Blogoween Day 10: 5 Local Supernaturals That Demand A Book

Blogoween is hosted by Clo @ Book Dragons | Banner made by me, a.k.a Ruby, using Canva

Hello my dear book lovers! The prompt for Day 10 is super awesome, and I'm so fascinated by everyone's responses. We all have urban legends, some we know about, some we don't and we research them for this post, but all of them are worthy to have their stories told. I've had the fortune of living in two countries, so I'm going to try to include my favorite legends from both Romania and Italy. So without further ado, here are

5 Local Supernaturals That Demand A Book

1. The cursed church

When I was a little girl, I lived for about a year with my great-grandmother, and she used to tell me a lot of old stories. She was born in 1924, so she knows a ton of old, really old stories, most of them that have been lost through the years, and I've always loved listening to her tell me those stories. One of the stories that stuck with me, and it's one that I've heard from a lot of different people, is the one about the church you shouldn't get married in. This church, called Lady Bălașa (pronounced bəlasha) is located in Bucharest, and to my total shame, I don't remember ever being inside of it. But I remember the legend, and it's one that has been told to me ever since I got old enough to understand that the proper course of life includes marriage at one point. Basically the legend says that this church is cursed and that anyone that gets married there will end up getting divorced. My great-grandmother knew a few couples that ended up getting divorced after being married there, and that certainly adds weight to the superstition. Of course, nowadays there are a ton of religious ceremonies being carried out there, so I guess this legend is getting less and less known or the couples don't get divorced. I also wasn't able to find anything online about this legend other than very brief mentions on various forums dedicated to brides and marriage ceremonies.

What I would love to know is what started that superstition though, and if I find it, I promise I'll come back and share the story with you guys. But I really would love to see that story turned into a book.

2. The Old Dochia (pronounced Dokia)

One of the first legends we learn about in school is Old Dochia. She's this mean old lady that hates her daughter-in-law and one day, thinking that spring arrived early, she goes on the mountain with her goats (or they may have been sheep, I don't remember this part really well), while wearing 9 coats on (there's another version where she is wearing 12 coats). On the way she gets hot and sweaty, so she starts taking off her coats, and once she's left without coats a deity (sometimes God, sometimes pagan deities, depending on who's telling the story) punishes her for the way she treated her daughter-in-law by bringing back the cold and the frost, and freezes her to death. The thing I'm most intrigued by is how she got to be this bitter and why she's treating her DIL so badly. I'm also curious to see the aftermath of that story, what happened to the DIL.

There's a version of the story in which she's actually the sister (or daughter according to some sources) of an ancient Dacian ruler, King Decebalus, who disguises herself as a shepherd in order to escape the roman Emperor Traian, and when she can't escape him, asks one of the Dacian gods to turn her to stone. This last story sounds so fascinating to me, and I am hoping someone decides to write a story based on this legend.

3. The Haunted Orphanage on French Street

This is another super creepy story, one that could be worthy of a Supernatural episode. The earlier seasons, with the boys searching for their dad or right after John died. So maybe season 1 or 2.

Basically there's this old building in Bucharest, located on the French Street, that used to be an orphanage, back in the 19th century. The story goes that children were abandoned there and it is said the owner of the orphanage was a cruel man, that he let the children starve for days on end, and many children even died of starvation. To this day, people claim they can hear voices of children screaming, crying, begging for water. A very gruesome story, but if ghosts are real, I hope the ghosts of those children are torturing the hell out of that cruel, terrible man.

4. The Cathedral of Curtea de Argeș

Another legend we learn about as kids is that of the Cathedral of Curtea de Argeș and the man who built it, architect Manole. The legend goes that the architect and his men had been trying for a long time to build this cathedral on the orders of Radu Negru (Radu the Black), ruler of Wallachia, but they were never able to prevent the walls from crumbling. Eventually, the architect and his men decided that they were going to use an old custom, which is to bury the first woman they see passing by the building site in the walls of the building. After some time, they see a woman approaching, and it turns out that woman is Ana, Manole's wife. They grab her, bury her, and so the cathedral was built.

I'm not sure anyone made any type of scans or investigations to see if this legend is real or just fiction, but everyone who's seen the cathedral swear they see a bloody hand print on one of the outside walls.

5. The Haunted Venetian Island

I remember seeing a documentary on the Poveglia Island near Venice a few years ago. The island used to be a place where those sick with the Black Plague were sent to, and they were either left for dead or burned alive. After a few centuries a psychiatric hospital was built, and the patients were tortured by the doctor who built the hospital. He eventually went crazy and killed himself.

Now I don't know about you, but I would not want to visit this place. Apparently you can't visit the island without permission, which I am happy not to have. I remember the Asylum episode in Supernatural, and let me tell you I am not willing to scare myself silly. But I would read a book about it.

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So that's it on my side. What are some of your favorite legends that you'd love to see used for a book?