I bet when you think of vampires, Count Dracula is the first thing that comes to mind. Or maybe you're convinced that Romania is the birthplace of these bloodsuckers. Well, Serbs beg to differ.

First of all, the word "vampire" itself is one of the few words that made it into the international dictionary from Serbian-Croatian languages. And second, it's actually in Serbia where the first documented undead creature appeared — Petar Blagojevich.

But the most famous Serbian vampire is Sava Savanovic. He lived in a small town called Zarozhe near Valjevo and fed on the blood of workers at a river mill who decided to spend the night at work. There's a reason Europe fights against overworking :)

They've written books and even made a film about Sava — the first "truly terrifying" Serbian horror film "Lepitrica" (butterfly). At least, as terrifying as it could be in 1973.

By the way, the mill isn't mythical. It's located here and was actually used as a mill until the 1950s. After that, it fell into disrepair and started crumbling. Nowadays it's been restored, and they've built a nice road leading to it. Just to be safe, they even built a church nearby.

PS. The neighboring town of Valjevo sometimes tries to get a piece of Sava's the glory. And attract tourists, of course. In 2010 they declared Savanovic their mascot, which prompted the Zarozhe administration to file an actual police report saying their vampire had been stolen. Oddly enough, the "missing" vampire was never found.