"The power of vampires lies in the fact that no one believes in their existence."
Bram Stoker
In 1729, a learned Jesuit monk accidentally stumbled upon a strange document in the Budapest archives, which, due to its eerie content, lay buried under other papers for another century. Those were court materials on the case of Countess Erzhebet Bathory, who believed that the blood of young girls killed by her would preserve her youth and beauty! The monster from Cheyte - as the locals called her - became the female version of the rapist and sadist Gilles de Rais, Bluebeard, before whom, by the way, she bowed. What was the reason for this bloody orgies! women? Was it one of the manifestations of vampirism or sadism?
Or maybe a whole complex of pathological properties of her nature? Specialists have yet to answer these questions, because so far about; little was known about the Blood Countess's deeds.
In the old days, when Slovakia belonged to Hungary, the Chachtice castle bore the Magyar name Cheit and belonged to the ancient Bathory family. No one was braver than Bathory in battles with enemies, no one could compare with them in cruelty and waywardness. In the 16th century, after the Battle of Mohacs, which gave Hungary into the hands of the Turks, Bathory split into two branches - Eched and Somlyo. The first took refuge in mountainous Slovakia, the second took possession of Transylvania. In 1576 Stephen Báthory of the Chomlio branch became king of Poland. He and his army saved Vienna from the Turks, earning the gratitude of the Austrian Habsburgs, who by that time had declared themselves kings of Hungary.
The wandering artist happened to capture Erzsébet Báthory, Countess Nadashdy, in the prime of her beauty. Who was this nameless painter? Italian? Fleming? In whose workshops did he study before he began to wander from castle to castle and paint his crude portraits? All that remained of him was a canvas darkened by time with a large letter “E” in the upper right corner. This is the initial of the woman depicted in the picture - Erzhebet, composed of three wolf fangs, mounted on a vertically placed jawbone. And a little higher - eagle wings, rather heavily drooping than soaring. Around the monogram, a dragon coiled into a ring - a symbol of the ancient Dacian family of Bathory.
She was a blonde, but only thanks to the fashionable Italian invention of her time - frequent Washing her hair with ashes and a decoction of fennel and chamomile, and then rinsing her hair in an infusion of Hungarian saffron. That's right: both the long dark curls that the servants kept for hours in front of burning candles in winter and at the sun-drenched window in summer, and Elizabeth's face, covered with a layer of creams and ointments, became light.
In keeping with the fashion, by that time already obsolete in France, her tied hair is barely visible in the portrait: they are hidden under a pearl diadem. The Venetians brought these pearls on their ships from the very Turkey that occupied the eastern and central part of Hungary. All of Europe at that time lived under the sign of pearls: the court of Valois in Paris and numerous castles in the provinces, the strict court of the English Queen Elizabeth, whose collars, sleeves and gloves were humiliated by it, and even the court of Ivan the Terrible.
The Bathory family has been known for both good and evil since ancient times. Two of its oldest representatives, who lived at a time when the family had not yet received its name (Bathor means "brave"), the brothers Gut Keled, born in Staufen Castle in Swabia, united the Dacian tribes, galloping on their fast horses with spears adorned with trembling dragon heads. ribbons in the wind, and blowing horns made from the beak of a stork or an eagle. According to the Vienna Chronicle, in 1036, Emperor Henry III sent and at the head of his troops to help the Hungarian King Peter. The family, whose family nest was the village of Gut, became famous during the time of King Shalomosh (XI century) and Duke Geza (XI century). In subsequent years, royal patronage no longer left her.
Later, the Bathory family was divided into two branches: one part settled in the east of Hungary - in Transylvania, the other - in the west of the country.
Peter Báthory was a canon in Satmar, in northeastern Hungary, but he was never ordained and left the church. He became the founder of the Bathory-Eched family. On the slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, you can still see the ruins of the ancient Bathory castle. For a long time, the Hungarian crown was kept in it - the crown of St. Stephen with an inclined cross. The founder of the western branch of Bathory-Shomlyo, whose lands were located near Lake Balaton, was Johann Bathory. Glory and fortune continued to accompany both families: Stefan III, Stefan IV the Big-footed were the rulers of Hungary, the Czech Republic (in 1526-1562) from the Habsburg dynasty.
Erzsébet Báthory belonged to the Eched branch: her cousins Shomljo were kings of Poland and Transylvania. All of them, without exception, were spoiled, cruel, dissolute, temperamental and courageous people.
Ferenc (Franz) Nadasdy
In the ancient country of the Dacians, the pagan religion still reigned. This land lagged behind the rest of Europe in its development by at least two centuries. While in the west of Hungary only the Nadash mountains remained uninhabited, here, in the rest of the country, the mysterious goddess of dense forests, Mnelliki, ruled. The descendants of the Dacians recognized only one god, Ishten, and his three sons: the tree of Ishten, the grass of Ishten, and the bird of Ishten. It was to Ishten that Erzhebet, conjuring clouds, called out. The superstitious inhabitants of the Carpathians also had their own devil - Erdeg, who was served by witches, dogs and black cats. And everything that happened was explained by the actions of the spirits of nature and the fairies of the natural elements: Delibab - the midday fairy and mother of visions, beloved of the wind; the wonderful Tunder sisters and the waterfall fairy combing her watery hair. Among the sacred trees, oaks and chestnuts, ancient rituals of worship of the sun and moon, dawn and the "black mare" of the night were still performed.
Her portrait says little about her. While the usually female figure on the canvas strives forward to show herself in all her glory to those who look at her, and telling her story, hidden in the darkness, Elizabeth in the portrait is completely closed in herself - a flower that has grown on mystical soil. The skin on her delicate hands is exaggeratedly white. Her arms are almost invisible, but it is clear that they are very long. On her wrists are gold bracelets, slightly above which are wide, Hungarian-style sleeves. She is pulled into a high corset embroidered with pearls, dressed in a pomegranate-colored velvet shirt, against which a white apron looks even more contrasting - a sign of a noble woman in her country.
Long before this, Stefan's sister Anna had married György Báthory of the Eched branch. Members of the family had entered into consanguineous marriages before, which quickly led them to degeneration. Bathory suffered from epilepsy (it was she who led to the early death of King Stephen), insanity, rampant drunkenness. In the damp walls of the castles they were plagued by gout and rheumatism. They were sick and born in 1560, Erzhebet (Elizabeth) Bathory, daughter of Gyorgy and Anna. Perhaps this explained the attacks of wild rage that had seized her since childhood. But, most likely, the point here is in the Bathory family genes and the cruelty of that time in general. On the plains of Hungary and in the Carpathian mountains, Turks, Hungarians and Austrians tirelessly slaughtered each other. The captured enemy generals were boiled alive in cauldrons or impaled. Erzsébet's uncle, András Báthory, was hacked to death with an ax on a mountain pass. Her aunt Clara was raped by a Turkish detachment, after which the poor thing's throat was slit. However, she herself had already taken the lives of two husbands.
The fate of noble girls in this harsh world was determined once and for all: early marriage, children, household. The same was expected for Erzsébet, who, as a child, was betrothed to the count's son, Ferenc Nadashdy. Her father died early, her mother went to live in another castle, and the precocious girl was left to her own devices. Nothing good came of it. At the age of 14, Elizabeth gave birth to a son from a footman. The culprit disappeared without a trace, like the child, and they hurried to marry her off. The couple settled in Cheyte - one of the 17 castles of the Bathory family. The dowry was so rich that Ferenc did not raise the issue of the newlywed's innocence. However, he was not too interested in this: soon after the wedding, he went on a campaign against the Turks and since then appeared at home infrequently. Nevertheless, Erzhebet gave birth to daughters Anna, Orshol (Ursula), Katharina and son Pal. According to the custom of those years, the children were first taken care of by nurses and maids, and then they were sent to be raised in other noble families.
Left alone, Elizabeth was desperately bored. She dreamed of breaking out of the mountain wilderness and going to a ball in Vienna or Pressburg, where everyone would see her beauty. She was tall, slender, remarkably white. Her thick curls were also light, which she bleached with saffron infusion. In addition, she washed her face with cold water every morning and loved horseback riding. More than once, the Cheyte mistress was met at night madly galloping around the district on her pitch-black horse Vinara. They also said that she herself punishes the maids - she pinches them or drags them by the hair, and at the sight of blood she becomes simply obsessed. During one of his visits, Ferenc discovered a naked girl in the garden, tied to a tree and covered in flies and ants. To his surprised question, Elizabeth nonchalantly replied: “She was carrying pears. I smeared it with honey to give it a good lesson.”
At that time, the Countess had not yet killed anyone. Although she was not sinless: in the absence of her husband, she took a lover, a neighboring landowner Ladislav Bende. One day, the two of them were riding horses along the road and splashed some ugly old woman with mud. "Hurry, hurry, beauty! she called after him. “Soon you will be just like me!” At home, Elizabeth peered into the Venetian mirror for a long time. Did the witch tell the truth? Yes, she is already over forty, but her forms are also flawless, and her skin is elastic. Although ... there is a traitorous wrinkle in the corner of the mouth. A little more, and old age will creep up and no one will admire her beauty. With a spoiled mood, the mistress of Chaita went to bed ...
In early 1604, her husband died, having caught a fever in one of the campaigns. The neighbors felt sorry for the widow, and no one knew what awaited her subjects in a quiet town at the foot of the castle.
Elizabeth Báthory tirelessly searched for a way to bring back the outgoing beauty: she rummaged through old grimoires (collections of magical rituals and spells), then she turned to healers. One day, the witch Darvulya, who lives near Chait, was brought to her. Looking at her, the old woman confidently said: “Blood is needed, mistress. Bathe in the blood of girls who have not known a man, and youth will always be with you. At first, Elizabeth was taken aback. But then she remembered the joyful excitement that had seized her every time she saw blood. It is not known exactly when she crossed the border separating man from beast. But soon the girls sent to the castle to serve the countess began to disappear to no one knows where, and fresh graves began to appear on the edge of the forest.
They buried both three and twelve at a time, explaining the death by a sudden pestilence. To replace those who had departed to another world, peasant women were brought from afar, but after a week they disappeared somewhere. The housekeeper Dora Szentes, a masculine woman who enjoyed the special favor of the countess, explained to the curious residents of Chakhtitsy: they say that the peasant women turned out to be complete clumsiness and were sent home. Or: these new ones angered the mistress with insolence, she threatened them with punishment, so they ran away ...
At the beginning of the 17th century (and all this happened in 1610, when Eržbet Báthory was fifty), it was considered indecent in the circles of the nobility to interfere in the private life of her equals, and therefore rumors flared up and faded away, leaving no trace on the reputation of the illustrious lady. True, a timid assumption arose that Countess Nadashdi was secretly trading in live goods - she was supplying rosy-cheeked and stately Christian women to the Turkish pasha, their great admirer. And since many glorious representatives of high society were secretly engaged in such a trade, was it worth it to puzzle over, figuring out where the girls were going?
For ten years, when horror ruled in Cheyte, the mechanism of murders turned out to be worked out to the smallest detail. He was the same as a century and a half before Erzhebet with the French baron Gilles de Ré, and the same as with the Russian landowner Saltychikha (Daria Saltykova) a century and a half later. In all cases, the victims were girls, and the baron also had children. Perhaps they seemed especially defenseless, which inflamed the ardor of the sadists. Or maybe the main thing here was the envy of aging people for youth and beauty. The hereditary defects of the Bathory family and the superstitions of Elizabeth herself played their role. She did not do evil alone: she was helped by assistants. The leader was the ugly hunchback Janos Uyvari, nicknamed Fitzko. Living in the castle in the position of a jester, he had heard plenty of ridicule and mortally hated everyone who was healthy and beautiful. Drifting around, he looked for houses where his daughters were growing up. Then Ilona's maids Yo and Dorka entered the business: they came to the girls' parents and persuaded them to give their daughters to the countess for good money. They also helped Elizabeth beat the unfortunate, and then buried their bodies. Later, local peasants, sensing something was wrong, stopped responding to the promises of the owner of the castle. She had to hire new barkers who looked for her victims in distant villages.
When the girls were taken to Chait, the Countess herself came out to them. After examining them, she chose the most beautiful, and sent the rest to work. Those selected were taken to the basement, where Ilona and Dorka immediately began to beat them, stab them with needles and tear their skin with tongs. Listening to the screams of the victims, Elizabeth became inflamed and took up the torture herself. It happened that she tore out pieces of meat from the bodies of her victims with her teeth. Although she did not drink blood, so she is considered a vampire in vain, however, is there a big difference? In the end, when the girls could no longer stand, their arteries were cut and the blood was drained into basins, filling the bath, into which the countess plunged. Later, she ordered a miracle of torture technology in Pressburg - the "iron maiden". It was a hollow figure, made up of two parts and studded with long spikes. In the secret room of the castle, the next victim was locked inside the "virgin" and lifted up so that the blood would flow in streams directly into the bath.
Time passed, and the bloody ablutions did not bring results: the countess continued to age. In anger, she called Darwula and threatened to do to her the same thing that she did to the girls on her advice. “You are mistaken, lady! - wailed the old woman. - We need the blood of not servants, but noble maidens. Get some of these and things will go smoothly.” No sooner said than done. Elizabeth's agents persuaded twenty daughters of poor nobles to settle in Cheita to entertain the countess and read to her at night. Two weeks later none of the girls were alive. This hardly helped their killer to rejuvenate, but Darvula did not care anymore - she died of fear. But the crazy fantasies of Elizabeth no longer knew how to restrain. She poured boiling oil over peasant women, broke their bones, cut off their lips and ears, and forced them to eat. In the summer, her favorite pastime was to undress the girls and put them tied up on an anthill. In winter - pour water on them in the cold until they turn into ice statues.
Murders were committed not only in Cheit, but also in two other castles of Erzsebet, as well as on the waters in Pishtyan, where the countess also tried to restore the vanishing beauty. It got to the point that she could not go a few days without killing. Even in Vienna, where Elizabeth, by a grim coincidence, had a house on Bloody Street (Blutenstrasse), she lured and killed street beggars. It remains to be surprised that for so many years she got away with everything, especially since rumors about the crimes of the "Chate creature" spread in waves around the district. Perhaps those who speak of the killer's high patrons are right. So, the witnesses recalled a noble lady who came to the castle in an elegant men's suit and invariably participated in torture and murder, after which she retired with the countess to the bedroom. They also saw a gloomy gentleman with a hood hiding his face. The servants whispered that this was the resurrected Vlad Dracul, who once did his dirty deeds in neighboring Wallachia. The dominance of black cats in the castle, and the Kabbalistic signs inscribed on the walls, did not hide from the eyes. Rumors began about the connection of the countess with the devil, which was considered worse than the murder of peasant women.
The most banal reason put an end to the crimes of Elizabeth Bathory. Needing money for her rejuvenation experiments, the Countess mortgaged one of the castles for two thousand ducats. The guardian of her son, Imre Medieri, raised a scandal, accusing her of squandering the family's property. She was summoned to Pressburg, where all the nobles gathered for the Diet, including Emperor Matthias and her relative and patron György Turzo. The latter has already received a letter from the priest, who had to bury nine girls killed by Elizabeth at once. At first, he was going to hush up the story in a family way, but then the countess sent him a pie. Sensing something was wrong, Turzo fed the pie to the dog, and she immediately died. The enraged magnate gave the case a legal move. To begin with, he interrogated the relatives of Elizabeth who were in the city, who told a lot of interesting things. For example, her son-in-law Miklos Zrinyi once visited his mother-in-law, and his dog dug up a severed hand in the garden. The daughters of the accused were pale and repeated one thing: "Forgive my mother, she is not herself."
Returning to Cheit, the countess composed a spell that Darvulya taught her: “Little Cloud, protect Elizabeth, she is in danger ... Send ninety black cats, let them tear apart the heart of Emperor Matthias and my cousin Turzo, and the heart of the red Medieri ... "And yet she could not resist the temptation when a young maid, Doritsa, had been caught stealing sugar, was brought to her. Elizabeth beat her to exhaustion with a whip, and other maids struck with iron sticks. Beside herself, the Countess grabbed a red-hot iron and pushed it into Doritsa's mouth up to the throat. The girl was dead, the floor was covered in blood, and Chait's owner's anger only flared up. The henchmen brought two more maids, and after beating them half to death, Elizabeth calmed down.
And the next morning Turzo came to the castle with soldiers. In one of the rooms they found dead Doritsa and two other girls still showing signs of life. Other terrible finds awaited in the cellars - basins with dried blood, cages for captives, broken parts of the "iron maiden". They also found irrefutable evidence - the Countess's diary, where she recorded all her atrocities. True, she did not remember the names of most of the victims or simply did not know and wrote them down like this: "No. 169, short" or "No. 302, with black hair." In total, there were 610 names on the list, but not all of those killed were included. It is believed that at least 650 lives are on the conscience of the “Cheit creature”. Elizabeth was caught literally on the doorstep - she was about to run away. It is worth noting that in one of the travel chests were neatly packed instruments of torture, without which she could no longer do.
Turzo, with his power, sentenced her to eternal imprisonment in his own castle. Her henchmen were taken to court, where the witnesses were finally able to tell everything they knew about the crimes of their former mistress. Ilona and Dorka had their fingers crushed and then burned alive at the stake. The hunchback Fitzko was beheaded, and his body was also thrown into the fire. In April 1611, masons arrived in Chait, who blocked the windows and doors of the Countess's room with stones, leaving only a small gap for a bowl of food. In prison, Elizabeth Bathory lived in eternal darkness, eating only bread and water, without complaining or asking for anything. She died on August 21, 1614 and was buried near the castle walls, next to the remains of her nameless victims. It is said that moans are still heard from the cursed castle at night, terrifying the area.
Killer in world history. The terrible woman who tortured several hundred people took incredible pleasure from this. August 21, 2014 marks the 400th anniversary of the death of a sadist who bathed in the blood of her victims. However, recently historians have put forward a new version, according to which the famous Elizabeth Bathory was slandered and fell victim to intrigues. Let's try to figure out who this lady really is, who was so afraid of losing her female attractiveness.
Cruelty and debauchery
One of the largest provinces in Romania has always been considered the birthplace of the dead rising from the graves at night, feeding on blood. Everyone knows the aristocrat Vlad Dracula from Transylvania, about whom many films have been made and many books have been written. In the historical region, a century later, in 1560, in a very wealthy family that did not have high moral principles, the girl Elizabeth (Elizaveta), who was distantly related to the famous Romanian prince, was born.
Noble persons of that time were engaged in incest, pathological cruelty and complete debauchery reigned everywhere, the descendants of one dynasty entered into marriage, and they gave birth to sick children not only in body, but also in spirit. And the Bathory family was no exception: insane people increasingly appeared in the family.
Permissiveness
According to researchers, having not only natural beauty, but also a lively mind, the girl was not spared mental disorders. She stood out from the rest of the aristocrats with her high intelligence, as well as her ability to grasp knowledge on the fly. Elisabeth (Elizabeth) Bathory was fluent in three foreign languages, while the rest could hardly even read.
Born in a noble family, the girl perfectly understood her advantages and knew that literally everything was allowed to her. She was furious for no reason. She began to whip the servants for the slightest offense and stopped only when they fell unconscious. Since childhood, the young countess, whose mood often changed, experienced great pleasure watching how scarlet blood oozes from terrible wounds. Such beatings took place daily, and Elizabeth Bathory, who was cruel for any reason, even began to keep a diary, where she described in detail what was happening. The girl's parents knew about her sadistic inclinations, but did not attach much importance to this. Cruelty, awakened in early childhood, turned into a real pathology with age.
Marriage
In 1575, the 15-year-old countess marries a famous commander, the owner of numerous lands of Nadasdy, who was nicknamed "the black knight of Hungary" for his cruel attitude towards the captured Turks. The husband presented Elizabeth with a truly generous gift - the Chakhty Castle in the Carpathians, where she ran the household on her own, since the valiant warrior spent all his time in battles.
Family life was difficult to call happy. The husband often left the young wife, and she soon took a lover from among the servants. Having found out about his rival, Nadashdi decided to teach him a lesson and fed him to a flock of hungry dogs. Having seen enough of the atrocities, the wife of Elizabeth Bathory, whose biography is full of mysteries, decided to have fun in the same way, and then her sadistic potential was realized in all its glory. For example, for the slightest offense, she could stab a maid with scissors. Over time, the bloody fantasies of the aristocrat reach their climax.
The pleasure of torture and murder
Cold to human suffering, Elizabeth's heart did not soften even after the birth of children, and pathological inclinations are becoming more and more pronounced every day. Her cruelty knew no bounds: the countess beat the servants with a club, pierced them with various parts of the body, enjoying the sight of pouring blood. Slovak workers who were subordinate to the Hungarian masters became their full-fledged slaves, with whom they were free to do whatever they wanted. And the murders of serfs who did not have the right to vote were not considered something illegal in those days. They were severely punished, and the servants did not even hope for the protection of justice.
Underground torture chambers were located both in the main residence of Bathory and other family estates. It was a real theater of human suffering, where the unfortunate victims were mocked for a very long time and just as slowly took their lives. Her personal servants helped the countess to kill and torture people.
New bullying
After the death of her husband, Elizabeth, nicknamed the Bloody Countess, begins bullying with even greater bitterness. It is known that the mistress gets a mistress among her workers, who shares the mistress's hobbies. With her suggestion, Bathory makes the girls serve naked even in the bitter cold. She douses them with icy water and leaves them to die a painful death in the cold. When the aristocrat had no real reason to punish the maids, she comes up with fictitious offenses for which she punishes very cruelly.
Lady Elizabeth Bathory skinned her workers, tortured them with a hot iron, burned them with torches, and cut their bodies with scissors. Most of all, she loved to hammer needles under the girls' nails, and when they tried to take them out, in order to get rid of severe pain, she chopped off her fingers with an ax. The Countess literally fell into euphoria, watching the victims writhe, and bit their bodies with her teeth, enjoying the sight of warm blood.
Buying from peasants' daughters
The new fun of Elizabeth Bathory was that the woman traveled around the country and looked for poor and beautiful virgins - living toys for her terrible entertainment. It was not at all difficult for her to do this, since the poor peasants sold their daughters with great pleasure for a small amount. They thought that a new and happy life would begin for the girls on a rich estate, and they did not even guess what terrible torments the children endure.
Parents were told that their frivolous daughters had run away with men or had died of deadly diseases. However, rumors about a bad estate quickly spread in the area, and new graves appeared in the forest, in which 10-12 people were buried at once, explaining the deaths by a sudden pestilence. Soon, there were no people willing to give their children as servants to an aristocrat, even for good money, and young maidens were unceremoniously kidnapped or looked for in the most distant villages.
Blood baths
Why did the countess need girls who did not know love? It is believed that Elizabeth Bathory, who was fascinated by black magic, bathed in their blood to stay young and beautiful. It was difficult for an overly vain and narcissistic woman who began to lose her attractiveness to hide the deep wrinkles that appeared under makeup. She was credited with practicing black magic, and the locals considered her a terrible vampire. True, as it turns out, it is completely in vain, because she never drank the blood of her victims.
According to ancient legends, the countess, who was overly worried about the loss of beauty, during the next torture of young girls, discovered that where their blood got into, the skin regained elasticity and tone. Elizabeth, who talked with witches and sorceresses, decided that she had found her secret to eternal youth, and her desire to kill only increased. The most beautiful girls were taken to the dungeon, and the rest were sent to hard work. In the torture chamber, the assistant countesses mocked the peasant women, and soon Elizabeth Bathory, inflamed with screams, personally began executions.
When the helpless victims could no longer stand and writhed on the cold floor in pain, their arteries were cut and all the blood was poured into the bath, where the aristocrat sank, dreaming of becoming as beautiful as in her youth. She firmly believed that she had found the secret of eternal attractiveness. To simplify her task, the sadist ordered an "iron maiden" - a hollow figure, consisting of two parts and studded with sharp needles. When the unfortunate girl was placed inside the torture device, the spikes pierced through her body, and she bled, which poured directly into the bath through the drain below.
The number of victims is rising
Over time, the countess began to torment daughters from noble families. She killed peasant women, but this did not bring results: the aristocrat was rapidly aging. The dejected woman turned to a well-known witch, who advised using the blood of not common people, but noble girls. Thus begins a wave of new murders.
Elizabeth promised the poor nobles that she would teach their daughters a course in secular manners, and parents without any fear brought their children to Bathory Castle in Chachtice, whose fate was sealed. A few weeks later, all the girls died a terrible death, and mutilated bodies were added every day. Soon the parents sounded the alarm, and Bathory failed to hide the death of noble persons. She came up with a legend about a beauty who went crazy, who hacked her girlfriends with an ax and committed suicide.
Scary finds
The Blood Countess thought only of how she could bury so many corpses unnoticed, and interred the tortured women without any ceremony. The priests, who suspected evil, were not silent and soon publicly called her a terrible beast that ruined many lives. They refused to bury the victims of Elizabeth according to all religious rules, and Bathory, in order not to cause new noise, cut the body into small pieces and buried the remains in the field. Often she threw the dismembered, bloody corpses into the water, where they were found by frightened fishermen.
Some whispered that a terrible werewolf wound up in these places, others remembered Vlad Dracula, who could rise from the grave and kill people with particular cruelty. However, it soon became clear - evil spirits had nothing to do with it. Several girls were able to escape from the estate of the abnormal countess and told what monstrous atrocities were happening there. The Lutheran priest Magyari publicly called Bathory a terrible beast, but the insane rituals continued. The monster's helpers cleaned up the blood on the floor every night, but one day it turned out to be so much that they couldn't think of anything better than throwing coal over this place so that they could pass.
End of atrocities
When the huge fortune of Countess Bathory dried up, the bloody story came to an end. In 1607, the aged Elizabeth sells her family estates for next to nothing, and her relatives, frightened not so much by the stories of mystical rituals taking place in them, but by the fact that a crazy aristocrat is squandering the lands, ask for an investigation. Rumors of terrible atrocities reach the emperor, and he sends an armed detachment to the Chakhty castle. The arriving soldiers broke into the fortress and caught the countess in another murder. She and her servants, who performed bloody rites, were caught red-handed. In the underground casemates, they found basins with dried blood, cells where the unfortunate captives, the "iron maiden" were kept.
When they found irrefutable proof of the atrocities - the diary of the countess, in which she described all the tortures with pleasure, it was useless to deny it.
Investigation and sentence for a sadist
An investigation began, during which twelve female bloodless corpses were discovered in the dungeons of the Chakhty castle, and at a closed trial, eyewitnesses and servants told the whole world about the atrocities of the countess. Soon the Hungarian parliament accused the woman of murders, and at the trial they read the diary of a representative of a noble family, who surpassed all serial maniacs in terms of the number of victims and extreme cruelty.
At the beginning of January 1611, the verdicts were read out. The henchmen who helped kill were executed, but since the Bathory family was very influential, the high position helped the aristocrat, and she was sentenced not to death, but to life imprisonment. The countess was immured in the fortress, leaving only a small hole for the transfer of food. The criminal, who lived for three years in eternal darkness and closeness, was guarded by the servants appointed by her children, and a few weeks before her death, the killer was allowed to make a will and read out her last will.
It is believed that the Chakhtitsa Monster was buried near the castle walls in August 1614, next to the remains of its many victims. However, there is evidence that local residents opposed the burial of the countess, and her remains were moved to the family crypt of Eched Castle. The story of the bloodthirsty monster has become a legend, and fiction is very difficult to distinguish from the truth.
Is the case fabricated?
Why is everything not so simple in the case of the infamous countess now? The researchers are sure that there were simply no eyewitnesses, and confessions were torn out from the servants under torture. It is no coincidence that witnesses of the events were immediately executed, and numerous inconsistencies in the case are suggestive.
Of course, Elizabeth Bathory took rejuvenating baths, but instead of the blood of virgins, she used various herbal infusions that gave the skin elasticity. If you consider that she ruined the lives of more than 600 women, then she would only have enough blood for thirty weeks. And eyewitnesses stated that she took baths four times a month.
A victim of the intrigues of the clergy?
The fact is that the Kingdom of Hungary until the 16th century was a Catholic state. However, after the spread of Protestantism, which at first was considered heresy, armed clashes began between adherents of the two religions. A fierce struggle took place against the backdrop of the Turkish invasion, and the Catholic priests, who testified against Elizabeth and dreamed of eliminating the influential Protestant, had their eyes on her untold wealth. In addition, the main prosecutor claimed part of Bathory's land, and it is extremely difficult to consider him an impartial judge during the trial. And the whole huge fortune of the countess was a promising piece for sharing. This practice existed before: wealthy people were accused of serving the devil, and in the meantime, the city treasury was replenished.
According to experts, the sources, thanks to which the Hungarian aristocrat gained a reputation as an abnormal sadist, are not entirely reliable, since the original documents that told the real story of Elizabeth Bathory were destroyed by order of the authorities. And after the death of the countess, new rumors and conjectures appeared.
The image of a bloody lady in art
One way or another, but the image of the criminal who did the atrocities has firmly entered modern art, and many writers, directors, musicians were inspired by him, reading the events of past centuries in a new way. References to the legends about Bathory can be found in computer games and horror films.
Two years ago, the Russian-American film "The Bloody Lady Bathory" was released, in which the famous actress S. Khodchenkova played the main role, perfectly conveying the emotions of the killer. The screenwriter of the thriller carefully studied the archives and did not settle for just rumors. To be as close to reality as possible, the shooting took place in Transylvania, shrouded in gloomy legends.
prestigious award
In 2014, a tourism project dedicated to Countess Bathory was awarded a prestigious award. Located on the top of a high hill, the Chakhty Castle, in which atrocities took place, after a large-scale restoration was opened for guests of the country, and more than 80 thousand people have already visited it. In the same year, 400 years since the death of the infamous aristocrat were celebrated in Hungary, and everyone could taste the wine "Bathory's Blood".
Local authorities intend to create a special organization to combine all efforts to attract tourists from different parts of our planet.
Now no one can say for sure who the world-famous Countess Elizabeth Bathory really is. The minds of researchers will continue to worry about an ambiguous personality who is considered a criminal for a long time to come. And the locals, according to rumors, hear loud moans at night from the killer's family castle, terrifying the whole district.
Actress Anna Friel as Elizabeth in The Bloody Countess - Bathory, 2008Since childhood, we love scary tales with witches, ghosts, vampires and other villains. Growing up, we learn that many of them had historical prototypes. So, for example, the main character of the tale of "Bluebeard" by Charles Perrault is none other than the French marshal of the time of Jeanne d'Arc Gilles de Rais, but the prototype of the famous vampire "Dracula"- Prince of Wallachia Vlad Tepes.
This list also includes the infamous "Bloody Countess" Elizabeth Bathory, whose name has become a household name these days. It is believed that she took baths filled with the blood of young virgins in order to preserve eternal beauty and youth. On her account, there are more than 650 murders, inhuman torture and even witchcraft, which allowed her to be included in the Guinness Book of Records as one of the most bloodthirsty serial killers in history. But is it true? Or was her name deliberately blackened by the church and influential relatives with selfish intent: to deprive her of her lands and limit her power in the country?
Young Elizabeth
Elizabeth, or, as it is correct to call her, Elizabeth, was born on August 7, 1560, in the family of the ancient and influential Hungarian noble family of Bathory. Her parents György Báthory and Anna Báthory came from two branches of the same family. She had an older brother, Istvan, and two younger sisters: Clara and Sofia. From childhood, Elizabeth was brought up in the spirit of respect for the history of her family. She was taught to be persistent and not to be afraid of death. It was these qualities that were very important for her future, since times were difficult and women often had all the responsibility for the household, since the war took almost all the men.
It was doubly difficult to maintain the power and large-scale possessions of such a respectable family as Bathory, since they always had envious people and enemies. The girl often witnessed the punishment of servants for offenses, strictness in house management and public executions, which, according to her parents, should have tempered her character. The life of the nobles was valued much higher than the life of servants and peasants. This was absorbed by the young consciousness of Elizabeth from infancy as part of the life of that time.
At the age of ten, Elizabeth's parents betrothed her to Ferenc Nadasdy, son of the influential Hungarian baron and palatine Tamás Nadasdy, based primarily on the political interests of merging their clans. The wedding took place five years later, when Elizabeth reached the age of 15 and was ready to marry. Among the invited guests, whose number exceeded 4,500 people, were exclusively representatives of the "blue blood": the nobility, the highest church ranks and members of the royal houses of Europe. The wedding gift to the bride from the groom was the Chakhtitsky Castle (now located in Slovakia), which later was the favorite residence of Erzsebet and the reason that she was called the “Chakhtitsky lady”.
Elizabeth was one of the most educated women of her time, spoke many European languages, including ancient ones, and could keep up a conversation on any topic, well versed in politics, music, literature, philosophy, clerical issues and land management. The latter was necessary, since it was on her shoulders that the burden of maintaining Bathory's land holdings fell when her husband Ferenc Nadashdy went to a long and bloody war with the Ottoman Empire.
Elizabeth gave birth to six children to Ferenc, but there is evidence that she also had illegitimate children from servants who were taken from their mother immediately after birth and killed in order to avoid shame.
Husband's death
Ferenc Nadasdy died under unclear circumstances. Historians disagree on the true reason for his death. In their opinion, these could be venereal diseases that Ferenc could have contracted after communicating with concubines, poisoning, war wounds, and even a royal conspiracy. The latter version seems to be the most reliable, since Ferenc was a successful commander of the Hungarian troops, and the crown owed a fortune to the Bathory family, which generously sponsored the treasury. In addition, the victories of Ferenc, his military influence and the dependence of the royal court on him were a threat to King Rudolf II.
Legendary mass disappearances of girls from nearby villages started and right after the death of her husband, Elizabeth. A few years later, this attracted the close attention of the church and the court. Despite the fact that the countess coped well with the management of the house and estates, officially her affairs were entrusted to the aristocrat and future palatine of Hungary, Gyorgy Turzo. Oddly enough, it was he who led the investigation into the murders in Chakhtitsa.
Some sources claim that Turzo intended to marry Ferenc's widow, but Erzsebet rejected his courtship and marriage proposal, since for her this marriage would be unequal in status. And, like any ambitious man, Thurzo could not accept the refusal, having, moreover, also a mercantile interest in the possessions of Erzhebet.
There are two versions of what happened to the countess in the early 1600s. The first and most famous- a clouding of her mind, which led her to a thirst for blood and to the murders of young girls in order to use their vital resources to preserve her own beauty. Second- the countess remained an influential widow, performing the duties of mistress of large-scale estates. She led a rather reclusive life, avoiding social events and devoting all her time to the preservation of the lands and the containment of the Turks.
"Bloody Countess": a legend
According to most authors, Elizabeth first noticed the life-giving power of blood when she hit a maid too hard for carelessly brushing her hair. The blood of the young girl spattered on the face of the countess, and in the gentle morning light of the sun it seemed to her that in the place where the blood had got, the skin became lighter and smoother.
After this incident, the countess switched to rejuvenating masks and compresses using the blood of young maids. At first, the girls agreed to bloodletting voluntarily in exchange for the promises of the Chakhtitskaya lady of any concessions and rewards ... until they began to die from blood loss. The main accomplices of Erzhebet, the maids Dorothea, Katarina, Ilona, and the servant Fitzko, at first chose orphans or those who came to work in Chakhtitsa from afar, so that the relatives of the dead would not immediately miss them. But each time the countess needed more and more blood, because she realized that lotions alone would not be enough.
Ingenious instruments of torture with spikes were used, which severely injured, but did not kill the girls immediately, so that as much blood as possible could be collected into vessels, the contents of which were then poured into a deep vat or bath. But this was not enough - ordinary blood ceased to act, and the countess became more selective. From that moment on, she needed only virgins, since she believed that young ladies should be pure and innocent in order to achieve the maximum effect of rejuvenation.
The apogee of the bloody mass of Elizabeth was the acquisition of an instrument of torture called the "Iron Maiden"- this is a kind of closet, shaped like a female figure, the doors of which were studded with sharp spikes. The girl was placed inside the closet, after which the doors were closed, and she fell into the bloody embrace of the "Virgo". The spikes were arranged in such a way that they pierced the body of the victim in places where there were no vital organs, so that the victim died slowly. At the bottom of the closet were pipes that led all the collected blood into the lower room with the countess's bath.
Erzhebet's mistake was vanity. Since she herself was a lady of noble birth, in the end she needed the blood of no longer simple maids who defile her body, but the "blue blood" of young aristocrats. The notoriety that circulated about her among the common people had not yet reached the ears of the nobles, and many families cordially agreed to the countess's invitation to send their daughters to her for education.
But noble girls never returned home. And it was their loss that became the reason for this investigation.
Why did blood have such a life-giving power for Elizabeth? Firstly, since ancient times, blood has been considered a source of powerful power, a sacred liquid, and in alchemy it was one of the main elements at all. And, secondly, the blood contains sodium and chlorine ions, which vaguely resembles sea water. Salt masks and baths are still used today for anti-aging purposes, so it can be assumed that the effect of blood baths could be similar to the effect of salt baths today.- the skin tightened and smoothed, and after washing it, it seemed much lighter, which, for the most part, was only an optical illusion.
At first, they tried to hide the corpses of the girls, burying them only at night, away from the castle. But when there were too many of them, the bodies were simply thrown out of the walls of Chachtice. There was an incredible stench around the castle and flies were circling, which ultimately led the investigation of Gyorgy Thurzo to direct evidence of pani's guilt.
Elizabeth carefully wrote down the names and ages of all her victims in a diary, which became the main evidence against her in court. It contained more than 650 names.
After prolonged and painful torture, the servants and accomplices of Elizabeth confessed to everything and were found guilty. The sentence was cruel and carried out in the shortest possible time: first, their fingers were torn out with red-hot tongs, after which the women were burned at the stake, like witches, and the men were beheaded.
Since it was impossible to execute a noble lady- this would not only cause panic among the nobles, but would also have a detrimental effect on the entire influential Bathory family,- the court decided to immure the countess in her own bedroom until the end of her days. So, in the Chakhtitsky castle without windows and doors, eating poorly, among her own sewage, the "Bloody Countess" lived for three years, until her emaciated body was found lifeless. The burial place of Erzhebet changed several times and today is no longer known.
Betrayal
We know this Elizabeth thanks to books and cinema. However, was it really so? As mentioned earlier, she was very wealthy and too powerful to be ignored by the nobility. After the death of Ferenc Nadasdy, Bathory's possessions became a tasty morsel, moreover, the crown was not particularly eager to repay military debts, which, in turn, could lead to a significant devastation of the treasury. Therefore, any excuse was needed to arrest the unfortunate widow, depriving her of power and property.
Most likely, the countess really cared about her appearance, and she tried to maintain her beauty as best she could. It is known that one of her assistants was a local healer named Darvulia, who supplied the Chakhtitskaya pani with healing herbs and ointments. It is possible that one of the herbs could turn the water red, which was noticed by the spies assigned to the countess and reported to those who needed her fall.
This also includes accusations of witchcraft, passion for alchemy, and even worship of the devil, which played into the hands of the church. It should be recalled that Bathory were Protestants, and the Habsburgs ruling in Transylvania-
Catholics (respectively, the main church was Catholic). And since Bathory's possessions were very extensive and all the churches on their territory were Protestant, the Countess was an even greater danger to the local elites.
Other evidence of Elizabeth's guilt is also disputable: the number of dead girls could be justified by some kind of illness that mowed down most of the peasants of that time; or an increase in the number of wild animals that attacked travelers and mutilated their bodies. In addition, the number of victims according to many sources varies greatly. So, during interrogation in court, the servants of the countess confessed to the murder of 30-40 girls, others talked about 50. But, again, these data were obtained by investigators after many hours of torture of suspects, so they cannot be reliable. And the diary, which says about 650 victims, allegedly disappeared without a trace. Or maybe he didn't even exist?
One way or another, the story of Elizabeth Bathory has become a legend in which there are no witnesses, no evidence, and no memories that could in any way shed light on what really happened to her. Everyone chooses what to believe- in the fact that she was a bloodthirsty monster bathing in the blood of young virgins, or a victim of a conspiracy and unjustly sentenced to death by the loving widow of Ferenc Nadasdy, on whose shoulders a heavy burden and confrontation with the king fell.
"Famous" portrait of Elizabeth Bathory
How sad when mistakes creep into history, music and art. So, for example, below is one of the most famous portraits of the "Bloody Countess", which is used everywhere: on souvenirs, book covers, in magazines and, of course, in biographical essays on the Internet. However, the lady depicted on it is not Erzhebet Bathory at all, but Lucrezia Panchiatiki (Pucci).
This portrait was painted in 1540 by the Italian artist Agnolo Bronzino.- twenty years before the birth of Elizabeth. Apparently, the stern expression of Lucretia's face, her arrogance and arrogance, her refined figure, a book (possibly a diary) open on her knees, a red dress and her accessories gave rise to gloomy images in the imagination of our contemporaries.
Who and when first used the portrait of Lucrezia to illustrate the image of Bathory is unknown, but this error has become fatal for her today. Over time, reliable information about who is written in the portrait will be blurred, and, most likely, this image will firmly go down in history as the image of the "Bloody Countess".
Arina Polyakova─ Russian writer and candidate of historical sciences, author of articles and several books on the history of the British royal house. Author's website ─ www.polyakova-arina.com
Photo: Getty Images, Instagram, film stills
Soul man
Scientists were able to photograph the soul - the camera recorded how life forces leave the body at the time of its biological death.
A unique study confirmed the ancient belief that people who were killed or died suddenly, for example, in a catastrophe, the soul cannot leave the body for a long time. She keeps coming back, especially at night.
Not surprisingly, ghost stories have been around since the earliest times. Most often, stories describe the ghosts of innocently killed or executed criminals.
The apparatus of the St. Petersburg scientist can see the soul. It measures what is commonly called the human aura. The camera, called the GDV, was invented and presented by Professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Deputy Director of the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Physical Culture Konstantin Korotkov.
GDV scans the body, and a photograph of its aura is displayed on the computer screen.
The living healthy area is highlighted in blue on the computer screen, and the dead, inactive part is highlighted in warmer shades, up to red, - says Konstantin Georgievich.
The GDV snapshot shows how the soul leaves the human body, the blue color changes to warm shades (from left to right - shortly before death, at the time of death and three hours after death)
Opening
Studying the properties of the camera, the scientists decided to experiment - they filmed a dying person with the help of GDV. We received three frames - shortly before death, at the time of death and three hours after the death was recorded. The resulting images show that the life force (that is, the soul) leaves the abdomen first. No wonder earlier in the Russian language the word "belly" was equivalent to the word "life". Then the head loses its strength.
In the picture of a person who has just died, it is clear that the aura is glimmering in the groin and heart area. After all, it often happens that doctors manage to bring a patient back to life by starting his heart with a current. The patient is resuscitated sometimes within five minutes after his death. Some do come back.
As if the patient or someone from above is considering whether to die or not, - said one experienced surgeon. “Sometimes we realize that we are not the ones reviving the patient. We just do our job, and the decision is made somewhere from the outside.
About three hours after the death of a person, only the groin area remains, where something else reminds that the body was alive. Soon, only a red silhouette remains in the photographs of the deceased - the soul left the body.
Religion
Professor Korotkov's discovery confirms another previously known study: experts noticed that the body of a deceased person becomes 21 grams lighter. However, the work of the St. Petersburg scientist helped to discover additional details.
GDV pictures, to the great surprise of specialists, showed that the human aura fixes the circumstances of death in itself. In the case of a natural, peaceful death, the aura gradually loses its activity. Then the body of the deceased emits a constant and uniform glow, characteristic of an inanimate object. If a person died suddenly or a violent death, then his aura shows “anxiety” for several days and does this especially brightly at night.
Konstantin Korotkov concluded that the soul of a person after death behaves as religion has described since ancient times. She either calms down and flies away, leaving her physical home, or temporarily remains in connection with the body, as if attached to it. She hasn't used up her entire energy resource yet!
The study of scientists suggests that the human body is a biological mass that comes to life only thanks to the vital force that fills it during the period of life. As soon as a person dies, the charge of life - the soul - disappears. Perhaps, as some religions say, in order to find another home.
Aura of a person before the work of a psychic (left) and after
GDV stands for "gas-discharge visualization". Recently, the scientist presented the device in St. Petersburg at the congress “Science. Information. Consciousness". Any participant could independently verify that he has a soul by filming on a GDV camera. True, the people of science prefer to call the discovered soul more cautiously - the aura.
During the development process, the device was tested on psychics ... and they encountered terrible opposition. After all, the GDV camera exposed the charlatans in no time.
The aura of a real psychic has a very powerful activity, says Korotkov. - In one Moscow medical center, all "folk healers" were offered to be tested on our device. And, imagine, almost everyone flatly refused.
This photo appeared on the Reddit website about two months ago and immediately scattered around the Internet. The author who posted it assured that the photo was taken from the monitoring monitor in the ward of a dying patient. A few hours after the monitor captured this image, the patient died from the bed.
The figure on the bed resembles a classic devil, black, with horns and, as it were, even hooves. No information was received afterwards, whether it was a genuine or a fake, and it is also unknown in which country the picture was taken.
However, is it any wonder, because information about evil spirits in hospitals is received regularly. In February 2011, the administration of a new hospital in the British city of Derby was forced to ask the hospital priest to organize an exorcism, that is, exorcism, after complaints about a ghost began to come from the staff.
Employees said that recently they began to notice a male figure in a dark cloak, which is rapidly moving through the wards and through the walls. Especially often, a mysterious ghost appears in the rooms next to the hospital morgue.
"The hospital manager takes ghost reports seriously. I don't want to scare you any more than I should, but I thought it best to let everyone know what's going on and what we're doing about it," Debbie Butler told reporters.
Paranormal experts have reported that the ghost may be the spirit of a Roman soldier killed on the site where an old hospital was built in the 1920s. The builders then ignored the protests of the local population and occupied part of the road laid by the Romans, and a new hospital was built on the site of the old one.
A representative of the local division of the National Medical Service, after visiting the anomalous medical institution, noted that the authorities are doing everything possible to restore the working atmosphere within the walls of the hospital.
Pomozdinsky phenomenon
Such cases are by no means uncommon. The fact is that the consciousness of a person after death does not change significantly. Some of the dead, very attached to the earthly world, to their relatives and friends, sometimes cannot immediately admit that they no longer have a body, and their place is no longer on Earth. This is manifested in the fact that they are trying to interfere in the lives of the living, influencing them in every possible way.
In the village of Pomozdino, in the Komi Republic, an X-ray laboratory building was recently erected on the territory of a medical complex. From the very beginning of the commissioning of the facility, her employees Inara Arteeva and Iya Popovich began to be tormented by vague suspicions, which they preferred to keep to themselves and shared them only with the republican journalist V. Ovchinnikov.
In winter, an X-ray equipment maintenance technician from Syktyvkar arrived in Pomozdino. In the evening, he was arranged to sleep right in the laboratory, and in the morning, having come to work, the employees hardly recognized their guest in a man tormented by insomnia and anxiety.
What he said was not news to the hostesses of the laboratory. After seeing off Arteeva and Popovich, the technician began to settle in for the night, when someone distinctly knocked on the door. Hastily throwing on a shirt, the technician ran to open it, but... there was no one behind the door. Moreover, the snow that had fallen since the evening lay around the porch like a clean, untouched blanket. Around the building, he did not even see the semblance of any traces.
So people just couldn't knock on the door. Then who? From this question, the technician himself chattered his teeth in horror. Closing the door harder, he returned to the room, and then again there was a knock on the door. The guest again went out onto the porch, hoping to understand: what is happening? And again, frightened by the silence and the inexplicable untouchedness of the snow-covered porch, he darted into the room. The knocking continued until morning. And all this time the technician did not close his eyes, horrified by the misunderstanding of what was happening.
According to Arteeva and Popovich, knocking at night is not the worst thing. Worse, that Someone who has settled among the appliances is very fond of playing pranks with electricity. More than once or twice, Inara had to go to the laboratory in the middle of the night after late passers-by, noticing the light in the closed room, called her home. Arteeva could not find any traces of outsiders in all these cases. It was also not necessary to sin on the unreliability of electrical wiring and equipment.
“The thing is,” says Inara, “that the Unknown really turned on the switch and turned the switches. I was even more disturbed by the fact that over and over again I found that the instrument buttons, left by me in one position, were switched on in a completely different way. as if an invisible inhabitant is trying to turn on the installation and take an X-ray."
Since Arteeva and Popovich could not find an earthly explanation for the mystical events, they came to the conclusion that aliens from the next world were naughty in the laboratory. The fact is that the new building was built on the site of the old mortuary!
Meanwhile, anomalous phenomena occur not only in the X-ray laboratory. In the accounting department, which is located, again, on the site of the once functioning operating room, not everything is clean either.
“All of our workers who at least once stayed in the hospital until late in the evening heard steps,” Tatiana Glukhinich, chief accountant of the Pomozdinsky hospital, told journalist V. Ovchinnikov. “Most often these steps, shuffling, heavy, sometimes moving away from you, sometimes approaching, clearly audible behind closed doors or in the hallway."
Conversations with the deceased
As a rule, their management tries not to spread about anomalous phenomena in medical institutions without a special reason, and such cases are most often known to the public thanks to ordinary employees: orderlies, nurses.
“When nurse Nina Ivanovna went to work in the old tuberculosis hospital in Yakutsk, which until recently stood on Petr Alekseev Street, according to the local publication Nashe Vremya, she was not warned about anything. Although the permanent staff of the hospital, according to the woman, knew about the ghosts , but the newcomers, in order not to frighten, were not told anything about them.
And you can imagine the horror that seized the nurse when at night in the corridor she clearly saw the transparent silhouette of a tall man in a raincoat and hat. In the morning she learned from colleagues that a man in a hat appears before the death of one of the patients. And indeed, death was not long in coming: soon a seriously ill patient died in the hospital.
“Once, during the night shift, Nina Ivanovna fell asleep. She woke up from the fact that someone was calling her. An elderly woman in a headscarf was standing next to her. There, in the ward, the patient is very ill, help,” she said. The nurse hurried to the indicated room and indeed found a patient there, whose condition deteriorated sharply. Having rendered assistance, she suddenly caught herself not knowing the woman in the headscarf, who had warned of an attack. Probably new," Nina decided, but in the morning she could not find her either among the patients or among the hospital workers."
I had to ask my colleagues again. As it turned out, this ghost woman often warns doctors and nurses if one of the patients becomes worse.
Another mystical story was told by a nurse from one of the Moscow maternity hospitals. Once a woman died during childbirth. The incident itself is, of course, tragic. However, this death, or rather what followed it, for a long time excited the minds of the workers of the medical institution.
It all started with the fact that the nurse, who approached the child of the deceased, became ill: her head was spinning, she was thrown into a fever. And from that moment on, whoever tried to approach the newborn felt the same way. Panic broke out among the nurses. Only one of them guessed what was the matter: the spirit of the deceased mother did not want to part with her child, could not come to terms with the fact that someone else would feed and swaddle him...
The nurse lit a candle in the ward, began to read prayers - nothing helped, when approaching the bed, there was immediately a feeling of pressure on the head, faintness. Then the girl began negotiations with the soul of the deceased: for a long time and patiently she persuaded her to leave, explaining that the child would be taken care of. And after some time, the spirit began to succumb to persuasion, and after three days, finally, it completely ceased to remind of itself.
