Croatia – The Black Queen

Barbara was a beautiful woman dressed in black, but her life was described as cruel and full of sin, and they considered her a witch, accusing her for alchemy. The Black Queen, nicknamed for her “black soul” and black clothes, possessed a raven pet, who listened faithfully to all of her orders.

These orders were mostly directed at the attack of the king’s opponents, which the raven would then have killed with the claws. Sometimes when she was bored, she would send a raven to attack her soldiers who, at the end, learnt how to defend themselves. Many men fell on her beauty. She would then “use” these men and push them from the Medvedgrad tower, or close them to a cage with wild pigs and watch the lovers and animals fighting which also made the legend of the black queen kind of a dark love story.

At the time of the Ottoman Empire, the Turks came to Medvedgrad with the aim of conquering it. Because of the queen’s bad character, none of the citizens had any intention of helping her. Because of that, the Black Queen called the devil and swore by the words: “Shoot devil, I give you Medvedgrad and myself,” but that was not enough for the devil. Only when she offered her own soul as well, the Ottomans were scared away and Medvedgrad was saved, but Barbara had to pay the price of her soul and the curse. She even tried to fool the devil and offered to pay twelve golden coins to the men who carries her three times around the fort. But the devil had set the traps around the castle and therefore no one was able to do it. Her attempt of getting rid of the curse, made the devil angry so she became even more cursed. After her death, she became the Snake Queen.