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| The story of Arnod, or 'Arnold', Paole is one of the most well-known historical accounts of vampirism to date and was the first account in a seeming plague of 'vampire attacks' across central Europe from the late seventeenth century through to the mid-eighteenth century. Paole was born in Medvegia in Serbia which was, at the time, part of the Austrian Empire. Whilst serving in the army in "Turkish Serbia" he believed he was visited and attacked by a vampire. In order to prevent him becoming one himself he bathed his wounds in the vampire's blood and ate some of the dirt from the tomb in which he destroyed it. He then returned home to Medvegia in Spring, 1727, bought some land, took up life as a farmer and became engaged to a young woman at a neighbouring farm. Approximately a week after confiding in his fiancee about the vampire attacks he had suffered, he was killed in a farming accident and immediately buried. About three weeks after Paole's burial, people began to report that they had seen him again. Panic ensued when four of the people who had reported seeing him died suddenly.
Forty days after his burial, the community leaders requested that his grave be opened. Two military surgeons attended the disinterrment and declared that Arnod Paole was indeed a vampire as his body was in no state of decay and was full of fresh blood. In order to fully destroy the 'vampire', Paole's body was staked, his head cut off and the corpse burnt. The other people who had died were treated with the same method to prevent the attacks of vampirism from recurring.
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