Hiding within the previous watermill within the little Serbian village of Zarožje, some of the famed vampires from the nation is alleged to reside. The legend of Sava Savanović and his reign of terror has frightened Serbians for hundreds of years, and in response to native lore, maybe for hundreds of years extra.
Hidden deep throughout the rugged hills of western Serbia, in a distant nook of the Valjevo area, lies a forgotten mill, its timbers splintered and its wheel lengthy since stilled. That is no peculiar smash — it’s the alleged lair of Sava Savanović, Serbia’s most infamous vampire, a sinister determine whose legend has solid a shadow over the Balkans for hundreds of years.
Whereas vampires are sometimes related to Transylvania and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Serbia harbors its personal blood-curdling tales that proceed to stay in native legends, and few are as unsettling as that of Sava Savanović.
The Vampires of Zarožje
The story of Sava Savanović facilities round an previous watermill close to the village of Zarožje, perched beside the chilly, fast-flowing Rogačica River on the slopes of the Povlen mountain. At present, there are round 600 individuals left, and it’s rising smaller and extra deserted yearly. The village is within the midst of forests and meadows and one of many issues they’ve in abundance is potatoes, raspberries and previous watermills.
In line with native legend, Sava was a reclusive determine who owned the mill centuries in the past in a slender and darkish ravine overgrown with tall beech bushes. The villagers whispered that he wasn’t fairly human — they usually have been proper.
The village was no stranger to vampire legends earlier than the 18th century. In line with one, Saint Sava, with a purpose to save individuals from terror, turned a neighborhood vampire into stone. The vampire was then buried, with solely his tooth protruding out of the bottom, as a warning to the sinners.
The Legend of Sava Savanović
Then it grew to become the reign of Sava Savanović. Not a lot is thought about his life or precisely when this occurred, however at the least earlier than the mid 18th century. Some say that he was a profitable cattle dealer and a courageous hajducke. In line with one model of the legend, Sava Savanović got here from the village of Ovčinja, neighboring Zarožje, the place he was buried close to the traditional partitions. He died within the Zarožje mill the place he labored, and as a vampire he returned to his previous office and strangled his heirs. The legends are many, however all of them hint again to this one man who grew to become a monster.
In most variations of the legend, he was single and lived together with his brother. In some variations of the legend, he was caught up in a tragic one sided romance. It’s mentioned he grew previous an unpleasant, however fell in love with a a lot youthful lady who rejected him time and time once more.
She is in some variations the daughter of a neighborhood service provider within the village. Someday she was tending to her sheep or cattle, when he once more made his advances and proposed. She declined and turned her again to him, angering him a lot he pulled his pistol and shot her useless or strangled her.
His brother Stanko noticed all of it they usually began combating about his weapon. The gunshot attracted shepherds who noticed the 2 males combating and the useless lady. When Stanko tried to flee, they shot him within the again, pondering he was a thief. Not all variations of the brother die. When the native villagers realized the entire story, they beat Sava to loss of life with hoes and mattocks. In some variations, he shoots himself when he realizes what he did.
After his loss of life, it was mentioned that Sava Savanović rose from his grave as a vampire. Some variations claimed he was laid to relaxation within the native cemetery. Some say that due to his crimes, he was buried near the scene of the crime and the mill. Some say his grave was in a crooked ravine underneath an elm tree and after years, was forgotten.
The Undead Butterly Vampire
The look of a vampire was removed from how they’re portrayed in at the moment’s media. His pores and skin blackened by loss of life, however nonetheless transferring, extra monster than man. By evening, he would return to the mill and await weary vacationers and millers in search of to grind their grain. These unlucky sufficient to enterprise there alone after darkish would by no means be seen once more. Sava would reportedly drain his victims of blood, forsaking solely pale, shriveled corpses, their faces twisted in expressions of terror.
Some tales claimed Sava might remodel into mist or a black canine, a standard motif in Balkan vampire folklore, and that he possessed superhuman energy and pace. The previous watermill earned the grim moniker of “the vampire’s lair.”
The villagers determined they needed to take motion in opposition to his reign of terror that had gone on for years they usually began to search for his grave once more. Some declare that his grave was present in 1880 or round there because the quick tales primarily based on these legends have been first revealed that yr.
Once they dug him up, they discovered his physique as he had died. They staked his coronary heart with a hawthorne stake because the ritual demanded. Once they staked him, a butterfly flew out from his corpse and the priest was not fast sufficient to pour holy water in time. The butterfly or moth in Serbian folklore is commonly regarded as the vampire soul, and if the butterfly escapes, it might probably possess one other particular person.
After this, it was the butterfly that plagued the individuals, suffocating newborns throughout western Serbia for 30 years. Maybe it discovered one other host. Some say that the spirit or revenant of the butterfly or Sava Savanović even does to today.
Serbia’s Historic Vampire Hysteria
The legend of Sava Savanović didn’t exist in isolation. Serbia was a hotbed of vampire hysteria through the 18th century, with well-documented circumstances like Arnold Paole and Petar Blagojević. These incidents have been taken so critically that Austrian authorities carried out official exhumations and issued written reviews on suspected vampires, fueling Europe’s rising fascination with the undead.
Learn Extra: Take a look at extra concerning the vampire circumstances of Petar Blagojević and Arnold Paole
It’s attention-grabbing that we don’t actually know if the legend of Paole and Blagojević or Savanović got here first. However for Serbians, Savanović is definitely probably the most well-known and regarded Serbian’s first vampire the place lots of in style tradition relies on the legend. Because the story of Paole and Blagojević grew to become recognized via Austrian reviews in German, and is subsequently way more recognized within the west.
The Jagodići’s Watermill’s Actual-Life Legacy
The notorious watermill of Zarožje, believed to be Sava’s lair, stood for hundreds of years as a chilling monument to the legend. That is the place he lived or the place he snuck in to feed on individuals sleeping inside. Positioned within the Valjevo area, it remained a hyperlink to Serbia’s vampiric previous 3 kilometers from the Bajina Bašta-Valjevo highway. There’s a legend that vampires are discovered round mills in Serbia, particularly in Roman myths. That is additionally the case with the small city of Grocka in Podunavlje in Serbia.
Sava Savanović’s legend was immortalized in Milorad Pavić’s 1880 novella “After Ninety Years”, broadly thought of Serbia’s first vampire novel. As he was from the neighboring village, Valjevo, he in all probability heard this and different vampire tales rising up.
For the final a number of many years the watermill related to Savanović has been owned by the Jagodić household, and is normally known as “Jagodića vodenica” (Jagodići’s watermill) and was in operation till the Fifties. After it closed it grew to become a vacationer location and slowly broke down.
The legend was later tailored into the cult horror-comedy movie “Leptirica” (The She-Butterfly) in 1973. The movie, with its eerie soundtrack, desolate forest setting, and nightmarish vampire determine, stays a cornerstone of Balkan horror cinema.
In January 2010, town of Valjevo chosen the legendary Sava Savanović because the touristic mascot of town and your complete Kolubara area as a result of the author Milovan Glisic was from there. Zarožje and Valjevo are on the opposing sides of the Povlen mountain, however each declare Savanović as their model. The local people of Zarožje threatened to sue town, however in the end solely reported to the police in Bajina Bašta that Savanović was “stolen from them”.
In 2012, the mill tragically collapsed, sparking fears amongst villagers that Sava’s spirit had been launched as soon as once more and the sale of garlic boomed as individuals grew to become genuinely apprehensive. The native council even humorously issued a public assertion warning residents to hold garlic and holy crosses to beat back the vampire’s wrath — a folkloric customized deeply rooted within the area’s superstitions.
Plans have been set in movement to rebuild the mill as a vacationer attraction, preserving the story for future generations whereas nonetheless paying respect to its eerie historical past. By December 2022, the mill was renovated, however wasn’t operational (“dry docked”). The doorways of the “watermill of worry” are at all times open. Regardless of the shortage of roads, group, guides and nonetheless unfinished construction, by 2022 some 16,000 individuals have been visiting the watermill yearly.
However what do the locals give it some thought at the moment? Many really feel conflicted and the church even warned about utilizing such an evil entity because the trademark, even for tourism. Many don’t just like the darkish shadow it casts, both due to the worry concerning the legend, or the silliness of all of it. Some assume the legend was created by thieves within the nineteenth century to scare villagers and forestall them from wanting into it once they have been breaking into individuals’s properties.
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References:
Сава Савановић још чека да постане бренд
The Vampire of Zarožje: The Legend of Sava Savanović
Ko je bio taj Sava Savanović? – ČASOPIS KUŠ!
