Construction at all times has been inextricably linked with life and death. In a sense, Europe is like a huge cemetery: most castles, bridges and other fundamental buildings are watered with the blood of builders, and sometimes ritual victims. By the way, the custom of erecting buildings over human sacrifice existed until the end of the 18th century: from ancient times it was believed that the walls of castles, towers and fortresses, built in compliance with this condition, would stand for centuries and protect their inhabitants from all earthly misfortunes. The worst thing is that history has confirmed this more than once.
The Scandinavian sagas tell how the walls of medieval Copenhagen often collapsed here and there. A radical remedy helped to end the construction "marriage": a niche was made in the wall, a table with food and toys was placed there, at which a hungry girl was seated. While she ate and played with curiosities, the workers quickly walled up the niche and folded the vault. For the next several days, a team of musicians played around the crypt all day long to drown out the screams of the little victim. Believe it or not, the walls have ceased to collapse since then.
In Japan, slaves sentenced to death were heaped alive with stones in the foundation. Thousands of workers are buried in the thickness of the Great Wall of China, convicted of the slightest offense. In Polynesia, six young men and women were buried alive under each of the twelve columns of the Temple of Mava during construction. Most of the castles of old Bohemia were also built with human sacrifice. Troy Castle, Czech Shtelenberg, Konopiste, Karlštejn - everywhere during excavations in the walls or at the base of the foundation they found warriors walled up alive, so that, as the old chronicles say, "during the siege they helped their brothers to fight, instilling terror and weakness in the enemy."
In Italian legends, a bridge over the Adda River is often mentioned, which constantly collapsed until the beautiful wife of one of the builders was walled up in the central pillar. The bridge has stood for more than three centuries, but at night, say the locals, you can hear how it shakes from the sobs and curses of the unfortunate woman …
The victims were not just criminals or serfs. For example, in Burma, in order to make the capital impregnable, the queen herself was drowned in the river.
In Scotland since antiquity, there was a custom to sprinkle human blood on the foundations and walls of all structures. Little did they differ from the Scots and their British neighbors: the country has a legend about a certain Worthinger, who could not finish building the royal tower. She constantly crumbled, burying the builders under her. And only when the head of the orphan boy was cut off and the foundation was sprinkled with his blood, the tower was safely completed. It stands in London to this day and is known as the Tower Tower, a medieval prison for state criminals.
Children were sacrificed quite often. For example, in Thuringia, during the construction of the Liebenstein castle, several children were bought from mothers for a lot of money and immured alive in the wall. In Serbia, during the construction of the Skadra fortress, a young mother with a baby was walled up into the wall. According to legends, the evil mermaid constantly destroyed what three hundred bricklayers were erecting day after day, and only a human sacrifice helped the builders finish their work. Until now, Serbian women come to worship the holy spring that flows down the wall of the fortress. Its water has the color of milk, reminding the visitors of the unfortunate nursing mother, who laid her head here.
Our East Slavic princes also left not far. Starting to build city fortresses - kremlin, they always sacrificed young children. Usually, vigilantes were sent to the road with instructions to seize the first youths they came across. They were walled up in the base of the foundation. By the way, another ancient name for the Kremlin, which has survived to this day, is “child”.
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Pagan sacrifices existed for a rather long time after the adoption of Christianity. Little girls were walled up in the foundations of bridges, disabled people and black roosters, which were supposed to increase the value of the sacrifice, - within the walls of the royal palaces. Not to mention the barbaric custom of adding human blood to mortar or even throwing people into boiling bronze, as did, for example, Vietnamese craftsmen. It was believed that if a virgin was boiled in bronze, then especially strong bells with a surprisingly gentle ringing would turn out from her - like the cry of a young girl … They did not disdain such methods in Russia either. And who knows how many people perished without a trace in the cauldrons during the mass casting of bells and cannons?
But the record for human sacrifice belongs, perhaps, to Central America. In pre-Columbian civilizations, the Indians laid people on the altar of their gods so often and in such horrifying numbers that the stories of the cruelty of the conquistadors pale in comparison to their barbaric customs. The prisoners or the victims chosen from their own people were tied to pillars in the sun and after their martyrdom the muscles were ripped from their bones. It happened that they chained their fellows to the walls of caves, where they later died of hunger and thirst, and used their bodies for various ritual actions. Human life there was worth nothing, but had ritual value - otherwise how to explain entire settlements, where houses were built from human bones and were only covered with animal skins from above?
So the bloody deities of different peoples around the world demanded new and new victims from the builders, giving in return the inviolability of buildings and longevity to the powerful of this world. And the curses of the innocent tortured were absorbed by the walls that swallowed them …
From the book: "The Cursed Places of the Planet." Yuri Podolsky