Case file · Folklore / legend

The mill of Sava Savanović

In 2012 the watermill at Zarožje, Serbia, said to be the home of the vampire Sava Savanović, collapsed, and the local council issued a tongue-in-cheek warning that he was free to find a new home.

2012 CE · 44.06, 19.61 · status: legend

The account

Sava Savanović is the vampire of Milovan Glišić's 1880 story 'After Ninety Years', based on local legend, and of the 1973 horror film 'Leptirica'. The press around the world reported villagers hanging garlic over their doors after the mill fell in.

The sceptical view

The warning was mainly a joke and a tourist draw; the vampire is literary as much as folk.

Connections in the atlas

Sources

  1. Wikipedia: Sava Savanović
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