By DRAGANA JOVANOVIC
BELGRADE Nov. 29, 2012
For the people in a tiny Serbian village there is nothing sexy or
romantic about a vampire. In fact, they are terrified that one of the
most feared vampires of the area has been roused back to life.
Rather than 'Twilight's' Edward, the people of Zorazje fear that Sava
Savanovic is lurking in their forested mountains of western Serbia.
They believe that he is on the move because the home he occupied for so
long, a former water mill, recently collapsed. Savanovic is believed to
be looking for a new home.
"People are very 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," Miodrag Vujetic, local
municipal assembly member, told ABC News. "We are all frightened."
Vujetic said villagers "are all taking precautions by having holy
crosses and icons placed above the entrance to the house, rubbing our
hands with garlic, and having a hawthorn stake or thorn."
"I understand that people who live elsewhere in Serbia are laughing at
our fears, but here most people have no doubt that vampires exist," he
says.
According to legend, Savanovic would kill and drink the blood of the
peasants who came to grind their grain at his watermill on the Rogacica
River. Tour groups from around the Balkans would come to see the mill.
But even tourism had its limits.
"We were welcoming tourists, but only during the day. Nobody ever
overnighted there," said Slobodan Jagodic, whose family owned the mill
for over 60 years.
"We were too scared to repair it, not to disturb Sava Savanovic," says
Jagodic. "It's even worse now that it collapsed due to lack of repair."
Traditions die slowly in this part of the world. "In the dark forested
mountains of Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Croatia, many
people still believe in vampires and take them quite seriously," says
Dr. James Lyon, Ph.D, a noted Balkan historian who has done extensive
research on the folklore behind vampires.
"In local folklore, vampires are not potential boyfriends. Rather, they
are hideous, blood thirsty creatures with red eyes and iron teeth that
bloat when they feed, and are able to shift their shape," says Lyon,
author of "Kiss of the Butterfly," a historical thriller about vampires
in the Serbia.
Savanovic has maintained his notoriety in modern Serbia. He was featured
in a 19th century book "Ninety Years Later" written by Milovan Glisic,
whose book inspired a 1972 horror film "Leptirica" (Butterfly), widely
watched throughout all of former Yugoslavia. More recently, Savanovic
appeared in an award winning book "Fear and Its Servant" written by
Mirjana Novakovic.
The Balkans have long established itself as Ground Zero for vampires
when it comes to fanged folklore, and Serbia is a leader in this,
according to Lyon.
"Vampires originated in Serbia, not Romania," says Lyon. "The word
vampire entered western languages from Serbia in the late 1720s."
Austrian forces returning from conquests in Ottoman Serbia in the early
1700s brought back vampire stories, which circulated throughout Europe,
later inspiring Byron, Keats and Coleridge, he claims.
"In 1730-31 the Austrian Army sent a military surgeon into Serbia to
conduct autopsies on suspected vampires. He and other Austrian Army
officers wrote of their experiences, and these records still exist
today," Lyons said.
Documented reports of vampire-related activity continue to this day
throughout the Balkans, the most recent having occurred in 2011 in
Serbia.
Back in Zarozje, villagers will have to be on their guard for at least
seven more months, because local legend holds that vampires are most
active between Christmas and the Feast of the Ascension on June 7.
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