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Illustration of Peter Plogojowitz
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
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Peter Plogojowitz

Also called: Petar Blagojević, Петар Благојевић
Folklore and mythUndead1500 to 1899

Peter Plogojowitz is one of the best documented cases of a village destroying a suspected walking corpse. After a run of sudden deaths in Kisilova in 1725, the villagers forced the local Austrian administrator to witness the exhumation, staking and burning of the dead man. His report was printed in the Vienna paper Wienerisches Diarium and reprinted across Europe. Together with the Arnold Paole affair it launched the 18th-century vampire debate, and the 'signs' he described are now understood as normal decomposition.12

Battle it
First recorded
1725
Report by the Austrian Imperial Provisor Frombald, 1725
Origin
Serbian
Serbia
What causes it
Never explained
The villagers gave no cause; they simply identified the dead man as the source of the deaths.
Weak spots
  • a stake through the heart
  • burning the body

When did it first appear?

Ancient worldMiddle Ages1500 to 18991900 to 19671968 to 19992000 to 20092010 to today1725

Report by the Austrian Imperial Provisor Frombald, 1725

field notes

What the sources say

1

A peasant of Kisilova, then newly under Habsburg rule, who died in 172512

2

Nine people died within eight days, each after about a day's illness, saying he had throttled them at night12

3

His widow said he had come back to ask for his shoes, and she left the village12

4

The exhumed body was undecayed, with new skin and nails, grown hair and beard and blood in the mouth12

5

When staked, fresh blood ran from the ears and mouth; the official asked his superiors not to blame him for allowing it12

Sources

  1. Peter Plogojowitz - Wikipedia
  2. Vampire folklore by region - Wikipedia

Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at [email protected].

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Folklore from the same lands

Vampir (South Slavic)South Slavic (Serbian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Bosnian), 1725Arnold PaoleSerbian, 1732

Same era: 1500 to 1899

JiangshiChinese, 1789Zombi (Haitian)Haitian (Vodou folklore), 1750StrigoiRomanian, 1714AbhartachIrish, 1870ChurelSouth Asian, 1880NachzehrerGerman, 1800
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