Queen Silvia says it is exciting to share Drottningholm Palace, built on an island in Stockholm in the 1600s, with spirits 
 
 Queen Silvia of Sweden believes the royal palace where she resides is haunted. 
 
 
 
 “There are small friends... ghosts. They’re all very friendly but you sometimes feel that you’re not completely alone,” Queen Silvia says in a documentary by pSVT. 
 
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 “It’s really exciting. But you don’t get scared,” she adds. 
 
 Drottningholm Palace, which is on the Unesco world heritage list, was built in the 1600s on Lovon island in Stockholm. 
 
 It is the permanent residence of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, the 73-year-old daughter of a German businessman and a Brazilian woman. They were married 40 years ago, which makes her Sweden’s longest-serving queen. 
 
 Princess Christina, the king’s sister, backs the claims of the Drottningholm phantoms. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Drottningholm Palace. Photograph: Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images 
 
 “There is much energy in this house. It would be strange if it didn’t take the form of guises,” Christina was quoted as saying the documentary. 
 
 “There’s stories about ghosts in all old houses. They have been filled with people over the centuries,” she adds. “The energies remain.” 
 
 • This article was amended on 4 January 2017. An earlier version described Princess Christina as the queen’s sister; she is sister to the king. ||||| Stockholm’s UNESCO-listed Royal Palace is haunted by a host of friendly spooks. 
 
 That’s according to Queen Silvia of Sweden, who lives there with her husband King Carl XVI Gustaf, Agence France-Presse reports. 
 
 “There are small friends … ghosts. They’re all very friendly but you sometimes feel that you’re not completely alone,” Queen Silvia, 73, reportedly said in a documentary to be aired on Thursday by SVT, Sweden’s national broadcaster. “It’s really exciting. But you don’t get scared,” she adds. 
 
 Drottningholm Palace on Stockholm’s Lovon Island, which was built in the 1600s, has long been rumored to house ghosts. Its spectral inhabitants purportedly include a “gray man” and a “white lady,” according to this 2010 column in Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet (in Swedish). 
 
 Sweden’s longest serving Queen is not the only royal to report a paranormal presence. 
 
 “There is much energy in this house. It would be strange if it didn’t take the form of guises,” Princess Christina, the King’s sister reportedly says in the documentary. “There’s stories about ghosts in all old houses. They have been filled with people over the centuries. The energies remain.” 
 
 [AFP] ||||| First built in the 1600s, the palace on Lovön island in the Swedish capital is on Unesco’s World Heritage list, and the King and Queen of Sweden still live there. But not alone, according to Queen Silvia. 
 
 “There’s a lot of history here. There are also little friends… the ghosts. They’re all very friendly, but you sometimes feel like you aren’t alone. Come and feel it for yourself, go around here when it is dark and the like. It’s very exciting,” Queen Silvia told a new SVT documentary about the building. 
 
 Spending decades in old buildings apparently toughens a person up, as the Queen claims she isn't in the least bit scared of her co-inhabitants from the afterlife, who she says she has personally been in the presence of. 
 
 “You don’t get scared, it’s as friendly as there is. Imagine what they could tell?” the 73-year-old noted. 
 
 READ ALSO: Five spooky spots in haunted Sweden 
 
 Other Swedish royals share her suspicions. King Carl XVI Gustaf’s sister, Princess Christina, also believes that the palace is haunted. 
 
 “Of course it is. There are ghosts in all old houses. Definitely. There’s a lot of energy in that house and it would be strange if it didn’t express itself in the form of sounds and shapes. In all old houses there are stories of ghosts,” she said in the same programme. 
 
 Brave amateur ghost hunters can attempt to meet the palace’s mysterious otherworldly visitors for themselves: Drottningholm Palace is open to the public year round, with the exception of the rooms in the southern wing, which are reserved for the royals. And their spooky friends, presumably. ||||| The Swedish royal family is no doubt glamorous, and so is the crime that left them—and their subjects—short two priceless historical crowns and a royal orb. On July 30, in broad daylight, two thieves jumped into a speedboat moored below the Strängnäs Cathedral in southeastern Sweden and escaped with these 17th-century accessories. 
 
 “One of my friends saw two people running,” says Tom Rowsell, who called police after witnessing the escape, reports the Daily Mail. “I saw the boat just there, a white little boat with a motor on the back. The two men hurriedly jumped on board. I knew immediately they were burglars because of the way they were behaving..the fact that the boat was waiting, it was obvious to me that they were burglars.” 
 
 Swedish police press release/with permission The stolen items. 
 
 Police pursued the perpetrators by land, sea, and air—in boats, planes, helicopters, and cars heading in all directions—to no avail. Authorities say they still have no notion where the thieves disappeared to. “It’s 1-0 to them right now,” police spokesman Thomas Agnevik told reporters. “By boat you can reach Mälaren, Köping or Arboga in the west, or Västerås, Eskilstuna or Stockholm if you drive east.” He said the search continues. 
 
 Authorities seek observations from any witnesses willing to come forward. “Let the police determine what is interesting information,” advises a press release (in Swedish). They have not put a price on the centuries-old crown jewels. 
 
 One of the missing crowns belonged to Karl IX, who reigned from 1604-1611, and the other to his wife, Kristina. The royals were buried with the headgear, which was later exhumed and put on public display. 
 
 The stolen items had been locked in glass boxes and were on view to the public when the audacious heist occurred in the open church, where staff were working. No one was physically injured during the crime, though the pride of the royals and people was perhaps slightly bruised. “This is part of the national cultural heritage—this is a theft from Swedish society,” Christofer Lundgren, dean of the cathedral, told reporters. 
 
 As mastermind heists go, though, there’s a key missing piece even if the thieves continue to elude police. A great getaway is exciting but the criminals have to offload their loot to make the crime worth the time and risk—anyone who’s seen a heist movie knows this. But that seems difficult to do with the Swedish royal family’s crown jewels.
– The home of the Swedish royal family is apparently spook central. But Queen Silvia says not to worry, the "small friends … ghosts" that haunt the 17th-century halls of Drottningholm Palace mean no harm and don't scare her, reports the AFP. "They’re all very friendly but you sometimes feel that you're not completely alone," the 73-year-old queen says in a new documentary by the country's public TV network SVT. Located on Lovon Island off Stockholm, Drottingholm is the principal home of Queen Silvia, Sweden's longest-serving queen, and King Carl XVI Gustaf, her husband of 40 years. Its UNESCO World Heritage listing describes it as "the finest example of an 18th-century north European royal residence inspired by the Palace of Versailles." While the queen doesn't get into specifics about individual spirits, Time cites a 2010 Swedish article that references a "gray man" and a "white lady" said to roam there. As for backup, the king's sister, Princess Christina, agrees the castle is indeed a phantom favorite. "There is much energy in this house. It would be strange if it didn’t take the form of guises," she tells the filmmakers. The Local reports that those who want to seek out the paranormal interlopers can indeed do so: Only the southern wing is off-limits to the public. (This "haunted" photo went viral in April.)