Kisiljevo: Where the Word Vampire Was Born

Kisiljevo, recorded as Kisilova in eighteenth-century Austrian documents, is a village in the Veliko Gradište municipality of eastern Serbia, near the Danube. In 1725, it became the site of the first event to put the word “vampire” into a Western European publication.

Petar Blagojević

A peasant named Petar Blagojević died in the village in 1725. Within eight days, nine people died, each reportedly claiming on their deathbed that Blagojević had come to them at night and throttled them. His widow told the village that the dead man had returned home one night and demanded his shoes. She refused. He left. She fled the village the next day.

The Exhumation

The Austrian imperial provisor (local administrator) oversaw the exhumation. When the grave was opened, Blagojević’s body showed no signs of decay. Fresh blood was visible at the mouth. The hair and nails appeared to have grown. The villagers drove a stake through the chest, at which point blood flowed from the ears, mouth, and nose. They burned the body.

The Report

The provisor filed a report with the Austrian authorities. A version appeared in the Wienerisches Diarium on July 21, 1725, containing the first known use of the word “Vampyri” in a Western European printed source. The word entered German, then French, then English. Seven years later, the more famous Medveđa case would produce a longer report and wider debate, but the word itself came from Kisiljevo.