Get ready to be chilled with 13 of the most gruesome and chilling legends and myths of Vampires around the world.

The image and fear for Vampires have been a staple in the history of the occult and unexplained all over the world. The actual title of "vampire" was introduced not along (in 1732) into the English Language. But for many centuries prior, many cultures have locally identified and named these undead creatures. There is no doubt unexplained and surging death tolls tormented and baffled civilization, eventually pointing blame to these creatures of the night. Today, the reports of vampires as agents of mysterious deaths have been replaced by modern medicine diagnoses. Nevertheless, many encounters and sightings continue to make themselves known in the 20th-century annals of the supernatural world.

To track these historical legends, we have created a map to help your globetrotting to explore these small towns where their origins occurred. Many, to this day, still fear and believe these creatures of the night still lurk in the still of their nights.

We present 13 of the most disturbing Vampiric tales.

1. Sozopol, Bulgaria

Skeletons found in Sozopol Bulgaria    Photo Credit: bnr.bg

In 2014, Bulgarian archaeologists working near the Black Sea in Sozopol unearthed skeletons that had been pinned down through their chests with iron rods. These morbid remnants found in this Vampire Grave were centuries-old dating to the 13th Century), most mere youngsters.

According to a 2012 BBC report, at least 100 “vampire” graves have been found in Bulgaria to date, and similar burial sites have been found in other Balkan nations. Vampire legends, the news outlet said, "form an important part of the region's folklore."

Interestingly, the fear of the Slavic Vampire (as referred to in Bulgaria) was prominent. Proper burial was a precursor and avoided the undead from rising again. Even with proper burial was provided, it was believed when a person who died a violent death might return as a vampire. In addition, Those who died while under ex-communication from the church might become a vampire. Drunkards, thieves, murderers, and witches were also to be watched.

2. Mikulovice, Czech Republic

Skeletons found in Vampire Grave in Mikulovice   Photo Credit: The Telegraphy

Found in this village was a 5,000-year-old "Vampire Grave" believed to be the world's first burial place for one of the presumed "undead". Skeletons were found that were weighted down with rocks. Historian Radko Sedlacke from the East Bohemia Museum stated, "Remains treated in this way are now considered as vampiric. The dead man's contemporaries were afraid that he might leave his grave and return to the world."

It bears spookily similar hallmarks to Celtic tombs in the British Isles designed to prevent bloodsucking “revenants”. These were recently buried people who were believed to rise from the grave, walk the earth, and prey on the living.

3. London, England UK

Highgate Cemetery in London    Photo Credit: Wikimedia.org

Highgate Cemetery in London is the site where just recently (the late 1960s) a vampire was said to prowl. The appearance of dead animals scattered on the property was the first sign that something creepy was going. These innocent creatures sustained wounds on their necks and were completely drained of blood. Many witnesses admitted to seeing a tall and dark figure wandering the graveyard. What made him unusual, was that many claimed that he omitted a hypnotic gaze upon anyone that dared to look at him. Since the authorities closed the cemetery at night, there have been fewer reports of this creature of the night.

4. Cumbria, Carlisle UK

Carlisle Cathedral Churchyard    Photo Credit: Pinterest

There is a legend of a family that moved into Groglin Range in Cumbria UK in the 1800s that chillingly speaks of Vampiric activity. The daughter of the family started noticing odd lights outside and best below her bedroom window. On one particular evening, she woke from her sleep and saw lights glaring at her.

At this moment, she knew it was not wandering illuminations, but the eyes of a vampire. Apparently, this otherworldly creature broke through her window and wounded her neck, resulting in profuse bleeding. When she screamed, her brothers came to her aid alarming the creature to leap from the room into the street. They shot it with their pistols and followed it into a graveyard that was nearby. When they found an open crypt, there was a rotten corpse bearing a fresh bullet wound. They finalized its destruction by setting it on fire.

5. Exeter, Rhode Island, USA

Mercy Brown's Grave and Photo    Photo Credit: Scoopwhoop.com

Stories of the Vampire are not often seen coming from America, but the one of Mercy Brown in Rhode Island is one of the most famous. In the late 19th century, there existed contemporary folklore that blamed undead activity to multiple deaths in one family. In 1892, Mercy Brown died of consumption (tuberculosis), preceded by several of her family members. The surviving father, George Brown, was asked to do exhume the three bodies that died. Two were decomposed, but that of Mercy did not.

Today, this could have been explained by the fact her body was stored in freezer-like conditions in an above-ground crypt during the two months following her death. As folk superstition dictated, Mercy's heart and liver were burned, and the ashes were mixed with water to create a tonic and were given to her sick brother, Edwin, to drink. This should have reversed his illness, but unfortunately, he died two months later. What remained of Mercy's body was reburied in a different cemetery after being desecrated.

6. Russia

Russia's Justina Yuschkov    Photo Credit: listverse.com

During the mid 19th century, Russian peasants blamed vampires for the unexplained epidemics that killed their communities. It was believed that the very first person to die of an epidemic was a vampire, and had to be destroyed in order to stop deaths from the disease.

One of the most popular stories during this era in Russia is of Justina Yuschkov, when during a cholera epidemic in August of 1848 succumbed to the disease while pregnant. Rubtsov, a medical officer, accused her of being a vampire, so as a result the peasants exhumed her body and found that her mouth was open. They took this as validation that she was a vampire.

The peasants then cut open Justina’s body and discovered that her baby was missing. The child’s body was found in Justina’s coffin. Believing this to be definite proof that Justina was a vampire, the peasants drove a stake through her mouth.

7. Blau, Bohemia, Germany

Blau Germany  -  Photo credit: Wikipedia.org

Myslata died in the village of Blau in Bohemia in the early 14th century. Shortly after, is said he turned into a vampire and terrorize his entire village every night. Legendary tales spoke that he could kill a person by just calling out their name, where they would die within eight days.

The peasants drove a stake through Myslata's heart, but that did no good. Later on, the executioner was engaged to destroy him. They moved Myslata out of the village, placed multiple stakes into his body, and cremated him until they were sure that he was eternally dead.

8. Jacobsdorf, Germany

Jacobsdorf, Germany Church   Photo Credit: Wikimedia.org

It is said that German Vampires have a preference in seeking their own family members as victims. One of the most famous is the Wollschlager Vampire. In the 18th century, several members of the Wollschlager family died after the death of a male relative. The family feared that the older man was responsible, so they sent a nephew called Joseph to destroy the vampire. 

Joseph and a monk went to the family crypt to pursue this deed. The monk did run away, but Joseph armed with an ax decapitated his uncle's body. He even took some of the vampire's blood as a souvenir. Even with all this effort, the headless Wollschlager Vampire still lurks in the family crypt more than two centuries later.

9. Pëntsch, Luxembourg

Old photo of Pëntsch, Luxembourg

Johannes Cuntius was a wealthy man that in 1592 became sick after being kicked by a horse. He became insane and on his deathbed claimed that he was a horrible sinner. After he was buried, stories were told of him raping a woman, haunting his old home, and assaulting the town's people. 

The town folks finally dug up his grave a year and a half after his death, chopped his body into tiny pieces, and cremated it.

10. Alnwick, England, UK

Alnwick Castle    Photo Credit: Pinterest

During the 12th century a bloodsucking corpse, described as a vampire, took refuge in the Anantis (Alnwick) Castle. It was said that he was a terrible person while alive. Now dead, he was much worse. His stench poisoned the air wherever he went and was always chased by howling dogs that were sent by the devil himself.

When the town's population whithered, two brothers, dug up his body and hit it with their shovel. The vampire's body was found bloated and it expelled out all the blood it had sucked from his victims upon being struck. They cut out its heart and set its body on fire in order to destroy the creature.

11. Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Buckinghamshire England    Photo Credit: Letsgoout.co.uk

When he died and became part of the undead, a vampire would visit his wife daily after he was supposedly buried. With each visit, he attempted to kill her in bed. He kept returning until he was chased away by some of the woman's neighbors. With this, he then began attacking the villagers, sometimes even assaulting them during daylight hours.

The church recommended for the town's bishop to cremate the vampire's body, but he rejected the idea for it was considered sacrilegious. Instead, he wrote a letter pardoning the vampire of its sins, placing it on his chest. Surprisingly, this technique worked and the vampire was never seen again.

12. Tupanari, Bosnia

Tupanari, Bosnia    Photo Credit: Wikipedia.org

This is a bit of a more contemporary vampire story, that happened in this Bosnian village. In 1923, when a widow, called Cvifa Tomic, claimed that her late husband Paja Tomic had returned as a vampire and ran through her house each night.
After a few town meetings, it was decided that Cvija's sons, Steveo and Krsto were going to destroy him. They opened his grave and stabbed the corpse with a hawthorn pole, followed by cremating it. They later tossed the remaining bones into his grave.

13. Medveda Serbia

Medveda Servia     Photo Credit: bastabalkana.com

There is no epidemic other than that known as a Vampire Epidemic. This is exactly what occurred in this Servian village in 1731. 13 of its villagers mysteriously died in a span of six weeks. The authorities claimed it was the plague, sending a specialist to confirm it. The villagers, on the other hand, said they were deaths caused by Arnold Paole.

Paole, decease, was said to be haunting the village for a few years back, while also being accused of killing four people. He had also attacked animals. The 13 villagers who died in the epidemic had eaten meat from these animals, and the meat was believed to have poisoned them. 

Soon, the death toll rose to 17. In fact, the men of the dead actually became vampires themselves. After more extensive investigations, the authorities agreed to the verdict of vampire activity, and all the suspected vampires' bodies were destroyed.

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