I have written about countless vampire cases over the years, reports of real vampires preying on villages and towns. All of those cases took place well over a hundred years ago, but now I’ve got a current one for you today. The local council in western Serbia recently issued a public health warning that a vampire was on the loose.
The warning came after an old crumbling mill, said to once have been the home of the vampire Sava Savanovic, collapsed.
Many sites are writing about this amazing bit of news, and so have I, but if you read through to the bottom, you’ll see folks aren’t reporting it correctly. Tsk tsk. Luckily you have a research junkie like me.
Sava Savanovic was believed to have lived in the old watermill on the Rogacica River, in Zarozje village in the municipality of Bajina Basta, where he fed on the blood of anybody who came to mill grain, reports the Austrian Times.
The watermill was purchased by the local Jagodić family who were too frightened to use it as a mill, and instead used it to draw in tourists looking for a piece of supernatural history – but only during the day.
The family, however, were too afraid to do any repairs on the ruined mill for fear of disturbing the vampire and facing its wrath, and due to the lack of repairs, the mill collapsed, says various news sites.
Now, with the mill gone, the locals supposedly believe that the vampire is on the loose in their town.
Local mayor Miodrag Vujetic admitted, “People are worried, everybody knows the legend of this vampire and the thought that he is now homeless and looking for somewhere else and possibly other victims is terrifying people. We are all frightened.”
He added that it was all very well for people who didn’t live in the area to laugh at their fears, but said that nobody in the region have any doubt that vampires do exist.
He confirmed that the local council had advised all villagers to put garlic on their doors and windows to protect them from the vampire as it was well known they can’t stand the smell, reports the Austrian Times (although there’s more to it than the smell, I wonder if the mayor actually mentioned smell in the interview or the if journalist simply added that out of ignorance).
He added, “We have also reminded them to put a Holy Cross in every room in the house.”
Ok so, given how poorly the original articles on this topic have been written (false information, bad research) I have a few issues on how well this story is being reported (don’t worry, I did research). I know very well that there are superstitious villages in Europe who still believe, even today, in the existence of vampires, so I am not questioning that. But, after doing some digging into Serbian articles published years ago (which I translated), I am finding more information. Like how two neighboring towns had a legal battle over the rights to the Sava Savanovic story. Or this – that the Jagodić family, who are the owners of the mill, were not actually afraid of the mill as these new articles claim. According to an article published in 2008, Radoslav Jagodić said in an interview that while many fear the vampire, he never did and had in fact spent many nights inside of the mill. Hmmm… something doesn’t seem right with these recent reportings.
Luckily, I found one of the original Serbian articles on the council warning. Yes, the mill collapsed, and yes many are afraid of the vampire. But as for the public warning made by the local government, well, people think that was done more for tourists than locals. However, as I thought above, the mayor did NOT mention the smell of garlic, the journalist in the Austrian Times totally made that up. In the original interview, the mayor brought up garlic as protection against Sava, he said, and I quote, “You can only protect yourself from it with hawthorn thorns or stakes. Everyone should place hawthorn and garlic on their threshold. But hawthorn thorn is ‘law’ for the vampire …” Which is exactly what someone in Serbia would say, and not what a shady lying journalist would report. Suck it journalists!
And there you have it readers, the truth to this widely (but poorly) reported story.
– Moonlight
Bravo on your thorough research! And thank you!
After I saw this on ABC News, I headed here for the real story. Thank you, Moonlight, for your investigative journalism!
Thank you :)
How do I become a vampire
You have to be bitten then after you are bitten and your blood is drained almost to the last drop you die in human life forms at that point your body is numb ALL over and your eye sight is cloudy YOUR mouth is dry and your stomach desire only craves blood YOUR body sits for about 2 hours dead before you resurface to movement OF BECOMING a vampire YOUR stomach has cramps OF full pain because you feel hungry FOR ONLY thirst of blood if you do not eat you turn into something much worst than a vampire you must feed shortly after becoming one you can not be modest in anyway what so ever! You must feed on your desires of thirst for blood in order to keep your self on SURVIVAL MOOD you will do it the cravings are unbearable you will feed no matter how much you try not to you will feed and the longer you wait not to feed you will become more violent before you turn to something else that is another type of creature that is past a vampire a more ugly looking monster a ghoul that can not come out at all that is much MORE WILD much more ugly more hidden but more stronger than a vampire they are more savages than vampires AS ghouls ! This is not what you want to be you need to feed once you become one! And secondly on FACTS here vampires we can not die this is only a movie fairy tale you can not kill us we only rest if so called killed as you humans say vampires we only rest we are not died as you say you can kill us ! How can you kill someone that is already dead? You can’t BECAUSE we are already dead we cant produce because our insides are ROTTEN OUT we are already dead! You can temporarily stop us but over all we come back and when we do it’s usually stronger than ever! It’s like we gain a new life after each time we are put to death as you humans say we are dead! WE ARE NOT WE NEARLY ONLY SLEEP FOR A SEASON AND ARE REBORN IN TO SOMETHING MUCH MORE POWERFUL MORE THAN BEFORE AND WHAT EVER WEAKNESS WE HAD AS YOU SAY PUT US TO DEATH THE REBIRTH OF US AS OUR AWAKENING TIMING TIME FRAME WE ARE NO LONGER EFFECTED FROM WHAT ORIGINALLY PUT US DOWN BEFORE OUR DOWN FALL AS YOU SAY YOU KILLED US! WE DO NOT DIE WE SIMPLY JUST REST AND ARE REBORN ONCE WE ARE FOUND OR ONCE IT IS TIME FOR US TO RISE AGAIN AND IF WE ARE DISMEMBERED AS IN BODY PARTS WE NEARLY HAVE OUR SPIRITS FLOATING TO THE NEXT VICTIM OF TARGET BY AIR AND ENTER THEIR BODIES BY BREATHING INTO THEIR LUNGS AND WE ARE REBORN INTO A DIFFERENT BODY ! SO YOU SEE WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE ! YOU CAN’T KILL US AT ALL YOU HUMANS NEVER COULD AND NEVER WILL! I AM AH’KASHA REBORN MOTHER OF ALL! I WAS THE FIRST VAMPIRE IN THE WORLD WE LIVE OVER CENTURIES IN LIFE FORMS WE DO MIX WITH WEREWOLF MALES ARE A FEMALE VAMPIRE I AM AND TURN THEMBINTO A DIFFERENT BREED OF LYCAN PART VAMPIRE! IT IS RARE BUT I CAN HAPPEN THE BREEDS ARE MASSIVE IN SIZE AND STRONGER THAN ALL ON BOTHSIDES VAMPIRE AND LYCAN WOLF! BEWARE TO ALL IN EUROPE WHERE WE DO RUN FREELY EUROPE IS OUR HOME OUR LANDS OUR WORLD! WE ARE REAL VERY MUCH SO AND WE CAN’T BE KILLED BECAUSE ONCE YOU TURN INTO US VAMPIRES LYCAN WOLVES OR GHOULS YOUR HUMAN LIFE IS GONE FOR GOOD ! AND AT THAT POINT YOU ARE APART OF OUR UNDERWORLD IN LIFE FOR LIFE IT IS ALOT MORE OF US THAN HUMAN BEINGS SO MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE CHOOSE WISELY OUR WORLD OR YOURS THAT WE NEARLY HAVE TAKEN OVER FOR CENTURIES BY FORCE! EITHER YOU FOLLOW OUR WORLD OR WE TAKE IT FORCEFULLY! THE CHOICE IS YOUR PAIN OR PLEASURE! EITHER WAY WE WILL TAKE OVER THE WORLD! (I AM AH’KASHA REBORN) SLEPT SO LONG NOW BACK TO RULE THE WORLD FROM BEYOND!
Good job on debunking the international media reports. Here’s a bit more detail from my 8 December trip to Zarožje. http://thevampirologist.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/vampires-in-serbia-unraveling-fact-from.html