A gathering place for the elite class in Norway, Losby Manor house in the countryside outside of Oslo housed kings and queens. It is also said that some of its residents are haunting the place, especially the ghost of The Lady of Losby, who dedicated her life to her home.
At the edge of deep forest and rolling fields stands Losby Gods, a manor wrapped in quiet elegance right outside of Oslo. Long ago, the estate was used as a hunting lodge by the powerful timber barons from the capital. Losby Gods was built around 1850, but a sawmill was already operating on the three farms that make up the estate in the 16th century. King Haakon enjoyed himself very much here and his bed still stands on the estate, a bed that is much longer than other beds, simply because King Haakon was nearly two meters tall.
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Norway
By day it is a refined hotel surrounded by nature and Losby woods, where the legend claims the ancestral father of the jotne, Hyme lived. By night, when the halls grow still and the chandeliers dim, someone is said to continue her rounds.
The Manager of the Estate on the Eastern Wing
One of the ghosts said to haunt the estate comes from the end of the 1800s before the Lady of the Manor moved in. This was during the time Andreas Lumholtz owned it as he inherited it in 1797 and it went bankrupt. In 1829, Lumholtz had financial problems and sold the estate by auction to Jacob Peter Meyer and Isak Muus. The manager of the estate is said to have hanged himself in his room by the bed pole in the east wing.
The room right by Andreas Lumholtz meeting room is today called The Blue Room and it is said to always have a chill running through it and is haunted by the manager. Right below the east wing was the carriage road and the horses coming back and forth to the sawmill nearby was said to always be spooked riding past the estate, sometimes refusing to pass it.
A life bound to the estate
Kathrine Boeck was inseparable from Losby Gods and managed it through its golden area, as she was widowed and through the war. Lorentz Meyer Boech who took over the farm in 1893 with his wife Kathrine. She died in 1958 and was called “The Lady on the Manor”.
For almost seven decades she oversaw life at the estate with precision, dignity, and a firm sense of order. Most of the interior and style of the manor house have come from her. Nothing escaped her notice. Rooms were to be kept proper. Guests were to be treated well. The manor was to reflect respect and continuity.
When the estate was at its peak of entertainment from the upper class of the capital, she used to host parties and would ask her maids, “who was the prettiest woman there?”, expecting them all to answer that she was. She kept a strict diet and was said to be close to sickly thin. Kathrine lived a long life and died in 1958 at the age of eighty nine. For many, such devotion would end with death. At Losby, it did not.
Employees and guests alike have shared stories that sound remarkably similar that are attributed to her lingering ghost. Objects moved slightly from where they were left. Curtains adjusted. Lights turned off in rooms believed to be empty. The changes are subtle, never destructive, but unmistakably deliberate.
Some staff members report the feeling of being observed while working late and sometimes the scent of vanilla lingers in the room, her signature perfume from France.
The Miserable Maid
One of the last ghosts said to haunt the estate is the sorrowful maid. The help stayed at the west wing. Today it’s where the meeting rooms Pikeværelse and Tosten Arnesøn are. The stairs up to the Haakonsuit were the servant stairs as they were forbidden to use the main one.
When alive at the start of the 1900s, she fell in love with one of the guests at Boecks. When landowner Lorentz Meyer Boeck ran Losby Gods with his wife from 1893-1936, the estate was known as a hospitable party house and cheerful meeting point for the capital’s most wealthy citizens.
They had an affair, but when they were discovered, she was fired and he was banned from the house, as the upper class didn’t want to see a relationship between the two classes.
In despair she took her own life in the room he used to stay in in the east wing. She is said to haunt the reflection of the windows there, showing her own reflection rather than your own.
An estate that remains cared for
Losby Gods continues to thrive as a hotel and cultural site, surrounded by the same landscape Kathrine once walked. The rooms are elegant. The food is a mix between French and Norwegian cuisine it became known for.
But a faint scent of vanilla perfume, or an unknown face looking back at you in the windows marks that some people never leave completely.
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2018-04-23 — Søndre Aker Historielag