DROTTNINGHOLM PALACE. PHOTO: GOMER SWAHN/ROYAL COURT, SWEDEN

Drottningholm Palace in Sweden is said to be haunted by friendly ghosts. Queen Silvia revealed a few years ago that the Swedish Royal Family’s residence was haunted by spirits.

The Queen was talking in a documentary on Swedish public television “Drottningholm Palace: A Royal Home” and said that she and her husband live alongside “small friends … ghosts.”

She added that they were not to be afraid of: “It’s really exciting. But you don’t get scared.”

Queen Silvia revealed: “They’re all very friendly, but you sometimes feel that you’re not completely alone.”

Her sister-in-law, Princess Christina, backed up her claims remarking: “There is much energy in this house. It would be strange if it didn’t take the form of guises. There are stories about ghosts in all old houses. They have been filled with people over the centuries. The energies remain.”

Military guards who have stayed at the palace have also reported rooms going very cold in the middle of a hot summer night and closet doors that open and close by themselves.

Not only is the family’s private residence reportedly haunted but also their working palace. Stockholm Palace is said to be haunted by a White Lady and Gray Man. The Gray Man – who is small and wears an old fashion coat with a hood – has appeared to all kings except for King Carl XVI Gustaf.

The White Lady, however, has been felt by the reigning monarch. Legend has it that she appears once someone has died in the palace and wears a white silk dress with a lace collar. The ghost is rumoured to be Agnes of Orlamünde who lived in the 14th-century.

The King said about his encounter with the spirit: “That was when my grandfather had died, Gustav VI Adolf. My sister Christina and I had had dinner and were on our way back to my private apartment in the palace. We passed through the Bernadotte Gallery. We had an adjutant with us, an experienced officer.”

The officer went into a trance on their way back to the King’s room, and he later admitted to the King that he’d seen the ghost. “Personally, I have not seen the White Lady, but I have, like so many others here in the palace, felt strange things,” Carl Gustaf explained to Aftonbladet.

Queen Silvia also heard spooky thumps one evening while waiting for her and the King’s eldest child, Crown Princess Victoria and the guards were sent to check it out.