Travel is all about learning about different cultures, trying new foods and enjoying local legends, like the one of Elizabeth Bathorý. Oh yes, in this article I will introduce you to one of the most interesting personalities in Slovakia’s history.
I like history because it’s full of good stories. Some of them are true, some are not, doesn’t matter to me as long as it’s a juicy story! And Slovakia has plenty of intriguing legends.
The small country in Eastern Europe is full of ancient castles and each castle has their legends and stories. One of the juiciest stories being the one of Countess Bathorý who lived in the Cachtický castle an hour’s drive from Bratislava.
DISCLAIMER! If you are sensitive and easily get queasy, perhaps skip this article. Suffice to say this is not a pretty story with a happy ending.
The legend of Elizabeth Bathorý
Countess Elizabeth Bathorý was left a widower when her husband died in 1604. While ruling over quite a bit of land, she developed a nasty habit of luring and kidnapping young women from the near-by villages. There are many versions of what she did to the girls but one of them is about a room she had built into the castle.
According to legend the girls, who had to be young and virgins, were tortured and killed in the room so that their blood would trickle down onto the floor. This wasn’t just any floor, but a grid floor. And below there was another room with a bath where the blood would trickle into.
She then bathed in the blood believing that it would maintain her youth and good looks. For ten years she was able to keep this up until she was captured and sued.
According to official numbers she killed 80 young women. But it was also presented that she would have killed 650 women and kept score in a book about them.
She is to this date the most “productive” female serial killer which has also resulted in people comparing her to the famous Vlad the Impaler, also known as Count Dracula.
Read also: Seili – Tragic Stories of the Women Sentenced to Eternal Isolation
What happened to her?
Instead of the obvious death sentence her defence managed to persuade the Hungarian king to lower the sentence to lifetime imprisonment. She was kept in the bottom of a tower in the castle of Cachtický. There she died after four years under suspicious circumstances.
This badass “noble” lady has inspired countless artists to repeat her story through movies, plays, video games, books and music.
Whether Elizabet Bathorý actually bathed in blood is not officially proven to be true, but it does give her story a nice freaky angle. Nonetheless, her doing what she did has often been explained through vanity. But I think she was just plain simply insane.
The day we visited the castle was quite cloudy, and since it was early Spring, the castle’s surroundings were a bit spooky. We had also been drinking the story from Wikipedia before the trip focusing on the most horrific versions.
But no ghosts showed up, even though just before we left the temperature plummeted big time. We blamed it on the Czechs who have a bad habit of attracting disasters in the Slovak mountains. True story.
That was another Slovak castle conquered and stories explored. This country has soooo much potential to become a major tourist destination with all the castles, wineries and beauuutiful mountains.
Is the legend of Elizabeth Bathorý true?
For a long time it was accepted that the legend echoes with truth. Since it’s over 400 years since Elizabeth Bathorý or her castle existed, it’s hard to come by any proper evidence for or against her.
But recently the accounts of her legend as the first female serial killer have been questioned. The rumours of her kidnapping and killing young women spread wide and far between 1604 – 1606 (right after she was left a widower).
The rumours spread all the way to the Holy Roman Empire where Matthias II then ordered György Thurzó to go and investigate.
Thurzó collected over 300 witness statements and then reported of dead and tortured women being found at Bathorý’s castle. Upon these statements Bathorý was brought to court.
At said court the witnesses explained that none of them had actually witnessed anything they had said themselves. They had simply been repeating what they had heard from others. Bathorý’s servants, on the other hand, confessed under torture. And so, Bathorý was convicted.
The question marks
Even during that time there were many who defended Elizabeth Bathorý, though, saying that she was a victim of a conspiracy. As women we know that the world is still not a fair place for us. But imagine how unfair it was towards a powerful woman back then!
Because Elizabeth was a very powerful woman. She owned a lot of Hungarian land and was very wealthy. In addition, she was not Catholic, which didn’t suit The Holy Roman Emperor Matthias II at all. What makes his interest in Bathorý’s case even more questionable is the fact that he owed her a lot of money.
Obviously that debt was written off after Elizabeth was convicted. Getting Bathorý out of the way also benefited Thurzó’s political career. So, whether one of them or both lied to get her out of their way, they succeeded.
I guess we will never know the truth with this case. But as a woman I can’t help but have extremely high suspicions of foul play here. On the other hand, I’m also completely prepared to believe that she did murder dozens of young women in her time. What do you think?
