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Vampire of Venice

Also called: Lazzaretto Nuovo skeleton, vampire woman of Venice
Folklore and mythUndeadBarely moves1500 to 1899

The 'Vampire of Venice' is the skeleton of a plague victim found with a brick wedged in her mouth. Her excavator argued that she had been taken for a shroud-eating corpse of the kind German folklore calls a Nachzehrer, and silenced with the brick. Other anthropologists reject the reading, and the dispute was aired in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. Whether or not the brick was deliberate, the case shows how hard such beliefs are to prove from bones alone.12

⚔️ Battle it
First recorded
1576
A burial in a mass grave from the Venice plague of 1576; the interpretation was published in 2010
Origin
Venetian (Italy)
Italy
What causes it
Other
According to the excavator, gravediggers reopening the plague pit took a corpse whose shroud had rotted through at the mouth for one that was feeding and spreading the disease.
How you become one
A woman who died in the plague and was buried in a mass grave on the Venetian island of Lazzaretto Nuovo.
How it moves
Barely moves
The corpse was thought to act from the grave, not to walk.
Weak spots
  • a brick forced between the jaws

When did it first appear?

Ancient world
Middle Ages
1500 to 1899
1900 to 1967
1968 to 1999
2000 to 2009
2010 to today
1576

A burial in a mass grave from the Venice plague of 1576; the interpretation was published in 2010

field notes

What the sources say

1

The 1576 plague killed up to 50,000 people in Venice, close to a third of the city12

2

Forensic anthropologist Matteo Borrini proposed that the brick was a form of exorcism12

3

He called it possibly the first vampire burial identified by archaeology12

4

Simona Minozzi of the University of Pisa dismissed the idea, arguing the brick fell into a gaping jaw by chance12

5

Critics add that the shroud-eater legend is German and not documented in Italy; Borrini replied that Venice was a crossroads for such beliefs12

Sources

  1. 'Vampire' plague victim spurs gruesome debate - NBC News
  2. Nachzehrer - Wikipedia

Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at hello@zombiewiki.app.

Folklore from the same lands

Erichtho's reanimated soldierRoman (literary), 61Lugnano child burialLate Roman (Italy), 450

Same era: 1500 to 1899

JiangshiChinese, 1789Zombi (Haitian)Haitian (Vodou folklore), 1750StrigoiRomanian, 1714Vampir (South Slavic)South Slavic (Serbian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Bosnian), 1725AbhartachIrish, 1870Arnold PaoleSerbian, 1732