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Croatian 'Dracula' out to lure tourists!
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As evening mist slowly embraces this village in the heart of Croatia's picturesque Istrian peninsula, a few young enthusiasts gather in a bar trying to revive the legend of a 17th century local Dracula.
Sitting in a red velvet chair in the "Vampire" bar, decorated with garlic wreaths and lamps with crosses, Mladen Rajko explains how local tourist authorities launched a project last year called "Jure Grando, the Vampire from Kringa".
"No one is claiming that vampires or evil forces exist, all we want is to promote a documented legend in order to boost what we can offer tourists," says Rajko, 28, head of the nearby municipality of Tinjan.
Croatia is already a hotspot destination for foreigners with some ten million tourists -- more than the double the local population -- visiting the beautiful Adriatic coast of the Balkan country last year.
The first document on Grando, dating back to the 17th century, was written by his contemporary Janez Vajkard Valvasor, a Slovenian travel writer and historian.
In his 15-tome work The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola, which was published in 1689 in Germany Valvasor tells the story heard when he visited Kringa.
According to the legend, for 16 years after his death and burial Grando terrorised his former fellow-villagers, notably his widow.
At night he wandered the area knocking on the doors of houses, many of whose inhabitants later died, it said.
The lustful demon paid regular visits to his widow, forcing her to continue fulfilling her marital duties.
Eventually, in 1672 a group of nine local men decided that they had to put an end to the menace.
Upon opening his grave they saw Grando, his body intact, smiling at them.
After the first attempt to drive a hawthorn stake through his corpse failed because the wood rebounded, the bravest of the nine eventually managed to decapitate the body, bringing to an end Grando's reign of terror, the legend said.
"Grando already has all the characteristics of future literary vampires -- who appear some 150 years later -- he is a cynic, challenges both civil and church authorities and is sexually active," explains Boris Peric, a writer who investigated the issue.
"The story was later taken and quoted by various authors from theologians to historians," he said, adding that German writer Herman Hesse published an account of Grando in an anthology early in the 20th century.
Peric says he believes Grando served as one of the models for his future literary counterparts, possibly even for Irish writer Bram Stoker's "Dracula", which is said to be inspired by cruel Romanian Prince Vlad Tepes the Impaler.
Although the legend of the "Istrian vampire" -- in local language called "strigun" -- never died, Grando's name was slowly forgotten, he explained.
The story gradually returned to prominence after Croatia's first edition of Stoker's Dracula in 1999, as Valvasor's story was mentioned in a preface written by Peric.
In August last year, eight months after its opening, the "Vampire" bar hosted the first exhibition linked with the legend.
This year, the bar has monthly Vampire Nights featuring appearances by horror literature writers, while a science fiction and horror literature festival will be staged in Kringa on August 11.
A plaque to the memory of the nine courageous villagers who defeated the demon will be also unveiled, Rajko says, adding the event would start with a symbolic blood donation drive.
However, those promoting the legend are aware that they have to do it rather cautiously as they still face opposition in the small conservative community, notably from the elderly and the Church.
Kringa, a typical Istrian village whose stone houses fight for space at the top of a hill surrounded by forest trees, is located about a dozen kilometres (six miles) southwest of the central Istrian town of Pazin.
