The Iron That Fell on Hraščina
One May evening in 1751, villagers in Croatia saw a fireball explode overhead and two masses of iron fall from the sky. Scholars refused to believe it.
What was reported
On 26 May 1751, people near the village of Hraščina, north of Zagreb, saw a fiery ball split apart in the sky with a sound like thunder, and two pieces of iron fall to the ground, one of them weighing about 40 kilograms. The bishop's office collected sworn statements from witnesses.
The larger piece was sent to the imperial collection in Vienna. At the time, most scientists dismissed the idea that stones or iron could fall from the sky.
Explanations offered
In 1794 the physicist Ernst Chladni used the Hraščina accounts, among others, to argue that meteorites come from space. He was right, and the Hraščina iron, still in Vienna's Natural History Museum, helped found the science of meteorites.
- When
- 26 May 1751
- Where
- Hraščina, Krapina-Zagorje, Croatia
- Witnesses
- Villagers and a priest, whose accounts were collected by the bishop of Zagreb
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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