The Blood Countess, Elizabeth Bathory

March 5, 2020

Elizabeth Bathory, The Blood Countess

Written by: Lex Fulmer

Elizabeth Bathory, born August 7, 1560 into a wealthy Protestant nobility knew nothing but comfort for her own personal life, but that was not the same for those young women who encountered her. 

Bathory's Hungarian family controlled all of Transylvania, and had some family royalty ties to ruling Poland as well. Being married around the age of fifteen to the Count Ferencz Nadasy, the couple moved into the gracious wedding gift from her husband's family, the Castle Cachtice. In this castle, Elizabeth Bathory will bore four children and begin her reign of terror among young, virgin women. She will eventually die in "a south-facing residential tower," on August 21, 1614 at the age of 54 (Malathronas, 2014).

Bathory will earn the title as "the Blood Countess" due to her accusations of torture against innocent women. The Croatian Journal of Ethnology & Folklore deems her not only a "historical vampire" but also a "historical reincarnation of Vlad...The Impaler" due to her heinous actions against these women (Kurti, 2009). If anyone would know the lore behind The Countess, the most common tale would be that she would bathe in the blood of virgins in order to obtain eternal youthfulness. Though she was arrested for her crimes, she was never tried in the court and more torturous acts were said to be committed to these women. It is said that she would eat the flesh off living women with her bare teeth, slowly and painfully killing them for her own gain. 

Pictured above this what is left of Castle Cachtice in Slovakia, as it is slowly deteriorating throughout the years. As previous mentioned, Elizabeth Bathory did eventually die in the castle in 1614. The castle can still be toured between the months of May and October, but there is no public transportation to the location. It costs only $3.50 to tour the castle (yes, only $3.50 for a real castle, the Renaissance Fair costs more and it isn't even real!), but much of extravagant wedding gift is coming down, with a missing tower and almost no roofs left.  Pictured below is a wooden statue erected in the middle of the small, lively town that resides below the castle.

Sources:

Pallardy, Richard. “Elizabeth Báthory.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 17 

Aug. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Bathory.

Kurti, Laszlo. “The Symbolic Construction of the Monstrous - The Elizabeth Bathory Story.” The Symbolic Construction of the Monstrous - The Elizabeth Bathory Story, 1 June 2009, pp. 2–4. EBSCOHost.

Malathronas, John. “'Blood Countess' in Slovakia: Tourists on the Trail of Elizabeth Bathory.” CNN, Cable News Network, 21 Aug. 2014, www.cnn.com/travel/article/blood-countess-slovakia/index.html.