Prior to describing and illustrating our tour through Romania it seems appropriate that the myths surrounding Count Dracula and Transylvania be given some explanation.
Ever since Bram Stoker’s famous Gothic novel about the blood sucking Count first saw the light of day in 1897 the world has gained the impression that Transylvania and its one time Prince, Vlad the Impaler, are as described in the novel and its very many spin-offs in both fiction and on film.
Named by the Romans as ‘beyond the trees’ Transylvania has its fair share of castles and ancient strongholds, there are forests where bears and wolves may still be found but by and large it is a very peaceful green region dotted with quaint villages and church spires rather than the towering rocky mountains depicted by Hollywood.
The 15th Century Prince Vlad of Wallachia was born in Sigisoara in a house that still stands today and is occupied as a restaurant. As a boy he was sent to Turkey for his education as his homeland was a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. It was here that he learned more than a few cruel ways to deal with the enemy. Not least of these was the gentle art of impaling one’s opponents on wooden poles to ensure their slow and extremely painful demise! His father had been accredited with the Order of the Dragon by Sigismund of Luxembourg. Dracul was the Romanian word for ‘dragon’ and also ‘Devil’. Vlad became known as Draculea - ‘the son of Dracul’. When Stoker wanted a remote and little known mysterious setting for his novel Transylvania with its deeply religious and possibly superstitious peasant population seemed appropriate. The fact that the region also laid claim to a Prince with a reputation for blood letting in the most unpleasant way was a literary bonus and ‘Count Dracula’ was reinvented as the character we have come to love to hate.
Enterprising Romanians have latched onto the idea and in an effort to exploit it for gain have nurtured ‘Dracula Tourism’. Sadly for them, the worst excesses have been foiled by protective planners but nevertheless certain places have been given Dracula connections. One of these is Bran Castle which despite the fact that it had been ‘modernized’ as a summer home for Queen Marie in the 1920’s and with its Disney World towers and turrets is anything other than the forbidding place one would anticipate.
In his search for entertainment, Vlad invented the TV Dinner, only in his case TV stood for Transylvania where Chops and Stakes were always on the Menu!
Vlad Tepes [aka Draculea], the Prince of Wallachia who enjoyed Turkish delights while refusing to pay tribute to the Sultan of Turkey and so became a folk hero in his bloody and cruel stand against Turkish invaders. This is his monument in Sighisoara
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
