Romania Tourist Traps

DRACULA'S REAL STORY, BY THE BOOK
Well, well, Dracula is nowadays a mostly known figure in the tourist field, one of the few aspects that focus on the Romanian tourist attractions. But what did give Bram Stoker a subject for his well-known 1897 novel? Most of the references in the book and some basic economical interests that exist nowadays target on the Wallachian Voivode (warlord) Vlad the Impaler, probably born in the Transylvanian fortress of Sighisoara, and who lived between 1431 and 1476 AD. There are two sides of the coin: on the one hand, Vlad Tepes ([tse-pesh], the Impaler) is considered in Romania - and that is correct - as a hero, as he came to the throne and ruled with rightfulness, defeating the Turks and resisted the Hungarian ascendency, in a very hard period of time; if we are to view things from this side, his 'habits' of impaling the prisoners and of oppressing the local boyards are easy understood, at a time when being civil to the enemy meant being killed by them. On the other hand, however, there are the novel and the many many movies inspired by it; there we can see the tragical-comical Polanski's movie, Coppola's commercial one or just the old 'Nosferatu' series. Those are already of a totally different character, as there could not occur any possible link between a knight or prince and a blood-sucking warlock. Anyway, his father was Vlad Dracul, a knight who commanded one of the units guarding the Wallachian-Transylvanian border, which was susceptible to attacks from both Turks and Hungarians. And that's the mostly probable source of his 450 years later nickname; the term Dracula is a popular derivation from the Knightly order of the Dragons that Vlad's father pledged his loyalty to. The father became Prince of Wallachia when the younger Vlad was five and they had to move to Targoviste, the capital town of the time. Then the young Vlad spent 4 harsh years in the Turk army, experiencing maybe the most humiliating and horrifying conditions of his entire life.
But some worst part was still to come: in 1447 his father is murdered, and one of his two brothers is burried alive. Those were common practices in the fight for the throne of the time, not only in Wallachia, but in Britain or some other western kingdoms as well... Anyway, a year later Vlad gets to the throne, but only briefly; soon he had to get shelter in Moldavia, with his cousin Stephen, from where he returned to Wallachia in 1451, surrendering to Janos Hunyadi and swearing to be loyal to him; this was the Hungarian responsible for Vlad's father's death. So, Vlad became chief of the army defending Wallachia. As in 1456 Hunyadi died of plague, Vlad could get to the throne of Wallachia, becoming a Prince, and ended the draft of young men into the Turkish army, redistributing land to the peasants and building many churches. He used merchants to rebuild his fortress of Poienari, and also ordering thousands of enemies to be killed, mostly by impaling them with wooden stakes.
In 1462, after a fight with the Turks (he refused to opress his people and pay tribute to the Turks) - that he lost - he retreated to the Poienari Castle of Capataneni, on Arges River in the Carpathians; thinking that there was no way out of the Turks' rage, his wife killed herself. Vladhad asked for the Hungarian help and, although it was promissed, it never came. He went to seek protection to Janos Hyunadi's successor and son, King Matthias Corvinus; however this one, aware of Vlad's power and deeds, emprisoned him. Instead, Vlad's other son Radu, was named puppet Prince of Wallachia by the Turks.
During the 12 years of 'open arrest' (he was emprisoned only at night time), he asked and got permission to marry one of King Matthias' sisters; instead he had to renounce at his Orthodox belief and become a Catholic. After this period, he was freed in 1474 and assumed the throne of Wallachia in 1476; he campaigned with his cousin Stephen the Great of Moldavia to overtake Targoviste; he then moved to the new Wallachian capital of Bucharest. But, having far too many enemies, he was murdered before Christmas 1476; his headless body was found close to Snagov near Bucharest; he was reportedly burried in the chapel of the monastery there; later (1931) excavations lead to nothing but incertainty concerning his burrial place: there was found a skull of a horse and some human skeleton, but with no certain proof of its identity. Other recently-made legends, connecting to Bran Castle (built in 1377 AD close to Brasov city) have no scientific argument, as Vlad the Impaler never lived there; that was a fortress meant to defend the medieval border that existed here.
Far from being a saint, Vlad the Impaler is one of the many historical characters that lived under the quote 'kill or get killed', that was a reality in those gloomy times. He probably did much more for his people than other leaders, having two strong and hostile neighbours: the ruthless Ottoman Turks southwards and the mighty Hungarians north-westwards.

Romania Tourist Traps

Visiting Romania?

Visiting Romania?