Uncovering the history of vampirism in Serbia
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Pera Blagojević, Sava Savanović, and Arnaut Pavle are the most famous Serbian vampires. However, it is little known that the first case of vampirism in Serbia, which is also the bloodiest in terms of the number of victims, was recorded in Kragujevac.
The names of the vampires from Kragujevac were not recorded, nor were their occupations or ages. This is likely the reason why they have been “forgotten”.
In April 1725, Staniša Marković Mlatišuma, the ober captain of Kragujevac and commander of the Austrian national militia, reported to the Belgrade command a case that had disturbed the town near the Lepenica River.
He reported to the Belgrade command that two vampires, one of whom had been dead for 72 days and the other for 54 days, had killed as many as 42 people. The document testifying to this case was uncovered by historian Ivan Nešić from Trstenik for the Serbian public, while Professor Alvaro García Marín from the University of Malaga revealed it to the international community.
Several years ago, Nešić contacted a researcher of mythological phenomena from Spain, who drew his attention to an almanack printed in Basel in 1791. This Basel almanack from the late 18th century reprinted a document that could be translated as “Appendix on a Superstition Case from Serbia”.
300 soldiers were securing the exhumation
According to that document dated April 1725 and reprinted in the Basel almanack 66 years later (1791), the Belgrade command sent a doctor to Kragujevac. In the presence of a large number of local residents, they exhumed the graves of the Kragujevac vampires.
In that almanack, it is stated that the exhumation was secured by as many as 300 soldiers, equivalent to two companies of the Austrian army.
Nešić explains this large number of soldiers not only by the fear among the local population but also by the presence of Charles Alexander, Duke of Württemberg, who at the time was the regent governing the Kingdom of Serbia from 1720 to 1733.
– Given that he was an important figure, the large number of soldiers is understandable; they were not only there to secure the exhumation but also to protect the duke,” explained Nešić to the Pressek portal.
The document also states that after the exhumation, witnesses “confirmed that they were dealing with vampires,” as the bodies of the deceased were well-preserved.
| Vampires in Mythology A vampire is a mythological creature from Slavic mythology, particularly in the Balkans, which survives by feeding on the life energy (often in the form of blood) of living beings, whether the vampire is a deceased or living entity. A vampire was believed to be the spirit of a deceased person or a corpse animated by an evil spirit or devil. Although vampire stories are recorded in many cultures, perhaps even since prehistory, the term ‘vampire’ did not become common until the early 18th century, following the influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from regions where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe, although they are also known by different names in local variants. Many believe that Article 20 of the Dušan’s Code refers to vampires: That article of the Law reads: Regarding sorcerers who burn the bodies of the dead: And people who use witchcraft to take from graves and burn them, the village that does this must pay a fine, and if a priest is involved, he should be stripped of his priesthood. |
When the first grave of the deceased, who had been dead for 72 days, was excavated, first it was noticed that ‘the body was preserved, without any signs of decay or unpleasant odours.’ As stated, ‘his face was covered with a mould-like substance, similar to that found on bread, which was easily removed with a stick.’
When they removed the veil covering his face, they saw perfectly shaved cheeks – his eyes were ‘slightly sunken,’ and his hands were ‘like those of a laundress.
The body was retrieved from the grave by Romani people from Kragujevac, who, as stated in the report, were brought to the cemetery solely for this task. Witnesses say the deceased looked as if he had died just an hour or two ago.
In the case of another man who had passed away 54 days earlier, upon opening the coffin, a ‘foul odour’ was noticed, described in the report as ‘like freshly prepared blood sausages.’
Further, it is stated that they decapitated the heads on the spot, from which blood flowed, pierced them with stakes, and burned them.
Interestingly, to determine why the bodies did not decompose, the “commission” decided to open another grave, that of a woman from Kragujevac who had been buried a month earlier. The corpse had decomposed, revealing only the skeleton.
This event occurred on April 6, 1725, and other known cases are dated later that year, during the summer. From this, it follows that the Kragujevac case is the world’s first recorded instance of vampirism.
However, according to historian Ivan Nešić, caution should be exercised with such historical data.
– We still don’t have all the facts, so we can only speculate – whether the document is authentic or not,” says Nešić.
He adds that vampires have always been a subject of mystique.
– All those who have dealt with vampires and vampirism wanted to add something, so today we don’t have well-studied historical data,” says our interviewee.
The clash of two worldviews
Archaeologist Miloš Jurišić, director of the National Museum of Šumadija, believes that behind the vampire stories in 18th-century Serbia are reasons that are not in the realm of paranormal phenomena, but rather there are possible scientific explanations.
One explanation is of a psychological-sociological nature, and the other is of a biological-medical nature, and they could also be a combination of multiple different factors.
– In my opinion, if we take into account the sociological and psychological aspects, it is a clash of two worldviews: the Germanic, which is strictly mathematical and calculated, and the Slavic, Serbian, Balkan, which tends towards a creative approach to problem-solving.
In that conflict, the Austrians needed an accurate census of new subjects of the imperial crown or military conscripts, while the Serbs needed to find ways to evade Austrian census lists, military service obligations, and tax payments. They would report themselves as deceased or cleverly disguise themselves to spread rumours that they were no longer among the living, explains Jurišić for Pressek.
Of course, the Habsburg occupying authorities couldn’t leave that to chance, so they had to personally verify by organising an expedition to establish the exact factual situation.
- The expedition arrived and confirmed what was the only possible outcome – nothing. Therefore, in this case, the penetration of European rational understanding into the Balkan irrational world did not bear fruit, leading to the creation of historical records about creatures from Slavic mythology, explains Jurišić.
If it’s a biological-medical explanation, our interviewee adds, the possibility of some then-unknown disease emerging among the impoverished population of Serbia, exhausted by prolonged wars on the border of two civilizations, is plausible.
– The symptoms of this disease could include clinical death, a form of coma-like state, or uncontrollable fainting spells possibly related to narcolepsy. In such cases, all witnesses might believe the individual had died, but upon awakening from “death,” such a person could be branded as a vampire. This would have sparked panic among the population, led to the creation of legends, and eventually reached the Austrian administrative headquarters in Belgrade, prompting them to intervene, Jurišić emphasises.
He adds that if today we knew the exact location of the grave of one of the “accursed” vampires in this case, archaeological excavation and anthropological testing could determine whether there are traces indicating a known or unknown disease, poisoning, or genetic mutations.
Where were the cemeteries in Kragujevac at the beginning of the 18th century
During the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Kragujevac, according to Nenad Karamijalković, an ethnologist and anthropologist from the Kragujevac Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, the exhumation of the “vampires from Kragujevac” could only have occurred at 2 cemeteries in the town. One was located near the Old Church, and the other in the area around the present-day Fountain.
– Around the area of the present-day Old Church, there was a cemetery – we know this from old photographs showing grave sites around the church. On the other hand, the Muslim cemetery was located near the present-day Fountain. However, during the Austrian occupation of Kragujevac, Christians also began to be buried there, explains Karamijalković.
Over time, both cemeteries were relocated to the outskirts of the city, and both locations are now in the very centre of the city.
Kragujevac gained new urban outlines after the Treaty of Požarevac.
During this period, Kragujevac gained military significance and became a true military town – transformed into a military fortress with a strong military garrison, serving as a military-administrative centre. For strategic purposes, the Austrians constructed a larger fortification near Kamena Ćuprija, which was reinforced and fortified with palisades and a moat filled with water from the Lepenica River. This fortification served as the centre of the Kragujevac district and as the command centre for the Serbian militia on the southern front.
Dog-headed beings from the time of Prince Miloš
This is not the only story of supernatural phenomena in Kragujevac. The case from 1725 has only recently become known to the public. However, much has been recorded about the famous ‘dog-headed being’ from 1834, including the reactions of the inhabitants, which allows us to infer the atmosphere in the then-Serbian capital
Namely, as recorded in Sreten Popović’s book ‘Journey through New Serbia,’ in 1834 Kragujevac was completely gripped by panic and fear, to the extent that after sunset, there were no people in the streets of the town and the alleys of the surrounding villages.
A series of brutal murders was occurring in the city and its surroundings
– In the surrounding villages, a strange creature known as the dog-headed being appeared, with a large and very shiny eye on its forehead. Each day brought new stories of its wonders. It mostly attacked women, leading people to say, “Destroy the entire female gender,” as recorded by Sreten Popović, personal secretary to Princess Ljubica.
To calm the people of Kragujevac, Prince Miloš sent his bravest men to capture or kill this menace.
– They captured him and brought him to Kragujevac. He looked like a man, wearing peasant shoes and socks, wrapped in some skins, but his head was oddly shaped, resembling, I would say, that of a dog; it had horns on it, and on his forehead was set a small mirror, like those our peasants still carry with a lid, which shone in the moonlight and appeared as an eye,” recorded Popović.
It is further stated that Prince Miloš, in order to calm the populace, ordered the “dog-headed being” to be beaten with sticks, while it yelled and screamed like any bipedal being, swearing it would no longer frighten people.
The attacks ceased, but the true identity of the “dog-headed being” was never discovered, leading to the belief that the beating with sticks was merely a show orchestrated by Miloš to appease the people
Several literary works were inspired by this event, with the most famous being Đorđe Milosavljević’s novel “The Devil and the Little Miss.”
Nenad Karamijalković, an ethnologist and anthropologist, recalled that local newspapers in the 20th century reported twice on vampires in Kragujevac. Specifically, once in the 1920s when Kragujevac residents complained about a vampire, and again in 1938 when the police eventually apprehended a vampire. (See the full article in the photo.)
| Three of the most famous Serbian vampires The most famous Serbian vampire is actually a literary character – Sava Savanović. The character is mentioned in Milovan Glišić’s story and in the Serbian horror film “Leptirica” from 1973. Petar Blagojević from the village of Kisiljevo also gained worldwide fame. After his death in 1725, nine more people from the village suddenly died shortly afterward. They all claimed on their deathbeds that Petar had visited them and tried to suffocate them. Arnaut Pavle is another famous vampire from a village near Trstenik. He was a mercenary soldier and often talked about his encounter with a vampire in Greece. Allegedly, Pavle fought the vampire and managed to defeat it. He died in 1725, the same year as Petar Blagojević, and after his death, people from the village mysteriously began to die. |
Author: Miroslav Čer
