I recently returned from visiting Turkey, Greece, and Croatia. As always, I collected
stories along the way as I visited ancient Greek and Roman ruins, Byzantine palaces, historic mosques, and more. Some of the strangest are as follows.
Daksa Island, in the Adriadic, lies within swimming distance of the
Croatian city of Dubrovnik. The island's haunted reputation arises from a
legend about 48 presumed Nazi collaborators that were executed without trial on
the uninhabited island at the close of World War II.
Also close to shore is the neighboring island of Lokrum, which has its own
dark legends. The curse, they call it, befell the island when occupying French
forces ordered a 13th century monastery on the island to be shuttered. The
Benedictines who were removed leveled a curse against anyone claiming ownership
of the small island. It seemed to work almost immediately, three of the
aristocrats who colluded with the Benedictine expulsion met with untimely
deaths shortly thereafter. A wealthy seaman, Captain TomaĊĦevic, took over
the island next and it nearly bankrupted him. The Archduke Maximilian, the
younger brother of the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph I, took up residency
next, restoring the monastery as a home for he and his wife. The idyllic
sanctuary was shattered when Maximilian was sent to Mexico in 1864 as governor.
He was shot to death less than 3 years later. After the city of Dubrovnik
refused to purchase the island--even for an extremely paltry sum--a man named
Dujmovic from Poljica purchased Lokrum and scandalously met economic ruin soon
after. His nephew soon inherited the island, but he drowned crossing the short
distance from the shore to the island when his boat capsized in a strong wind.
Once more the Hapsburg's took control off the island. Rudolf, the remaining son
of Emperor Francis Joseph I and his bride Elizabeth, visited the tiny island
with the big curse with his wife Stefani. Legend tells that a small earthquake
shook the region the moment they stepped ashore. While initially a blissful
tenure, things grew darker when Rudolf fell in love with his mistress Maria
Vecer and, for reasons unexplained, they took their lives in a double suicide. Empress
Elizabeth decided they needed to be rid of the accursed island and so she
sailed from her palace on Corfu to offer a large sum of money to the
Benedictines if they took the island back. But the brotherhood stood firm on
their decree to never return to the island. So, the family offered the island
to the Dominicans with the provision that the Hapsburg family could repurchase
the island if they so chose to. And they did. The granddaughter of Francis
Joseph I, Princess Elizabeth Windischgratz, purchased Lokrum in 1879. But the
title wasn't transferred immediately. When it was finally put down into the
family name again, tragedy struck. Empress Elizabeth left her palace on Corfu
to return to Geneva when she was shot and killed by an Italian anarchist named
Lucceni. The mishaps for the Hapsburgs are legendary, including Archduke
Francis Ferdinand whose assassination kicked off the first World War. But
legend tells that the island's curse is still palpable and that many non-famous
or historical persons have fallen to it. Few, they say, have stayed long of the
cursed island of Lokrum.
In the summer of 1969, a rain of frogs fell on the city of Istanbul. Famed
anomalist Charles Fort collected many such accounts of "falls," as
they're termed. Some may be explained by weather anomalies, but other far more
unusual reportings are harder to rationalize.
Some say the famous Empress Elizabeth of Bavaria still walks the halls of her Achillion Palace on the island of Corfu.
On the Greek island of Crete, at a 14th century Venetian fortress known as
Frangokastello, the Drosoulites come each year. These "Dew People,"
so named for their arrival with the morning dew, are shadow wraiths that ride
horses and walk with weapons like a phantom army from the monastery at Agios
Charalambos to Frangokastello. Legend has it that these are the Greeks who died
in the battle of May 17, 1828. In 1890,
Turkish soldiers fled in fear at the sight of the Drosoulites. In World War I,
German soldiers opened fire when they mistook the spirits for enemy soldiers. Imagine
their surprise at learning the truth.
It's believed the ancient Roman spirits-lares and lemures-that once reigned
over the palace of Diocletian in Split, Croatia still skulk about in the
shadows.
Some believe that Istanbul's Grand Bazaar--one of the largest and oldest
shopping centers--is not only haunted but built around a portal leading to
another dimension, doubtlessly some evil one.