Case of a Dead Countess
Antonia de Andricky was daughter to a rich earl Andrický. Antonia fell in love with a landlord whose name has not been preserved. This, however, would not please her father, whose ambitions were higher and totally foreign to marrying his daughter to some “vagrant”. When once in fury, he uttered this infamous sentence: “I would rather see you dead than married to a beggar like this.”
His hasty words were to be fulfilled immediately. Antonia fell to the ground dead. A summoned doctor only confirmed that she was dead. The young countess was to be buried on June 1, 1796. The dead body, however, had a suspicious yellow color and flexible fingers. This created more suspicion and outrage in the people who did not believe her to be dead.
Because of this, mayor of the city and the rector were forced to choose a compromise. They would not bury the dead body; instead, it was to be placed in an open casket inside the crypt’s corridor. Since the condition of the body did not change the following day, a mason was sent for to wall the casket inside the burial embrasure. The face; however, would still have a healthy pink color and the fingers would be flexible. Still one day later, when the frater church keeper was about to inscribe the name of the buried on the wall of the burial chamber, he heard the voice of Antonia calling for help. Overwhelmed by terror, he passed out. Monks, who later found the unconscious church keeper, said they did not hear a single sound. Thus, the story of the church keeper was widely regarded as the result of hallucinations of this man who was known as very fearful, and the matter has been left unnoticed ever since.
Today, we are left to only guess what was true about this scary tale, and what was added by popular folk imagination. Maybe better not to try open the crypt of the countess Andricka, though.
His hasty words were to be fulfilled immediately. Antonia fell to the ground dead. A summoned doctor only confirmed that she was dead. The young countess was to be buried on June 1, 1796. The dead body, however, had a suspicious yellow color and flexible fingers. This created more suspicion and outrage in the people who did not believe her to be dead.
Because of this, mayor of the city and the rector were forced to choose a compromise. They would not bury the dead body; instead, it was to be placed in an open casket inside the crypt’s corridor. Since the condition of the body did not change the following day, a mason was sent for to wall the casket inside the burial embrasure. The face; however, would still have a healthy pink color and the fingers would be flexible. Still one day later, when the frater church keeper was about to inscribe the name of the buried on the wall of the burial chamber, he heard the voice of Antonia calling for help. Overwhelmed by terror, he passed out. Monks, who later found the unconscious church keeper, said they did not hear a single sound. Thus, the story of the church keeper was widely regarded as the result of hallucinations of this man who was known as very fearful, and the matter has been left unnoticed ever since.
Today, we are left to only guess what was true about this scary tale, and what was added by popular folk imagination. Maybe better not to try open the crypt of the countess Andricka, though.
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