#Burial Site of Vlad the Impaler

[vladdocs]

CD SHORTS: The Only Dracula Tomb - What Happened to the Corpse?

We don't know where the tombs of Vlad Dracul, Mircea, Vlad the Impaler, or Radu the Beautiful are. At Mrea Glavacioc, only the tombstone of Vlad Călugărul was recently found. We only know where Mihnea the Bad, the son of Vlad the Impaler, was buried. He was assassinated in 1510 in Sibiu upon exiting the church, today's Evangelical Cathedral. In the southern part of the cathedral, you will also find his tombstone.

However, that is not the burial site. Where are his bones? Mihnea had been buried near the western wall. In 1853 and 1855, the cathedral was restored, and all the tombs were EMPTIED! Some tombstones, including Mihnea's, were built into the walls to be preserved. The bones were deposited in common graves in Sibiu cemeteries, in places unknown today. Therefore, it is currently impossible to take a DNA sample from the Draculs, at least not from Țepeș's son.

[mightyflamethrower]

Field of Vampires investigates a skeleton buried with a sickle across her neck and a padlock on her toe – a corpse that was feared to be a real-life vampire. The show starts 29th October at 9pm on Sky HISTORY.

Thanks to literary and cinematic classics like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and F W Murnau’s Nosferatu, the legend of the vampire has pervaded all across the world today.

However, it’s easy to forget that these tales were rooted in ancient superstition and popular folklore (the creation of Dracula was said to have been inspired by the real-life warlord Vlad the Impaler, for example) and at one time, they were treated far more seriously than mere popcorn-fodder.

The 2023 discovery of a mass burial site of 450 individuals in a sleepy Polish town is testament to that fact – especially since many of the cadavers were dismembered as part of anti-vampiric rituals and practices popular at the time.

An unusual discovery

The mass grave was stumbled upon by roadworkers in the hamlet of Luzino in northeast Poland, who were excavating the land to expand the thoroughfare. During the course of their labours, they unearthed the remains of hundreds of individuals near a church.

So far, so normal. However, the extraordinary thing about the discovery was the rituals that had been performed upon the cadavers after death. Some of the skeletons had been decapitated, with the skull then placed between their legs, while others carried coins in their mouths. More still had piles of bricks placed around their head and limbs.

‘It was believed that if someone from the deceased's family died right after the funeral, they could be a vampire,’ explained Maciej Stromski, an archaeologist summoned to the site. ‘That is why after the burial the grave was dug up and the deceased's head was cut off, which was then placed at the feet. We also discovered an example of a woman after decapitation. Only the skull of a child was placed on her womb.’

Apparently, the coins were inserted into the mouth of the deceased as a means of warding off vampires (who regard silver as anathema), as well as sealing their soul inside their body and paying for their passage to the underworld.

Par for the course for Poland

The discovery of 450 so-called vampires is certainly a shocking revelation that made headlines around the world – but it’s far from the first time that Poland has been the site of excavations undercovering anti-vampiric practices.

In 2008, several decapitated skeletons were found at a burial site near Gliwice, with others having holes drilled through their legs or bricks inserted into their mouths. Then in 2022, a 17th-century female vampire was found near Bydgoszcz with a sickle placed across her neck and a padlock securing her big toe.

The sickle was clearly situated so as to cut the throat of the undead if she rose from her eternal slumber, but the padlocked toe – believed to symbolise the closing of the life cycle of the woman – has got to be one of the stranger punishments doled out to those accused of unnatural doings from yesteryear.

The 450-strong vampire grave in Luzino was unearthed last year, while 2024 has already seen the shocking discovery of two children given the same anti-vampiric treatment. The youngsters, who it is believed were buried as far back as the 13th century, were found during the routine removal of tree roots at a cathedral in Chem.

A very Eastern European tradition

While the origins of a blood-sucking creature can be traced back millennia to cultures as distinct and disparate as Mesopotamia, Greece, China and Egypt, the one we’re all familiar with today has a more Slavic feel. Indeed, there are numerous stories of supposed 'real-life vampires' from countries such as Poland and Serbia.

As such, the idea of the vampire popularised in Halloween costumes worldwide has been born from these traditions, which were passed down from generation to generation through folk tales and literature. But the burial sites in Poland attest to the fact that fear of the undead was, at one time in history, a very real phenomenon.

Such discoveries are an illuminating window into how the minds of our forebears worked – and the lengths they were willing to go to in order to banish evil spirits and keep their societies safe.

In any case, the 450 vampires found in Luzino have suffered their second upheaval in as many centuries. After thorough inspection and documentation, the bones were respectfully returned to the earth and it’s hoped that the dead can finally receive some semblance of peace from here on in.

[suetravelblog]

Medieval Snagov Orthodox Monastery Romania

Medieval Snagov Orthodox Monastery Romania

Snagov Forest – Photo Sorin Onisor Last week, I visited Snagov Monastery, about a 30-mile drive from Bucharest. During the time of the medieval states that existed in the feudal period, the monastery was Wallachia’s most important spiritual centre”. I’ve long been fascinated with mystic locations, and orthodox monasteries are a favorite. Romanians are pious people, and in a hectic world of…

[vidicus-com]

5 of the World’s Scariest Travel Destinations

Love travelling and mystery? Then why not combine the two with these five destinations which are known to be the scariest in the world.

Sleepy Hollow, New York

If you love Washington Irving’s classic tale of the Headless Horseman who is searching for his lost head, then be sure to give the town of Tarrytown, New York, a visit. Just over one hour from NYC in the Hudson Valley, you can visit the church’s burial ground and listen to the story read aloud inside the church itself. You can take a lantern tour of the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where Irving is buried, but be careful, you might even run into the horseman himself!

Transylvania

When visiting Romania, a stop in Transylvania cannot be missed. Bran Castle, or Dracula’s Castle, obviously has a connection to the real-life prince Vlad the Impaler, and hosts an annual Halloween party for those not afraid of the legend. Other impressive castles linked with the prince include Poenari Fortress and Corvin Castle.

London

Even though it’s an international capital, London can be eerie with its mist and fog. You can take a tour of Jack the Ripper’s trail through Whitechapel, then visit The Ten Bells pub where his victims passed time before meeting their fate. Then, on the banks of the Thames River, you can explore the Tower of London where many royal beheadings took place including Henry VIII’s wife Anne Boleyn. They say spirits of the executed still walk the grounds. In northern London’s Highgate Cemetery there have been sightings of phantoms, and even a vampire, wandering among the tombstones.

New Orleans

New Orleans is named the most haunted city in America, with its Voodoo, vampires and ghosts just about everywhere. It has been the location for many movies including Interview with the Vampire, True Blood, and American Horror Story, and you can take a ghost tour to hear about the atrocities which took place at the LaLaurie mansion. When in the French Quarter, visit the haunted bars and pubs, take a peek inside a voodoo shop, and take a walk through St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 which is the burial place of “voodoo queen” Marie Laveau.

La Isla de las Muñecas (Island of the Dolls), Mexico

If you are visiting Mexico City and the UNESCO World Heritage site of Xochimilco, don’t forget to check out this creepy destination. Apparently the Island of the Dolls is home to the spirit of a young girl who drowned offshore, and a recluse who lived on the island believed collecting filthy dolls and missing body parts would appease her spirit. Visitors to the island have actually said the dolls move, blink their eyes, and even whisper. Now how scary is that?

For more scary destinations and other stories, check out www.vidicus.com.

[heathenhole]

Season 2 Premiere! Lilith, Bam Stroker & Spectrophilia - Midnight Hollow...

The four dive into the history of Vampires, where they originated from in terms of legend and the real world. Was Lilith the first Vampire or was it Vlad the Impaler? I think everyone has a favorite movie with a vampire in it and we discuss that important topic. As in most episodes, we discuss… can Vampires have sex or procreate? Eventually we get to our articles and they range from the bag of garbage floating in Loch Ness to an underwater burial site. Of course we end on a good note, the new trend of women having long term relationships with ghosts, including some ghost dick.

#vampires #paranormal #paranormalpodcast #podcast #midnighthollow #strangenews #bramstoker #jayzippo #ghostsex

[st0ne-r0ses]

Vlad “The Impaler” was a king in the fifteenth century Europe who ruled over Wallachia, now modernly known as Romania, and was known for his brutal punishments. His fondness for impaling his enemies earned him his nickname “The Impaler”.

Born Vlad Dracula III in 1428 as the second son to Vlad Dracul II. His father assumed the Wallachian throne in 1436 and Vlad along with his younger brother were sent to the Court of the Ottoman sultan Murad II  as collateral that his father would support Ottoman policies. After the murder of his father and older brother by the Ottomans, Vlad returned to Wallachia. He briefly gained the throne before being forced out months later. After nearly a decade Vlad regained the throne and began his second reign in 1456. It was during his second reign he committed most of the atrocities he is most known for.

His favorite and most infamous method of torture for which he was known for was impalement. A horse was attached to each of the victim's legs and a dull stake was inserted in the anus and forced through the body until it emerged through the chest, although there was many instances where it was inserted through the vagina, abdomen, and chest. Some victims were impaled upside down. Death from impalement could last as long as hours or days.

No one was immune to Vlad’s attention. He killed men, women, children, the rich and the poor. His acts of cruelty were said to have included:

Impaling thousands in “a forest of the impaled”. An act which scared others so badly, an invading Turkish sultan and his troops turned away the moment they saw the impaled.

After discovering that some of the noblemen of Wallachia were involved in the assassination of his father and brother Vlad enslaved them and their entire family - forcing them to rebuild his castle until they died of exhaustion. Those who did not die were then impaled.

Infuriated by a group of foreign ambassadors who refused to raise their hats in his presence, Vlad had their hats nailed to their heads.

Impaled many merchants and noblemen 1459 and then set out a table by the corpses for a feast. As one Wallachian citizen passed by he made his displeasure at the smell known and Vlad had him impaled so that “he would no longer be bothered by the smell”.

Attempting to rid his streets of all the poor and sick, Vlad invited them to feast at one of his homes. He then proceeded to board up the entire building and burn it to the ground with everyone inside.

Other methods of torture used included cutting off of limbs, strangulation, mutilation of sexual organs, scalping, skinning, and being burned alive.

Historians put his death toll between 40,000 to 100,000

After ruling for six years Vlad was overthrown by the Ottomans in 1462 and his brother, who was loyal to Ottomans took over. He was then imprisoned for over twelve years before being released and eventually regaining the Wallachian throne for the third time in 1475. His third reign did not last long, and he was killed in battle shortly after although it is not certain exactly how he died and his burial site is unknown.

Vlad is a well known figure in European history and is widely considered to be the basis for the title character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. To this day he is known to all as a fearsome cruel leader and to many Romanians, a national hero.

[hideouspumpkin]

i want to know more about your vampire burials...

oooh thank u for allowing me to nerd out for a lil while 

so basically theyre not vampires just “alleged” vampires and I basically have to research what are those alleged vampire burials and why do we today think they’re vampires and why did people back then thought those were vampires 

we have mention of “vampires” all through the whole of history and pretty much everywhere but those vampires are quite different from what we as modern peeps consider vampires because we have a conception of vampires thats mostly built from 1) the myth of Vlad the Impaler and 2) Dracula, so even tho both use actual beliefs and traits associated with vampires, its still a bit distorted compared to what people actually believed vampire were (and also, every culture and/or time period has different conceptions of what is a vampire, and even using the word vampire is a simplification) 

But in a lot of cases some beliefs or customs associated to those creatures seen as being undead/blood drinkers are similar and present in different archeological burial sites, and as they also can be linked to textual sources that mention those creatures and how to kill/get rid of them, it allows us to say that some corpses that we find are possible vampires. For example they will be buried face down, because people believed that would prevent the dead to get out of the tomb. Similarly, the bodies could be either weighted down or pinned to the ground, hence the stake !!!! the stake was believed to be able to maintain the possible vampire in its grave, or in some cases they have things stuck in their mouths, coins, stones or their mouths would be sewed shut so that they couldn’t bite or anything

Mostly those cases are not the corpses of people thought to BE vampires but were just ways to avoid the dead turning into vampires after their deaths, as it was believed that dead people didn’t pass to the other life directly upon their death and so were very vulnerable to be then transformed into vampires and then come back from the dead and haunt the living ! Also, those mesures are often seen in places that knew weird illnesses or plagues, because vampires/undead are associated with causing those !! 

theres so much more to be said about it and i haven’t read everything yet (but i can update you abt what i find if youre interested...i mean i love talking abt history and this is a fascinating subject soooo) but some of the supposed vampire burials i can cite are one woman in Venice who had a stone in her mouth, but there are also a lot of cases in Poland like in Drawsko, some in Greece as well (the island of Santorini/thera is apparently called “the Vampire island”) and some in England as well, and even some in the US (even tho those are much more recent i think ?) 

If you’re interested i can, as I said, update u on my research (it might help me organize my work actually) or also give u some articles (academic or not) or links abt the whole thing !!! in all cases thank u for asking....i love talking abt history....im so touched that someone wants me to talk abt what i do avdhsfvj