Historians and folklorists in the 19th and early 20th centuries were fascinated by possible "foundation sacrifices".
Jacob Grimm remarked, "It was often thought necessary to entomb live animals and even men in the foundation, on which the structure was to be raised, to secure immovable stability."
Sabine Baring-Gould likewise claimed, "The old pagan laid the foundation of his house and fortress in blood." The 19th-century
Folk-Lore Journal claimed that "under the walls of two round towers in
Ireland (the only ones examined) human skeletons [were] discovered." References to this practice can be found in Greek folk culture in a poem about "
Arta's bridge". According to the poem, the wife of the chief builder was sacrificed to establish a good foundation for a bridge that was of grave importance to the secluded city of
Arta. The actual bridge was constructed in 1602. A similar legend appears in the Romanian folk poem
Meșterul Manole, about the building of the church in the earliest Wallachian capital city. ==See also==