Country file · Europe
Cryptids of Romania
What cryptids are in Romania? The best-known are Strigoi and Lidérc.
Romania’s best-known folkloric being is the strigoi, a restless spirit or witch of village belief. The dead strigoi was thought to return to torment its family, while the living strigoi was a sorcerer. Beliefs about strigoi, moroi and related beings were recorded by Dimitrie Cantemir in 1714–16 and by ethnographers in the nineteenth century.
- 2 cryptids
- 4 recorded sightings
Cryptids reported in Romania
Strigoi
Restless dead and witch-spirits of Romanian village belief, feared as vampires and part of the folk backdrop to Dracula-style stories. FolkloreLidérc
The lidérc of Hungarian folklore: a black-hen-egg familiar that brings wealth and drains its owner, or a fiery night lover that flies in by the chimney. FolkloreThe legends of Romania
Many of the ritual remedies described, such as exhumation and the burning of the heart, appear in village accounts into the twentieth century. The strigoi is part of folk tradition, distinct from Bram Stoker’s fictional Count Dracula.
Hotspots
- Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia
The historic regions where strigoi and moroi traditions have been recorded.
Sightings timeline
- 1656Jure Grando of Kringa Strigoi
According to tradition, the villager Jure Grando returned from the grave as a štrigon and knocked on doors; villagers eventually beheaded him in 1672. Valvasor wrote about the case.
- 1714–1716Cantemir’s Moldavia Strigoi
Dimitrie Cantemir’s Descriptio Moldaviae described strigoi as witches and warlocks, mainly in Moldavian and Transylvanian belief.
- 1882Burada’s ethnography Strigoi
Teodor Burada wrote about strigoi and burial customs in his study of Romanian funeral traditions.
- 2004Marotinu de Sus case Strigoi
Relatives were reported to have dug up an uncle’s coffin, burned the heart and been sentenced for disturbing the dead. The account is cited with limited sourcing.