22. Venice seems to have blamed a vampire for its plague of 1576
In 1576, a terrible plague ravaged Venice. Famous victims, such Titian, got elaborate memorials, but normal people were chucked in a big pit together. On Lazzaretto Nuovo, a tiny island used as quarantine, archaeologists found the skeleton of an old woman with a brick shoved between her jaws. Historians posit someone found her bloated corpse, decided she must be a vampire, and blamed her for the plague. 16th-century Italians thought vampires spread plague, and fed on the corpses by eating their burial shrouds like the Nachzehrer. The brick was meant to prevent shroud-munching and thus stop the plague.
