The story in brief
Kingdom of Hungary, 1610. One of the richest women in the kingdom, the widow of a war hero, is imprisoned in her own castle. Four servants go on trial; she never does. More than a century later, a priest puts the blood baths on paper, and a number someone only heard secondhand goes round the world. What the papers of the time say. An account of real crimes, without violent detail.
The chapters
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Chapter 1 · 4 min · Free
The Lady of the Castles
On a hilltop in Slovakia, everyone tells the same legend about a countess. The papers of the time tell another story.
Sources: Gábor Várkonyi (2025); Aleksandra Bartosiewicz, Przegląd Nauk Historycznych (2018); The Bytča depositions (1611)
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Chapter 2 · 4 min · Free
The Rumours
Her husband is said to have asked a friend to protect his widow. Years later, that same friend orders an inquiry into her.
Sources: The Bytča depositions (2 and 7 January 1611), in the version printed in 1817; Gábor Várkonyi (2025); Kimberly Craft, Infamous Lady (2009)
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Chapter 3 · 4 min
The Night of 29 December
On the night of 29 December 1610, one of the richest women in Hungary is arrested at home. The next day, the man who had her arrested calls her “cursed” in a letter to his wife.
Sources: György Thurzó, letter to his wife (30 December 1610); The Bytča depositions (2 January 1611), in the version printed in 1817; Gábor Várkonyi (2025)
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Chapter 4 · 5 min
Six Hundred and Fifty
At the servants’ trial, a young woman repeats a number she heard someone say. Four hundred years later, it is still going round the world.
Sources: The sentence of the Bytča court (7 January 1611), in the version printed in 1817; Tony Thorne, Countess Dracula (1997); Gábor Várkonyi (2025)
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Chapter 5 · 5 min
The Blood Legend
More than a hundred years after her death, a priest writes the story everyone knows today. No testimony of 1611 mentions it.
Sources: Gábor Várkonyi (2025); Aleksandra Bartosiewicz (2018); Hesperus, Prague (1817); László Nagy (1984) and Irma Szádeczky-Kardoss (1993); Kimberly Craft (2009)
What you’ll be able to tell
This story belongs to the journey “Legend and Record”. By the end of it, you can tell what the legend made up and what the documents prove, case by case.
Stories in this journey
- Jack the Ripper: The Five Women of Whitechapel
- H. H. Holmes: The Castle the Papers Built
- Rua do Arvoredo: The Sausage Legend of Porto Alegre
- Elizabeth Báthory: The Countess and the Blood Legend
Sources
- The Bytča depositions and sentence (1611), printed in Hesperus (Prague, 1817)
- György Thurzó’s letter to his wife (30 December 1610)
- Gábor Várkonyi (2025)
- Aleksandra Bartosiewicz (2018)
- Tony Thorne, Countess Dracula (1997)
- Kimberly Craft, Infamous Lady (2009)
