Dracula Legend
Some say that Transylvania sits on one of earth's strongest magnetic
fields and its people have extra-sensory perceptions. Vampires are
believed to hang around crossroads on St. George's Day, April 23rd, and
the eve of St. Andrew, November 29th. The area is also home to Bram
Stoker's Dracula, and it's easy to get caught up in the tale while driving
along winding roads through dense, dark, ancient forests and mountain
passes.
Count Dracula, a fictional character in the Dracula novel, was inspired by
one of the best-known figures of the Romanian history — Vlad Dracula,
nicknamed Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler) — who was a ruler of Wallachia
(1456-1462).
Many "Dracula Tours" are being offered throughout Romania. They include
the most important historical places related with Vlad Tepes, such as 14th
Century town of Sighisoara — Vlad's birthplace. The house in which Vlad
Dracula was born has a small plaque on the door and now is a restaurant
and small museum of medieval weapons. Other Dracula sights are: the
Snagov Monastery — where, according to legend, Vlad is said to have been
buried after his assassination; Castle Bran (Castle Dracula); the Poenari
fortress; the village of Arefu — where many Dracula legends are still
told; the city of Brasov — where Vlad led raids against the Saxons
merchants; and, of course, Curtea Domneasca — Dracula's palace in
Bucharest. Some tours also cover the folkloric aspects of the fictional
Dracula. For instance, eating the meal Jonathan Harker ate at The Golden
Crown in Bistrita, and sleeping at Castle Dracula Hotel — built no so long
ago on the Borgo Pass, approximately where the fictional castle of the
Count is supposed to be.
Accommodation near Bran Castle:
www.eBran.ro
An Intriguing Figure in The Fifteenth
Century
by Benjamin Hugo Leblanc - EPHE-Sorbonne (Paris) & Laval University (Quebec)
Count Dracula is more than 100 years old and still alive! Of course,
almost everybody has heard about this Nosferatu: through movies featuring
Max Schreck, Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee or Gary Oldman; in several books
— among which the recent Vampire Chronicles of Anne Rice; or even in
bedtime stories told to us in our childhood. We all have an idea of who or
what the Count is. However, on the other hand, Vlad Tepes (Dracula), the
historical figure who inspired Bram Stoker for his novel, is definitely
less known.
Vlad Tepes was born in December 1431, in the fortress of Sighisoara,
Romania. Vlad's father, governor of Transylvania, had been inducted into
the Order of the Dragon about one year before. The order — which could be
compared to the Knights of the Hospital of St. John or even to the
Teutonic Order of Knights — was a semi-military and religious society,
originally created in 1387 by the Holy Roman Emperor and his second wife,
Barbara Cilli. The main goal of such a secret fraternal order of knights
was mainly to protect the interests of Christianity and to crusade against
the Turks. The boyars of Romania associated the dragon with the Devil and
decided to call Vlad's father "Dracul" — which in Romanian language,
means "Devil"; "Dracula" is a diminutive, which means "the son of the
Devil."
In the winter of 1436-1437, Dracul became prince of Wallachia (one of the
three Romanian provinces) and took up residence at the palace of
Tirgoviste, the princely capital. Vlad followed his father and lived six
years at the princely court. In 1442, in order to keep the Turks at bay,
Dracul sent his son Vlad and his younger brother Radu, to Istanbul, as
hostages of the Sultan Murad II. Vlad was held in there until
1448. This Turkish captivity surely played an important role in Dracula's
upbringing; it must be at this period that he adopted a very pessimistic
view of life and learned the Turkish method of impalement on stakes. The
Turks set Vlad free after informing him of his father's assassination in
1447. He also learned about his older brother's death and how he had been
tortured and buried alive by the boyars of Tirgoviste.
When he was 17 years old, Vlad Tepes (Dracula), supported by a force of Turkish
cavalry and a contingent of troops lent to him by pasha Mustafa Hassan,
made his first major move toward seizing the Wallachian throne. Vlad
became the ruler of Wallachia in July of 1456. During his six-year reign
he committed many cruelties, and hence established his controversial
reputation.
His first major act of revenge was aimed at the boyars of Tirgoviste for
for not being loyal to his father. On Easter Sunday of what we believe to
be 1459, he arrested all the boyar families who had participated at the
princely feast. He impaled the older ones on stakes while forcing the
others to march from the capital to the town of Poenari. This fifty-mile
trek was quite grueling and no one was permitted to rest until they
reached destination. Dracula then ordered boyars to build him a fortress
on the ruins of an older outpost overlooking the Arges River. Many died in
the process, and Dracula therefore succeeded in creating a new nobility
and obtaining a fortress for future emergencies. What is left today of the
building is identified as Poenari Fortress (Cetatea Poenari).
Vlad Tepes adopted the method of impaling criminals and enemies and
raising them aloft in the town square for all to see. Almost any crime,
from lying and stealing to killing, could be punished by impalement. Being
so confident in the effectiveness of his law, Dracula placed a golden cup
on display in the central square of Tirgoviste. The cup could be used by
thirsty travelers, but had to remain on the square. According to the
available historic sources, it was never stolen and remained entirely
unmolested throughout Vlad's reign. Crime and corruption ceased; commerce
and culture thrived, and many Romanians to this day view Vlad Tepes as a
hero for his fierce insistence on honesty and order.
In the beginning of 1462, Vlad launched a campaign against the Turks along
the Danube River. It was quite risky, the military force of Sultan Mehmed
II being by far more powerful than the Wallachian army. However, during
the winter of 1462, Vlad was very successful and managed to gain several
victories. To punish Dracula, the Sultan decided to launch a full-scale
invasion of Wallachia. His other goal was to transform this land into a
Turkish province. He entered Wallachia with an army three times larger
than Dracula's. Finding himself without allies, and forced to retreat
towards Tirgoviste, Vlad burned his own villages and poisoned the wells
along the way, so that the Turkish army would find nothing to eat or
drink. Moreover, when the Sultan, exhausted, finally reached the capital
city, he was confronted by a most gruesome sight: hundreds of stakes held
the remaining carcasses of Turkish captives, a horror scene which was
ultimately nicknamed the "Forest of the Impaled". This terror tactic
deliberately stage-managed by Dracula was definitely successful; the scene
had a strong effect on Mehmed's most stout-hearted officers, and the
Sultan, tired and hungry, decided to withdraw (it is worth mentioning that
even Victor Hugo, in his Legende des Siecles, recalls this particular
incident). Nevertheless, following his retreat from Wallachian territory,
Mehmed encouraged and supported Vlad's younger brother Radu to take the
Wallachian throne. At the head of a Turkish army and joined by Vlad's
detractors, Radu pursued his brother to Poenari Castle on the Arges river.
According to the legend, this is when Dracula's wife, in order to escape
capture, committed suicide by hurling herself from the upper battlements,
her body falling down the precipice into the river below — a scene
exploited by Francis Ford Coppola's production. Vlad, who was definitely
not the kind of man to kill himself, managed to escape the siege of his
fortress by using a secret passage into the mountain. He was however,
assassinated toward the end of December 1476.
The only real link between the historical Dracula (1431-1476) and the
modern literary myth of the vampire is the 1897 novel.
Bram Stoker built his fictional character solely based on the research
that he conducted in libraries in London. Political detractors and Saxon
merchants, unhappy with the new trade regulations imposed by Vlad, did
everything they could to blacken his reputation. They produced and
disseminated throughout Western Europe exaggerated stories and
illustrations about Vlad's cruelty. Vlad Tepes' reign was however
presented in a different way in chronicles written in other parts of
Europe.
(Excerpts from a feature published in Issue #5 of Journal of the
Dark, by
Benjamin Leblanc).
 Bram Stoker's Dracula Legend
Entire contents © 1998-2008 the Romanian Tourist Office
All rights reserved. RoNTO's prior written permission is required before parts of this Website may be reproduced in any form. The contents of this Website are for information purposes only and are not to be taken as endorsements or warranties of any kind. RoNTO shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies of the information contained in this Website or for any interpretations of that information.
|
