Skakkes gate Street in Trondheim, Norway exhibiting artifacts from the country’s penal justice and law enforcement history. The building was built as a prison in 1833. // Image Source

A Building That Never Truly Fell Silent

The structure once served as a criminal asylum, housing inmates deemed unfit for ordinary prisons. Over time, the building became associated with isolation, punishment, and psychological torment. Today, the halls are clean and curated, filled with exhibits and glass cases. Yet those who work there speak of another side, one that emerges after hours.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from haunted prisons

Footsteps have been heard echoing from the attic cell wing when no one is present. Low voices have been reported, murmuring just beyond the edge of hearing. The sounds are not constant, but when they come, they seem deliberate, as if someone is pacing the narrow corridors with purpose.

The Haunted Prison Cells: The Norwegian Justice Museum in Trondheim, formerly a criminal asylum, is known for its eerie stories and haunted reputation. Especially inside of Cell Number 11, there have been rumors of ghosts haunting it still. // Source

Among other things, a young journalist claimed to have heard footsteps coming towards him when he was voluntarily locked inside the museum.

Nearly every story leads back to the same place.

The Legend of Cell Number 11

Cell Number 11 is small, windowless, and oppressive. It is barely large enough to stand upright in comfort. Over the years, it has become the center of Trondheim’s most enduring ghost stories.

According to accounts once published in local newspapers, a clairvoyant woman claimed the cell is haunted by the spirit of a judge. This judge, she said, had wrongfully sentenced a young man to a long period of confinement in that very cell. The prisoner eventually took his own life there, driven to despair by isolation and injustice.

After the judge’s death, the spirit is said to have returned to the cell, bound to the place where his decision had destroyed another life. Whether out of guilt or obsession, the apparition is believed to linger, trapped in the space where tragedy unfolded.

Nights Spent in the Cell

In later years, a number of visitors chose to spend the night inside Cell Number 11. Some entered confidently, treating the experience as a test of nerves. Many emerged changed.

Several reported hearing footsteps moving just outside the cell door, slow and deliberate. Others described the sensation of not being alone, of sharing the darkness with an unseen presence. A few spoke of whispers, too indistinct to understand but close enough to feel intimate and threatening.

According to museum director Johan S. Helberg, not everyone who entered the cell left with their bravado intact. Fear has a way of settling in when the door closes and the light disappears.

A Museum That Welcomes Its Ghosts

The museum has a separate room dedicated to World War II. Kunt Sivertsen describes himself as a retired police officer and is currently an advisor at the museum. He was responsible for putting together this exhibition in the 1990s. According to him, there was stuff happening in this room as well that they didn’t have any explanation for:

– On several occasions, it has happened that you suddenly smell the scent of Brut aftershave in the middle of the room.

No official claim has ever been made that the museum is haunted. Still, the staff have never attempted to banish whatever may dwell within its walls. When a priest once offered to cleanse the building, the offer was politely declined.

The reasoning was simple. If spirits exist there, they are part of the building’s story.

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References:

Skremt fra vettet på celle nummer 11 – Trondheim

Spøkelsesjegere til seks steder – NRK Trøndelag – Lokale nyheter, TV og radio

Spøker det på Justismuseet i Trondheim? – nearadio.no

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Munkholmen: Trondheim’s Island of Chains, Prayers, and Restless Dead

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The little island Munkholmen outside of Trondheim in Norway has had many haunted rumors for a long time. From an old Viking execution place to a state prison, who is still lingering there in their afterlife?

Rising quietly from the waters of the Trondheim Fjord, Munkholmen appears peaceful by day. Tour boats glide past its rounded shores, seabirds cry overhead, and the island seems little more than a picturesque landmark. But beneath this calm surface lies one of Norway’s darkest historical sites, a place shaped by execution, imprisonment, and spiritual isolation. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway

For centuries, Munkholmen has carried a reputation as a haunted island where the past has never fully loosened its grip.

From Holy Ground to Place of Execution

Munkholmen’s troubled history began long before its stone walls were raised. In the early Middle Ages, the island served as a site of executions. Criminals and enemies of the crown were brought across the water and put to death, their bodies often left exposed as a warning to others on spikes. It is said that Olav Tryggvason had the heads of Earl Håkon and the slave Kark impaled here in the year 995.

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Later, a Benedictine monastery Nidarholm Mariakloster was established on the island, giving Munkholmen its name as the country’s oldest monastery. The monks came seeking solitude and devotion, but even prayer could not erase the island’s grim legacy. Fires repeatedly destroyed the monastery, and many believed the land itself was cursed, soaked in blood long before the first chapel stone was laid.

The Prison Island

Munkholmen’s darkest chapter began in the 17th century, when it was transformed into a state prison and fortress. Political prisoners and criminals. Some were kept in damp underground cells where daylight never reached. Others were chained in small stone chambers, listening to the waves crash endlessly against the walls.

One of the most infamous prisoners was Count Peder Schumacher Griffenfeld, once the most powerful man in Denmark-Norway. Under Christian V he became the king’s foremost advisor and by far the de facto ruler of Denmark-Norway.

Peder Griffenfeld:Peder Griffenfeld (1635–1699) (original name Peder Schumacher ) was a Danish count and statesman, who was Chancellor of the Crown from 1673. He spent 18 years on the island in solitude and is believed to be haunting it.

Griffenfeld failed in his efforts to prevent war, and in 1675 Denmark-Norway entered into armed conflict with Sweden, the Scanian War . Various negotiations surrounding the beginning of the war and his friendliness to the French contributed to his being accused of treason and lèse-majesté .

After falling from royal favor, he was imprisoned on Munkholmen for nearly two decades. He spent his time reading, teaching children and writing small religious writings. After this, he was moved to Trondheim city, where he lived under guard for the last time, and died the following year.

Victor Hugo published the novel The Prisoner on Munkholmen in 1831 about Griffenfeld’s time in prison. Visitors and guards later claimed that his spirit never left, pacing unseen corridors long after his death.

Many prisoners died on the island from disease, exposure, or despair. Their bodies were buried nearby or cast into the sea. Over time, stories spread of anguished voices heard at night, echoing from empty cells and sealed passageways.

Ghostly Sightings and Unexplained Phenomena

Reports of hauntings on Munkholmen date back hundreds of years. Guards once spoke of shadowy figures moving along the fortress walls after sunset, disappearing when approached. Others described the sound of chains dragging across stone, even though no prisoners remained.

Some report sudden drops in temperature inside the fortress, accompanied by an overwhelming feeling of dread. Doors have been heard slamming shut on calm days, and footsteps echo where no one stands.

The story was popularized once again when the papers started to publish a picture, claiming to show the ghost roaming the island in 2008. 

Source: Tommy Skog

Tommy Skog and his son were visiting the island and was taking pictures of the prison towers where an oval hole in the wall on the first floor caught his attention. When looking at the picture, he was certain he had taken a picture of the ghost of a man, sitting in the opening. 

An Island That Never Truly Sleeps

Today, Munkholmen is a popular destination in summer, but its darker reputation persists. Locals often say the island feels different once the last boat departs and silence returns. As dusk settles, the fortress seems to watch the fjord, its thick walls holding centuries of suffering within.

Whether haunted by monks, prisoners, or those executed long before history was written down, Munkholmen remains a place where the past feels uncomfortably close. The sea may surround it, but it has never truly washed the island clean. 

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References:

Ser du spøkelset? – adressa.no

Peder Griffenfeld

Munkholmen

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Ghost of the Cathedral — The Bloody Monk in Nidarosdomen

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From medieval times, history and bloody memories lingers in one of the only and longest standing cathedrals in Norway. This is the story of the Bloody Monk in Nidarosdomen and the haunting of the Cathedral.

Once upon a time in history, the Nidarosdomen in Norway was the most visited place for pilgrimage in Northern Europe and is situated in Trondheim in Norway. People came a long way to seek salvation, peace and God in that holy place. That was those days and today it is mostly a big tourist attraction as well as some of Norway’s most well known buildings.

Nidarosdomen in Trondheim: The Cathedral has been rebuilt many times and started as a wooden chapel and the cathedral was finished by the 1320s. This is Nidarosdomen from 1821 by Carl Johan Fahlcrantz. This was how the cathedral looked before its major restoration and additional towers and much more like how it would have looked in medieval times.

Perhaps far from it today, Norway was a country of Catholics in medieval times, having nearly rid itself with its pagan roots of the Vikings and Norse Mythology, much later than rest of Europe perhaps. It was a church, much more mysterious than the one today that built upon both the learned Catholic as well as the pagan viking traditions.

Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from Norway

Today the monasteries in Norway is from ancient times and most of them are turned to ruins, made to museums and stands as a memory of the power the catholic church once had of the country. Other cathedrals and churches from the time like Nidarosdomen were transformed to act as a house of God, even after the country became protestant.

The Haunted Cathedral in Trondheim

A place where the fantastical cathedrals continues its mission in a new suit is the Nidarosdomen, in the heart of Trondheim and one of the countries most precious religious buildings. But one can still hear the echoes of the past in the big halls and the memories of the monks still lingers in the walls.

Read More: check out our other ghost stories about ghost monks in Norway like The Ghost Monks at Lyseklosteret and The Haunted Natural History Museum in Bergen

Monks were men that gave up most of the earthly life to serve their lives in God’s service. They forsake the right to marry, have children and own properties in their name. The monks became anonymous, one of many and a part of an order with a strong hierarchy. They all dressed the same as their order, in robes to hide, to look the same. Even the face could be covered to not give away the identity. And at least on of these monks are said to still be wandering the halls of the cathedral in Trondheim.

The Bloody Monk: The Cathedral Nidarosdomen in Trondheim, Norway is said to be haunted by the ghost of The Bloody Monk. Tales of ghosts that looks like monks or nuns are often reported on appearing in old churches and even just the ruins of them, haunting after a great dishonor to their faith was done or perhaps they themselves couldn’t live the strict life of a monk without a sin?

Nidarosdomen is built over the burial site of King Olav II (c. 995–1030, reigned 1015–1028), who became the patron saint of the nation after his death as he was the one who really brought Christianity to the country, and is the traditional location for the consecration of new kings of Norway.

Over centuries the cathedral grew from a small chapel to one of the biggest churches in Norway. It has withstood fires, the reformation, the roof blowing off and if we are to believe the rumours, it has even managed to preserve one of the long residence ghosts.

The Bloody Monk in Nidarosdomen

The first encounter we have found on the monk haunting the Nidarosdomen, comes from the month of January in 1924. It is a cold day in the city of Trondheim and the stone walls do little to keep the cold winter outside from the Maria Chapel in Nidarosdomen. Still, the people flock to Sunday service, now turned to a protestant church.

Read More: Check out all our ghost stories about Haunted Monasteries and Churches from all over the world like The History and Legends of the Haunted Abbaye De Mortemer, Dracula and Ghost Nuns in Whitby Abbey and The Evil Bishop Against the Maiden in Love – The Ghost of Haapsalu Castle.

The congregation gathered together in the hall in prayer and song. Perhaps that is what brought the The Bloody Monk in Nidarosdomen forward this day? A hymn sung for centuries, a prayer heard this Sunday that acted as a summoning for ghosts? Was is the chanting voices from the whole congregation joined in the song as a choir? Something the monk recognized from the time he was alive?

People were gathering, chanting songs and prayers as the monk themselves once did, wandering with their incense? It’s hard to know exactly what with this particular sermon that brought him out. But since then, he has been a ghost observed many times in the cathedral and has been dubbed The Bloody Monk.

Holy Church: The Cathedral of Nidarosdomen is important for Norwegian christians as it is the resting place to one of the greatest saints in Norway, King Olav the Holy that died on the battlefield after bringing the religion to the country. After his death it was said his hair and nails continued to grow after death. Is it the holiness of the cathedral that keeps the ghosts haunting it, or is the place just built upon haunted ground already?

Marie Gleditch, wife of the bishop was the one that saw The Bloody Monk first. She claimed she saw a ghostly figure glide through the crowd gathered for service. She described him as a middle aged man with the monk robe hanging over him. This would not have been an unusual sight in medieval times, but in 1924, long after the monk orders had disbanded, this was not normal. Furthermore, Gleditch described the The Bloody Monk in Nidarosdomen to have glowing eyes when she got a better look. But perhaps more striking is that he had a bloody stripe across over his throat, almost as if it was cut right through, giving him his name.

The Ancient Chant of the Ghost Monk

What really happened to this ghost? Was he really beheaded as the bloody throat would suggest? Was he murdered in cold blood? Or perhaps executed for a crime? We will probably never now as details of who came and went to this place was too may to count and keep track of.

Since that time, the ghost of The Bloody Monk in Nidarosdomen with glowing eyes have created headlines several times in the country. It was for instance also seen by a bishop Alex Jonson who saw the figure in the cathedral in 1933. The Bloody Monk has perhaps become one of the more famous ghosts in Norway and people have visited the cathedral, just to try to get a glimpse of The Bloody Monk.

In 1966 a guy named Jon Medbøe forward with his story when he claimed to have encountered The Bloody Monk with his students when they had nightly walks in the cathedral and could hear something that sounded like footsteps dragging over the floor as well as a mysterious chant.

Medbøe who was a music historian and tried to pinpoint exactly what the music was like. He claimed the monk chanted a song, more specific, a choir song from the middle ages. A well known melody from the composer Perotinus from 1208. Was this perhaps the song that was played in 1924? Or something similar?

The Chanting Monk: This is one of Perotinus compositions and gives an idea of the type of chanting The Bloody Monk were doing. Perhaps this or something similar is the reason he is haunting the Cathedral?

Several have tried to come to the bottom of this mystery and after these modern sightings, it was written a lot about it it, even in German magazines. Who was this lonely monk, still wandering the halls, chanting old forgotten songs? How did he die? Even famous Norwegian, like horror writer Andre Bjerke tried to get into the cathedral to film it for a series of paranormal places he did, but he didn’t gain entrance. The church was not really forthcoming with information when it had anything to do with the Bloody Monk’s ghost. Medbøe was banned from his nightly trios into the cathedral after all the fuss it created.

Nidarosdomen tried for decades to cover the story of The Bloody Monk haunting Nidarosdomen up and shift its focus to it being an active church, not a common ghost house. So perhaps the Nidarosdomen still holds onto old traditions, more mystics and secrets we are not meant to know.

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References:

Nidaros Cathedral – Wikipedia

Munken i Nidarosdomen – Wikipedia