Vampires Were REAL, And Officials Agreed

Bright Side

What if we told you that vampires were once considered real by officials—and not just the stuff of legend? 🧛‍♂️ In 18th-century Serbia, an eerie wave of vampire hysteria swept through villages, backed by official military and medical reports. People were terrified, strange deaths occurred, and even corpses were exhumed. This wasn’t a myth—it was a documented phenomenon that helped shape the vampire stories we know today. In this video, we’ll uncover the chilling details of the Serbian vampire epidemic and how it became a cornerstone of European folklore. Press play if you dare… and discover the shocking truth behind the vampire craze that once gripped an empire.  Animation is created by Bright Side.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Europe was infested by vampires.

00:06The situation got so wild that authorities stepped in, and even military officers investigated these creepy cases.

00:14And their conclusion was clear. Yep, vampires are definitely real.

00:19Now, we're talking about a long time before Dracula showed up in books and movies.

00:23Back then, people genuinely believed those who had passed could rise and train the living of their blood.

00:31Tragically, their victims would not survive the encounter.

00:34But vampires didn't stay at rest.

00:36Instead, they continued walking, interacting among the living and infesting villages.

00:41These beliefs spread rapidly, causing panic across regions.

00:46It all kicked off in Eastern Europe, specifically Serbia.

00:50Villagers started panicking after mysterious passings occurred one after another.

00:55Take the story of Petar Blagojevic, a Serbian peasant who passed in 1725.

01:02Shortly after his burial, villagers claimed that Petar returned, knocking on doors and asking for shoes or food.

01:09Sounds harmless, right?

01:11Well, not really.

01:12Within days, those villagers began mysteriously passing away too.

01:17Nine people perished in total.

01:19Everyone freaked out, insisting Petar was responsible.

01:23As if he managed somehow to come back from the grave at night to feast on the living.

01:28Eventually, authorities dug up Petar's body to see what was going on.

01:32They wanted to check if there were any signs that he was still alive.

01:36So they looked closely at his hair, beard, and nails to see if they had grown.

01:40And they actually had.

01:42In fact, there was no sign of decomposition at all.

01:46His body looked fresh.

01:47Then they found something even weirder.

01:50There was some blood around his mouth.

01:52And that was enough for people to say, see, he's definitely a vampire.

01:56Then came Arnold Paoli, arguably the most infamous vampire of them all.

02:04He was a soldier who lost his life after falling off a hay wagon and breaking his neck.

02:09But there was something strange about it.

02:11Before that tragic event, Paoli claimed he had been bitten by a vampire once.

02:16Luckily, he said he cured himself by eating soil from the vampire's grave and smearing himself with its blood.

02:22Sorry, not exactly dinner table talk, eh?

02:26But hey, if he was cured, no one had anything to worry about after he was gone, right?

02:32Well, not exactly.

02:33Within a month after Paoli was buried, four people said they were being tormented by him.

02:38And not long after that, they were gone too.

02:41Ten days after Paoli was buried, the villagers dug him up just to be sure everything was, well, normal.

02:49And this is where things got eerie.

02:52His body hadn't decomposed.

02:54His hair, nails, and beard had all grown longer.

02:57And fresh blood was dripping from his mouth.

03:01Remind you of someone?

03:02Yep, our guy, Pater.

03:04But in Paoli's case, it was more disturbing.

03:07The blood wasn't just coming from his mouth.

03:09It was pouring from his eyes, nose, and ears.

03:13His shirt, his coffin, everything was completely soaked in red.

03:17Now terrified, the villagers drove a stake through his heart and burned his body.

03:22Oh, and they also dug up the four people they believed he had targeted just to be safe.

03:26They went through the same process with them, just to make sure none of them would return as vampires.

03:31Hey, who knows?

03:33But their vampire nightmare didn't stop there.

03:36A few years later, in the winter of 1731, a new epidemic occurred.

03:41Thirteen people passed within several weeks.

03:44Eventually, even local authorities stepped in, sending official investigators to calm things down.

03:51Their reports, incredibly, concluded that the vampire attacks were real,

03:55at least according to witnesses.

03:57That official validation changed everything.

04:00It kicked off a wave of vampire hysteria all across Europe.

04:04But why was everyone so quick to believe those who had passed away were coming back?

04:10One big reason was how little people understood health problems at the time.

04:15Bodies that appeared fresh or swollen after burial, blood around mouths, or even fingernails and hair seemingly growing.

04:23These natural post-mortem changes were mistaken for supernatural signs.

04:28Another thing villagers misunderstood was decomposition itself.

04:32Natural gases caused bodies to bloat, making them look as if they had recently been active.

04:37This terrifying image reinforced local beliefs that these people weren't at rest, but instead returning to cause harm.

04:46Plus, under certain circumstances, the decomposition process can be delayed for a long time.

04:52One reason this can happen is because of something called saponification.

04:57This is a natural process that happens when a body is buried in a cold and damp place,

05:02exactly like in some parts of Eastern Europe.

05:04In this kind of environment, the fat in the body can turn into a waxy, soap-like substance.

05:10This wax covers the body and helps stop it from rotting.

05:14Okay, but how to explain the nails and hair growing?

05:18It's more like an optical illusion, not real growth.

05:22Now, what happens is that the skin dries out and pulls back a little.

05:26When the skin shrinks like that, it makes things like stubble on the chin or fingernails look longer than they were before.

05:32But that's not the case.

05:35And what about the blood?

05:37Well, it turns out science has an explanation for that too.

05:41How long blood stays liquid after someone passes depends a lot on the surrounding temperature.

05:47In colder places, it can stay fluid for days.

05:50So if a body was dug up, there's a good chance it'd still find liquid blood in the veins.

05:54It might have looked strange, even scary, but it was just the cold doing its thing and slowing everything down.

06:02Medical researchers today believe that many so-called vampire symptoms match up with conditions like rabies.

06:09Back then, most people in these communities kept animals around, and villages were usually near forests full of wildlife.

06:17And there's still no truly effective cure for rabies.

06:20This condition can cause things like insomnia, aggression, biting, and even a fear of water,

06:26which lines up closely with the way vampires were described.

06:30So it turns out all these supposed supernatural events had logical explanations.

06:35Today, we might make fun or roll our eyes at the idea of real vampires roaming around Eastern Europe.

06:43But back then, those fears were taken very seriously.

06:47Whole communities were thrown into panic.

06:49There are plenty of documented cases where families dug up their loved ones and removed their hearts,

06:55all because they believed the person was a vampire behind the strange things happening to the rest of the family.

07:00And newspapers across the continent picked up these stories, spreading the fear far beyond where it all started.

07:08What's wild is that stories about blood-sucking creatures didn't just show up in Europe.

07:14Similar myths popped up across different continents and time periods.

07:18In the Philippines, for example, there is the Meninangal, a flying creature that splits in half.

07:24In Chile, they've got the Peocha, a shape-shifting being that drains blood.

07:29And in Australia, some indigenous tribes told stories of the Yarramayahu,

07:35a little red creature that drops out of trees and drinks your blood with suckers on the ends of its hands and feet.

07:41How cute!

07:43Well, back in Europe, the hysteria faded by the late 18th century, thanks to growing medical knowledge.

07:49But as you know, the legend never really went away.

07:52It just shifted into literature and gave rise to famous characters like Dracula.

07:57The author, Bram Stoker, was inspired by stories that had been going around since the 1700s.

08:04But he turned them into romanticized fictional monsters.

08:07You know, sharp teeth, pale skin, black clothes, that whole thing.

08:12And that was different from what the villagers believed they were dealing with.

08:16And in a way, those frightened villagers weren't completely wrong.

08:20Something was draining those people's lives.

08:22But it wasn't vampires.

08:24It was just misinformation mixed with a whole lot of imagination running wild.

08:29So, next time you see a vampire movie or read a scary story,

08:33remember that behind the fiction lies a fascinating truth.

08:37A real wave of fear, confusion, and panic that swept Europe nearly 300 years ago,

08:43leaving a chilling legacy that still fascinates us today.

08:46That's it for today.

08:52So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity,

08:54then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

08:57Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.

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