The Upiory & Strzygi Burying Ground | Poland’s “Vampire” Grave at Pień Cemetery
Season 3 Episode 4
The Grim is opening the gate to Pień Cemetery, a forgotten 17th-century burial ground in northern Poland where the dead were locked into the earth. In 2022, archaeologists from Nicolaus Copernicus University uncovered Grave 75: a young woman with an iron sickle across her throat and a padlock fastened to her toe. They named her Zosia. She was buried among outcasts on unconsecrated ground, yet she wore a silk cap woven with gold and silver threads. This episode follows the excavation of what may be Poland’s largest burial ground for the rejected, the anti-vampiric burials of Slavic folklore, and the science that gave Zosia back her face.
Along the way: Professor Dariusz Poliński’s excavations, which began in 2005; 101 unmarked graves of Lutherans and possibly Mennonites; the upiory and strzygi of Slavic folklore; a grave reopened while Zosia’s body still held soft tissue; a copper stain in her mouth; the DNA, isotope and radiocarbon findings published in 2026; Oscar Nilsson’s 3D facial reconstruction; a padlocked child buried face down; Vladimir, pinned with stones; a woman with tertiary syphilis; and the war, famine, disease and Little Ice Age cold that made neighbors fear the dead.
A gothic deep dive into Poland’s upiory and strzygi, its outcast burials, and the girl her village feared would rise, from The Grim.
