She said: “The skull with numerous injuries indicates that the man had many deep scars on his face during his life.

“During one of the blows, he also lost some of his teeth.

“He looked different than average people. And that can be scary.

“In the 17th century, this man was accused of vampirism.”

She added the discovery of a vampire burial in a church is especially rare, saying: “No one expects to find a vampire in a church.”

While it’s the first case of a “vampire” being buried inside a church, it is not the first time archaeologists have discovered graves with sickles on the neck.

Similar graves dating from the 17th century were discovered in Pomerania, Pien, and Chojnice in Poland, where folk legends of alleged vampire attacks were widespread.

Local folklore from the time shows the term referred to people who would come back from the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ to torture the living.

To prevent vampires or “restless souls” from returning to the land of the living, various procedures were used to keep the remains buried 6ft underground.

This included sickles being placed around the neck, binding their hands and feet, bodies buried facing down and large stones placed on the graves.

An earlier “vampire” child grave was recently discovered in another part of Poland.

The site was dug up in Koszalin, northwest Poland, with two child skeletons uncovered in the earth.

Archaeologists found the so-called “revenant” graves with the children buried in special pits without coffins.

One of the scientists said the site bore signs of an “anti-vampire” burial, in a type of grave found all across Europe.

They were designed to stop the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ from rising – such as by placing large stones on the legs of the person being buried.

The body might also have been pierced with a lance to fix it permanently to the ground.