I hadn’t encountered a real story about someone buried alive until I saw the tomb of Count Mitrovice in the ⛪️ Basilica of St James in Prague’s Old Town. This article explains who he was and what happened to him.
Legend and fact
Buried alive – everyone’s afraid of this. If you’re not, I’d argue you’re not normal.
Popular fiction plays on this fear. It was a genuine concern until medicine improved to the point where doctors would not misdiagnose death.
This is a documented case of accidental burial
There’s an urban legend connecting the phrase ‘saved by the bell’ to accidental burial. According to the hoax, in medieval times they buried people attached to a rope and a bell. If anyone woke up in a coffin the bell would ring and they would be ‘saved by the bell’. Despite the hoax, there are many documented cases of accidental burial too. One such case is Prague’s Count Mitrovice.
Life
Count Johann Wenzel Wratislaw von Mitrovice, to give him his full name, was a lawyer1. In 1705 he became High Chancellor of Bohemia1. He advised Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I in foreign affairs1.
He led, we can conclude, an illustrious life.
He died of edema on 21 December 1712 soon after Charles VI ascended the throne1.
Burial
They buried him in the beautiful three-aisle Baroque Basilica of St James2, famous for its macabre mummified thief’s hand, in the heart of Prague.
Given his stature he had a lavish tomb which Viennese architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach designed2. Star sculptor Ferdinand Maximilian Brokof, who had sculpted statues for the Charles Bridge, decorated3. They added these decorations later between 1714 and 17163. Resting atop the red marble tombstone is a female representation of Glory holding a sandstone replica of the count1. To the right, Chronos, the god of time, holds an hourglass, while another female allegory weeps in the lower left corner1.
After death
After his funeral, alarmed parishioners heard strange noises coming from the Mitrovice tomb1. They told the priests who concluded this was because his soul was restless. They blessed the tomb with holy water to help calm his soul1. The noises soon stopped, reinforcing the belief in holy water and restless souls.
A few years after the burial they reopened the tomb and found his corpse outside his coffin, and scratch marks on the lid of the coffin1. Mitrovice had been in a deep unconscious state. He managed to get out of his coffin but could not breach the doorless tomb.
As a result, he died of starvation1.
Share this with someone who enjoys creepy stories!
- The Morbid Legend of the Count Who Was Buried Alive in Prague; Hannah Lazatin; Town and Country; 2018-07-05[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
- Oxford dictionary of art, The; Ian Chilvers, Harold Osborne; Oxford University Press 1988; ISBN 9780198604761[↩][↩]
- Basilica of St James; Prague.EU; (Retrieved 2019-11-13) [↩][↩]