The Haunted Natural History Museum in Bergen

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.

There is not only one ghost story inside of the Natural History Museum in Bergen, Norway. From everything from the ghost of a former zoologist, cursed Egyptian statues and an executed revolutionary, the museum has it all. — **Night at the Museum:** The museum is known for having things that looks a bit unnatural outside of its contexts and for some it can get a little scary, especially when the lights are out and the ghosts are out. One of the alleged ghosts is a former worker that donated his skeleton to the museum after he died. Here is from The Whale Hall: Natural History Museum in Bergen.//Source: Adnan Icagic © Universitetsmuseet i Bergen

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.

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.

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.

Read Also: More haunted stories from Egypt like: Khonsuemheb and the Ghost of Theban Necropolis

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.