Petar Blagojevich

Petar Blagojevich (Serbian form: Petar Blagojević/Петар Благојевић, German : Peter Plogojovitz; died 1725) was a Serbian peasant who was believed to have become a vampire after his death and to have killed nine of his fellow villagers. The case was one of the earliest, most sensational and most well documented cases of vampire hysteria. It was described in the report of Imperial Provisor Frombald, an official of the Austrian administration, who witnessed the staking of Blagojevich.

Scholars have noted the influence of Blagojevich's case upon the development of the image of the modern vampire in Western popular culture.

Petar Blagojevich lived in a village named Kisilova (possibly the modern-day town of Kisiljevo), in the part of Serbia that temporarily passed from Ottoman into Austrian hands after the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718) and was ceded back to the Ottomans with the Treaty of Belgrade (1739) (see Arnold Paole - Background for more details on the historical context). Blagojevich died in 1725, and his death was followed by a spate of other sudden deaths (after very short maladies, reportedly of about 24 hours each). Within eight days, nine persons perished. On their death-beds, the victims allegedly claimed to have been throttled by Blagojevich at night. Furthermore, Blagojevich's wife stated that he had visited her and asked her for his opanci (shoes); she then moved to another village for safety reasons. In other legends, it is said that Blagojevich came back to his house demanding food from his son and, when the son refused, Blagojevich brutally murdered him, probably via biting and drinking his blood. The villagers decided to disinter the body and examine it for signs of vampirism, such as growing hair, beard and nails, and the absence of decomposition.

The inhabitants of Kisilova demanded that Kameralprovisor Frombald, along with the local priest, should be present at the procedure as a representative of the administration. Frombald tried to convince them that permission from the Austrian authorities in Belgrade should be sought first. The locals declined because they feared that by the time the permission came, the whole community could be exterminated by the vampire, which they claimed had already happened "in Turkish times" (i.e. when the village was still in the Ottoman-controlled part of Serbia). They demanded that Frombald himself should immediately permit the procedure or else they would abandon the village to save their lives. Frombald was forced to consent.

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