The Chest of Mysteries #2: The Legend of Jure Grando

Welcome to one of my favorite rubric: The Chest of Mysteries! This time we have a very interesting subject: Vampires! Laughing or not, it is a subject that has already given much to speak in Medieval Europe.

Well, we all know Count Dracula, right? That character who became quite well-known because of the book launched by the author Bram Stocker, released in 1987.
What you maybe not know is that he relied on a real person: Vlad, the Impaler, a prince who decided to bring terror to Wallachia (Romania) in the early fifteenth century.
He was not known to be "The Impaler" for being nice. He didn't drink the blood of the people, what he did was drain the blood of the victims impaled with a wound in the neck. And that's how Stoker drew on the myth of the best-known vampire in the world.

However, we did not stop here! No, no! Disillusionment if you think that the most famous vampire in history was Vlad, or even Dracula through the stories. The first to be considered a "blood drinker" appeared in Europe in a village in Croatia called Kringa in 1672, two centuries before Dracula's story was published.

The Appearance of Jude Grando

We have little information about Grando's life. It is known that he was a peasant in the village of Kringa and was married to a local inhabitant, yet it is known that he was not very famous in the region and that few people liked him.
It was only when he died, in 1656, that he gained prominence because apparently, Grando began to haunt the village, as it turns out.
According to a legend, Grando was buried with the blessings of the local priest, a man named Giorgio. Sometime later, reports began to appear that the dead man would come out of his tomb every night to scare the village and that he would knock the doors of some houses to get the population in. Yet to make matters worse, he apparently knocked on the door of people who were about to die briefly.

The most incredible part comes up now! Several inhabitants report having seen the dead for about 16 years! In fact, the wife herself claims to have seen him on several occasions, reporting that he himself appeared in the window of his room at night with a macabre smile on his lips and that he abused her numerous times!

A legend that ascends the transcendental

According to the historian of the time, Johann Wichard von Valvasor, the inhabitants of the region believed in the existence of creatures named strigoi - which fed on the blood of the children and which were dedicated to casting spells, and who wandered about the village night.
These beings supposedly still had the habit of slamming the door on some things at night, indicating that someone would leave the living world a few days later, and of course not to mention the ability to approach the bed of some of the peasants and sleep with some women. The historian further said that the strigoi were drawn to the widows, especially if they were beautiful. Does it look like someone does not?

To be sure, no one knew if everything was due to the fear they harbored against Grando, or whether the historian was really based on the rumors of his deceased, about strigoi. The fact is that after 16 years, the population went into action. That's exactly how you're reading.
In 1672, the mayor of the town, Miho Radetic , decided to gather a group of men to hunt the spectacle. They invaded the graveyard, went to the place where Grandowas buried, and when they opened the tomb they noticed a great detail: the body of the deceased was intact. It was there that the legend came that he could really be a vampire.
It was there that the mayor turned to Padro Giorgo to confront the creature with a crucifix and invoke the name of God, but it had no effect at all. They even stabbed a stake in the dead man's chest, but the wood did not penetrate the corpse.

The solution: decapitate the dead. 16 years after he was buried, the dead were beheaded with an ax, and all the population heard and testified Grando let out a long cry. The deceased was buried again and, as they say, was never seen again around the village.
To conclude, don't worry because Grando is still alive today since it became an integral part of the local history, and how he became the protagonist of the first vampirism registered in Europe and the world. At this time its history attracts tourists and curious to Kringa, becoming a source of income for the present city.

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