The Empty Coffin of Jan Lythberg, Visby

Sweden · Cemetery

The moody merchant was immensely rich — and when the coffin was lowered into the grave, birch wood, not a body, tumbled about inside.

In Visby a tale was told of the merchant Jan Lythberg, an immensely rich but peculiar man who swung between dazzling banquets and hermit-like isolation. When he died, many wondered about his wealth, and people held that he had been in league with the Evil One, who had flown off with the body before it could be buried. To conceal the matter at the stately funeral, no one was allowed to see the corpse, and into the coffin was placed instead birch wood, which tumbled about with an audible thud when the coffin was carelessly lowered into the grave.

More haunted places nearby

• Ghost Hotel Gasten (Liseberg) Västra Götaland · Amusement park
• The Dog That Leapt into the Grave, Locknevi Småland · Cemetery
• The Evil One in the Smithy, Malmbäck Småland · Haunted site
• The Strange Herdsman with Hooves, Knäred Halland · Site of legend
• The Protective Circle at Gammelstad Church Norrbotten · Church
• Sven the Fiddler and the Promised Girl, Mulseryd Småland · Site of legend
• The Evil One as a Servant, Västra Tunhem Västergötland · Site of legend
• The Money and the Bones in Halvard's Cottage at Dalby Värmland · Site of legend

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.