Arnold Paole
Serbian hajduk who was believed to have become a vampire after his death / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Arnold Paole (Arnont Paule in the original documents; an early German rendition of a Serbian name or nickname, perhaps Арнаут Павле, Arnaut Pavle; died c. 1726) was a Serbian hajduk who was believed to have become a vampire after his death, initiating an epidemic of supposed vampirism that killed at least 16 people in his native village of Meduegna (also rendered as Metwett; likely a German rendition of Serbian "Medveđa"), located at the West Morava river in Trstenik, Serbia.[1][2][3][4]
Paole's case, similar to that of Petar Blagojevich, became famous because of the direct involvement of the Austrian authorities and the documentation by Austrian physicians and officers, who confirmed the reality of vampires. Their report of the case was distributed in Western Europe and contributed to the spread of vampire belief among educated Europeans. The report and its significance for the subsequent eighteenth century vampire controversy are now sometimes explained by a then-poor understanding of the process of corpse decomposition.[5]
Knowledge of the case is based mostly on the reports of two Austrian military doctors, Glaser and Flückinger, who were successively sent to investigate the case.[6][7][8] Scholars have suggested that Paole's case has influenced the depiction of vampires in popular culture texts.[5][9]