Vienna is home to some spooky and bloody history
The evilest person on the planet must be a serial killer.
Per Merriam-Webster, a serial killer is "a person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern."
Immediate names come to mind when thinking of these heinous human beings who have taken countless lives: Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Pedro Lopez, and many others.
One of particular interest and still a mystery today is Jack the Ripper, whose identity is still a mystery.
Years ago, Laureen and I took our children to London for a vacation. We saw the sights — the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Piccadilly Circus, and all the places tourists visiting England go.
We were great tourists and awesome parents.
The best was saved for last.
At midnight, the ‘Jack the Ripper Walk in the Night’ through Whitechapel and Spitalfields in London.
It was a wonderful evening that scared our daughters silly.
“Daddy I’m scared,” one of the girls stated.
“Well, keep swiveling your head for strangers,” I replied.
Jack was thought to have murdered at least five women during his reign of terror between August and November of 1888.
Many innocent victims succumb to this deranged person, yet nothing compares to some of the earlier-named serial killers.
But one life is too many.
They all pale compared to the most disgusting and vile serial killer of all time.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory is believed to be responsible for the murder of at least 300 to 600 young women between 1590 and 1610.
Her reasoning, the blood of young girls, would sustain her youth and beauty forever.
In 1610, she was imprisoned for these atrocities, and over 300 people testified against her. Bathroy was found guilty and sentenced to be walled up in one of her castles.
She died in 1614 at the age of 54.
So much for immortality.
The Guinness Book of Records depicts Bathory as the most prolific female serial killer in history.
So, recently, Laureen, my gorgeous spouse, and I ventured abroad to Austria for a couple of weeks.
In all transparency, I am in the middle of a historical novel about Vlad Dracul from Romania and wanted to visit Hungary for some more research. We have not had the chance in the past few years because of COVID.
“We have a four-hour layover in Vienna before hitting Budapest,” I said to Laureen one Sunday evening while looking over flights.
“Vienna?” she replied. “Like the song by Billy Joel, in 1977, 'Vienna Waits for You.' ”
One of her favorite songs.
Being the good husband that I am, I immediately changed our plans. We’d be in Austria for a couple of weeks. Vlad, your story must wait until next year.
We’d never been to this part of Europe and were excited.
“No masks on the planes,” I mentioned.
“The home of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert,” Laureen replied.
“And no masks on the planes,” I replied.
Vienna the city of art and music.
“You know, Elizabeth Bathory got her start there,” I said.
The rolling of the eyes could be heard in San Bernardino. “I’m finding just the right dress for the Musikverein.”
I hoped the music venue had reclining seats and a comfortable headrest.
Vienna was founded around 500 BC when the Celts settled the site on the Danube.
The history is too long for this article, but if a person has a chance to visit Austria, this is the starting point.
It is a beautiful city of nearly two million residents, with many sites to visit; the Schonbrunn Palace, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the Prater, the Danube Tower, and so much more.
But this was October 2022, and we had to visit where Bathory lived. We just had to.
“We don’t have to visit her house,” Laureen said.
I nodded. “If I sit through an entire evening of Mozart, we will see where she lived.”
“I’ll look fetching, and the music will be wonderful,” she replied.
“Is Billy Joel playing?”
Elizabeth Bathory’s address in Vienna was 12 Augustinerstra. Still, when her crimes of murder and mayhem became publicly known, she retreated to a castle in nearby Hungary, where the murders increased and became more deplorable.
It is rumored that when a person approaches the address in Vienna, one can hear the screams of the early victims of the countess’ depravity.
She had four servants who would search Vienna's lowliest sections for her bloodletting ritual, promising forever youth.
Arriving early in the evening, after a wonderful day exploring Vienna’s highlights, Laureen looked at me.
“I don’t like it here.”
“We spent a lot of money flying to Vienna,” I replied. “That’s the part I don’t like.”
A cold breeze swept up the street, and I froze.
“Something bad, really bad, happened here in this house,” Laureen said. “I feel the presence of something evil here.”
Laureen is sensitive to feelings involving the paranormal. Me, I like to think of myself as just being normal.
The house where Bathory once resided is now privately owned. The best we could do was take photographs of the exterior.
As we left, the front door opened, and an older gentleman dressed in a long black flowing cape stepped out onto the stoop. He smiled, revealing some very long incisors.
“May I be of some assistance?”
We moved on.
That moving on brought us to one of the oldest areas in the city of Vienna. The houses were built during the middle ages, and one street, in particular, is supposed to be seriously haunted.
Blutgasse — or Blood Alley.
It was where the Knights Templars once lived.
The Templars were a group of Catholic soldiers whose order was founded in 1118 in Jerusalem. Their main duty was to offer safe passage for people heading to the Holy Land on a pilgrimage.
Through the centuries, the Templars gained more and more prestige, power, and riches which made some people angry.
One of those folks was King Philip IV of France. He had borrowed large sums from the Templars to pay for his war against England.
Another order of Catholic soldiers, known as the Knights Hospitallers, hated the Templars.
The Hospitallers petitioned King Philip to have the Templars arrested for a barrage of crimes, which later were determined to be false.
False or not, King Philip believed this would be a great way to vanquish the debt he owed the Templars.
On October 13th, 1307, King Philip IV of France declared the destruction of the Templars in all realms.
It just so happened to be a Friday, to boot.
The Blutgasse is a narrow alley with tall thick-walled residences bordering either side. It is a shadowy dark place, even in the daylight.
Templars lived in rooms in a picturesque courtyard with beautiful architecture next to Blutgasse.
It would be here in 1312 that the Templars would be sought out and butchered by those sent by the King of France.
Phillip would have his debts wiped clean with this latest purge in Vienna which was the end of the Templars.
The knights fought heroically but died in such great numbers that legend states the alley flowed blood.
We entered the alley, and Laureen felt nothing. There were numerous Templar crosses on the walls of the residences indicating who had once resided here.
As the alley tilted downward a bit to another street, Laureen stopped.
“I sense this is a place of immense pain and sorrow.”
Moving further down the alley, Laureen stated that her chest was heavy and she was having trouble breathing.
“A lot of suffering was here.”
As we exited the alley and headed to the courtyard of the Templars, Laureen stopped in the large doorway.
“I can’t go in there. It’s too much now.”
I walked into the courtyard. It was stunningly quiet and dark. Though I did not have the same reactions as Laureen had, there was something very somber about the tiled floors and thick walls of that courtyard.
Don’t know what – but just something I cannot explain.
Laureen finally came in after taking a brief respite and explained what she had felt.
“It was as though someone or something was crushing my lungs. I couldn’t breathe – the heaviness was awful.”
“A person or just a feeling?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know, but brave men died here long ago, and I think some may have not realized that fact.”
“What fact?”
“That they are dead.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “Seriously?”
“Yes.”
We headed out of the courtyard a few minutes later and entered a gorgeously sunny Vienna day.
Is the city haunted? Any place well over a thousand years could be — and why not Vienna?
Happy Halloween.
Email John R. Beyer at beyersbyways@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Vienna is home to some spooky and bloody history
