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Sighisoara - Transylvania

During the 12th century,German craftsmen andmerchants known as

the Transylvanian Saxonswere invited to Transylvania by the King of Hungary tosettle and defend the frontier of his realm. The chroniclerKrauss lists a Saxonsettlement in the actualSighisoara by 1191. By1280 it was known by theLatin name of Castrum Sex,and by 1298 by the Saxonname of Schespurch resp.Schaesbrich. By 1337Sighisoara had become aroyal center for the kings,who awarded the settlementurban status in 1367 as theCivitas de Segusvar.Thecity played an importantstrategic and commercialrole at the edges of CentralEurope for several centuries. Sighisoara became one ofthe most important cities ofTransylvania, with artisansfrom throughout the HolyRoman Empire. TheGerman artisans andcraftsmen dominated the

urban economy, as well asbuilding the fortificationsprotecting it. It is estimatedthat during the 16th and the17th centuries Sighisoarahad as many as 15 guildsand 20 handicraft branches.The Baroque sculptor EliaNicolai lived in the city. The Wallachian prince VladDracul(father of Vlad theImpaler (Dracula), wholived in exile in the town, letminted coins in the city(otherwise coinage was themonopoly of the Hungariankings in the Kingdom ofHungary) and issued thefirst document listing thecity’s Romanian name,Sighisoara. The city was the setting for George IRackoczi‘s election asPrince of Transylvania andKing of Hungary in 1631.Sighisoara suffered militaryoccupation, fires, andplagues during the 17th and18th centuries.

The nearby plain ofAlbesti was the site of theBattle of Segesvar, where the

revolutionary Hungarianarmy led by Josef Bem wasdefeated by the Russian armyled by Luders on 31 July1849. A monument wasconstructed in 1852 to theRussian general Skariatin,who died in the battle. TheHungarian poet Sandor Petofiis generally believed to havebeen killed in the battle, and amonument was constructed inhis honor at Albesti in 1897.After World War 1 Sighisoara passed with Transylvaniafrom Austria-Hungary to the

Kingdom of Romania. CentralSighisoara has preserved in anexemplary way the features ofa small medieval fortified city,it has been listed by theUNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Each year, a MedievalFestival takes place in the oldcitadel in July.The housesinside Sighisoara Citadel showthe main features of acraftsmen’s town. However,there are some houses whichbelonged to the formerpatriciate, like the VenetianHouse and the House withAntlers.

“The House with Antlers” has been brought into thepossession of theMesserschmittFoundation with the helpof the RomanianGovernment and the town council of Sighisoara inApril 2000, defraudingthe legitimate heirs, thedescendentsLeicht-Bacon (withEnglish roots), who arementioned in the cadasterof Sighisoara as ownersbefore the communistdispossession of 1950.

In 2001-2003 theconstruction of a Draculatheme park in the ‘Breite’nature preserve nearSighisoara was consideredbut ultimately rejected, dueto the strong opposition oflocal civil society groupsand national andinternational media as wellas politically influentialpersons, as the theme parkwould have detracted from the medieval style of thecity and would havedestroyed the naturepreserve.g

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Vlad III, Prince ofWallachia, morecommonly known as

Vlad the Impaler (inRomanian Vlad Tepes , orsimply Dracula (c.1431 –December, 1476), was aWallachian (present-daysouthern Romania) voivde.His first reign as crownprince took place at age 17,during the same year of hisrelease from Turkishcaptivity, in 1448. His mainreign took place in 1456 andended in 1462. His finalreign was accomplished with the aid of the Hungarianthrone in 1476 and he ruleduntil his assassinationmonths later within the sameyear. Vlad the Impaler is

known for the exceedinglycruel punishment heimposed as ruler ofWallachia; however, thepeople of Romania refer toVlad as a savior to theirnation and continue to justify his method of torture as notuncommon for that period inhistory.

In theEnglish-speaking world, VladIII is perhaps most commonlyknown for inspiring the nameof the vampire in BramStocker’s 1897 novel Dracula. As prince, Vlad maintained anindependent policy in relationto the Ottoman Empire andwas a defender of Wallachiaagainst OttomanExpansionism. His Romaniansurname “Drãculea” means“Son of the dragon” and isderived from his father’s title,Vlad the Dragon (see Vlad IIDracul); the latter was amember of the Order of TheDragon, created in Serbia prior to the battle of Kosovo (1389),and re-instituted by EmperorSigismund in 1408. The word“Dracul” means “the Devil” inmodern Romanian but inVlad’s day also meant

“dragon” and derives from theLatin word “Draco”, alsomeaning “dragon”.

The people ofWallachia gave Vlad II thesurname “Dracul”. His sonVlad III would later use thesurname “Drãculea” inseveral documents. Throughvarious adaptations(“Draculea”, “Drakulya”)Vlad III eventually came to be referred to as “Dracula”.

His post-mortemmoniker of “Tepes”(“Impaler”) originated in hispreferred method forexecuting his opponents,impalement, as popularized by medieval Transylvanianpamphlets. In Turkish, he wasknown as “Kazýklý Voyvoda”which means “ImpalerPrince”. Vlad was referred toas “Dracula” in a number ofdocuments of his times,mainly the TransylvaniaSaxon pamphlets and “TheAnnals of Jan Dlugosz”. Vladwas very likely born in thecitadel of Sighisoara ,Transylvania in 1431. He wasthe second son of Vlad Draculand Princess Cheajna,daughter of Alexander theGood of Moldavia. Although

his native country wasWallachia to the south, thefamily lived in exile inTransylvania as his father

had been ousted bypro-Ottoman boyars. In thesame year as his birth, hisfather was living inNuremberg, where he wasvested into the Order of theDragon. At the age of five,young Vlad was alsoinitiated into the Order ofthe Dragon. Vlad’s fatherwas under considerablepolitical pressure from theOttoman sultan. Threatened with invasion, he gave apromise to be the vassal ofthe sultan and gave up histwo younger sons ashostages so that he wouldkeep his promise. Vladdeveloped a well-knownhatred for Radu and forMehmed, who would laterbecome the sultan .g

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According to McNally andFlorescu, he alsodistrusted his own father

for trading him to the Turksand betraying the Order of theDragon’s oath to fight them.

Vlad’s father wasassassinated in the marshes nearBãlteni in December 1447 byrebellious boyars allegedly underthe orders of Hungarian regentJohn Hunyadi. Vlad’s olderbrother Mircea was also dead atthis point, blinded with hot ironstakes and buried alive by hispolitical enemies at Târgoviste.To protect their political power inthe region, the Ottomans invadedWallachia and the Sultan putVlad III on the throne as a puppetruler. His rule at this time wouldbe brief; Hunyadi himselfinvaded Wallachia and oustedhim the same year. Vlad fled toMoldavia until October 1451 andwas put under the protection ofhis uncle, Bogdan II.

Bogdan wasassassinated in 1451 by PetruAron, and Vlad, taking agamble, fled to Hungary.Impressed by Vlad’s vastknowledge of the mindset andinner workings of the OttomanEmpire as well as his hatred of

the new sultan Mehmed II,Hunyadi pardoned him andtook him in as an advisor.Eventually Hunyadi pickedVlad as the Kingdom ofHungary’s candidate for thethrone of Wallachia.

In 1453, the Ottomans,under Mehmed II, tookConstantinople after aprolonged siege, thus puttingan end to the final majorChristian presence in theeastern Mediterranean.Ottoman influence began tospread from this base throughthe Carpathians, and began tothreaten mainland Europe.

In 1456, Hungaryinvaded Serbia to drive outthe Ottomans, and Vlad IIIsimultaneously invadedWallachia with his owncontingent. Both campaignswere successful, althoughHunyadi died suddenly ofthe plague. Nevertheless,Vlad was now prince of hisnative land.Vlad III’sactions after 1456 arewell-documented.

After the death of hisgrandfather (Mircea the Elder)in 1418, Wallachia had falleninto a somewhat chaoticsituation. A constant state of

war had led to rampant crime,falling agricultural production,and the virtual disappearance of trade. Vlad used severemethods to restore order, as heneeded an economically stablecountry if he was to have anychance against his externalenemies.

The early part ofVlad’s reign was dominatedby the idea of eliminating allpossible threats to his power, mainly the rival nobilitygroups, i.e. the boyars. Thiswas done mainly by physicalelimination, but also byreducing the economic roleof the nobility: the keypositions in the Prince’sCouncil, traditionallybelonging to the country’sgreatest boyars, were handed to obscure individuals, someof them of foreign origin, but who manifested loyaltytowards Vlad. For the lessimportant functions, Vladalso ignored the old boyars,preferring to knight andappoint men from the freepeasantry. A key element ofthe power of the Wallachiannobility was theirconnections in theSaxon-populatedautonomous towns ofTransylvania, so Vlad actedagainst these cities byeliminating their tradeprivileges in relation withWallachia and by organizingraids against them. In 1459,he had several of the German settlers (Saxons) andofficials of theTransylvanian city ofKronstadt who were

transgressing hisauthority impaled.VladIII was constantly onguard against theadherents of the Dãnesticlan, and some of his raids into Transylvania mayhave been efforts tocapture the clan’swould-be princes. Several members of the clan diedat Vlad’s hands.Vladislav II of Wallachiawas murdered soon afterVlad came to power in1456. Another Dãnestiprince, suspected to havetaken part in burying hisbrother Mircea alive, wascaptured during one ofVlad’s forays intoTransylvania. Rumors(spread by his enemies)say thousands of citizensof the town that hadsheltered his rival wereimpaled by Vlad. Thecaptured prince wasforced to read his owneulogy while kneelingbefore an open gravebefore his execution.Following familytraditions and due to hisold hatred towards theOttomans, Vlad decidedto side with theHungarians. To the end ofthe 1450s there was onceagain talk about a waragainst the Turks, inwhich the king ofHungary MatthiasCorvinus would play themain role. Knowing this,Vlad stopped payingtribute to the Ottomans in1459 and around 1460made a new alliance withCorvinus. This angeredthe Turks, who attemptedto remove him. Theyfailed, however; later inthe winter of 1461 to 1462 Vlad crossed south of theDanube and devastatedthe area between Serbiaand the Black Sea. ” g

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In response to this, SultanMehmed II, the recentconqueror of

Constantinople, raised an army of around 60,000 troops and30,000 irregulars and in thespring of 1462 headed towardsWallachia. Other estimates forthe army include 150,000 byMichael Doukas, 250,000 byLaonicus Chalcond. Mehmedwas greeted by the sight of averitable forest of stakes onwhich Vlad the Impaler hadimpaled 20,000 Turkishprisoners. With his army of20,000–40,000 men Vlad wasunable to stop the Turks fromentering Wallachia andoccupying the capitalTârgoviste (4 June 1462), so heresorted to guerrilla warfare,constantly organizing smallattacks and ambushes on theTurks. The most important ofthese attacks, The NightAttack, took place on the nights of June 16–17, when Vlad andsome of his men allegedlyentered the main Turkish camp(wearing Ottoman disguises)and attempted to assassinateMehmed. Unable to subdueVlad, the Turks left the country, leaving Vlad’s half-brother,Radu the Handsome, tocontinue fighting. Despite Vlad achieving military victories, hehad alienated himself from thenobility, which sided withRadu. By August 1462 Raduhad struck a deal with theHungarian Crown.Consequently, Vlad wasimprisoned by MatthiasCorvinus.

His first wife, whosename is not recorded, diedduring the siege of his castle in1462. The Turkish armysurrounded Poienari Castle, led by Radu. An archer having seen the shadow of Vlad’s wifebehind a window, shot an arrow

through the window into Vlad’s main quarters, with a messagewarning him that Radu’s armywas approaching. McNally andFlorescu explain that the archerwas one of Vlad’s formerservants who sent the warningout of loyalty, despite havingconverted to Islam to escapeenslavement by the Turks.Upon reading the message,Vlad’s wife threw herself fromthe tower into a tributary of theArges River flowing below thecastle. According to legend, she remarked that she “wouldrather have her body rot and beeaten by the fish of the Argesthan be led into captivity by theTurks”. Today, the tributary iscalled Râul Doamnei (the“Lady’s River”, also called thePrincess’s River).

The exact length ofVlad’s period of captivity isopen to some debate, thoughindications are that it was from1462 until 1474. He was able togradually win his way back intothe graces of Hungary’smonarch, and eventually marrya member of the royal family.His second wife, Countess Ilona Szilágyi (a cousin of Matthias),bore him two sons, VladDracula & another son whosename is unknown, who wereabout ten years old when hereconquered Wallachia in 1476.

Diplomatic correspondencefrom Buda during the period inquestion also seems to supportthe claim that Vlad’s actualperiod of confinement wasrelatively short. The openlypro-Turkish policy of Radu(who was prince of Wallachiaduring most of Vlad’scaptivity), was a probablefactor in Vlad’s rehabilitation.During his captivity, Vlad alsoconverted to Catholicism, incontrast to his brother whoconverted to Islam. In theyears before his final release in 1474, when he beganpreparations for the reconquest of Wallachia, Vlad residedwith his new wife in a house inthe Hungarian capital.

Vlad and his first wifehad at least one child, a son,Mihnea cel Rãu, who would ruleWallachia 1508 to 1510. After his first wife’s death, Vlad III wouldnot marry again until after hisimprisonment in Hungary in the1460s. His second wife, Countess Ilona Szilágyi (the cousin of King Matthias of Hungary) bore himtwo sons, Vlad IV Dracula andanother son whose name isunknown. Neither of his sons byIlona Szilágyi would succeedhim. The unidentified youngerson died in 1482 while living with

the Bishop of Oradea. Vlad IV Dracula was a claimant to theWallachian throne, but neverruled. The Hungarian branchof his descendants marriedinto nobility off and on, butnone would ever ruleWallachia. The Romanianbranch of his descendantswould continue to rule off andon until 1627, when the lastdescendant, AlexandruCoconul, would fail toproduce an heir.Vlad Draculawas killed in battle against theTurks near the capital city ofBucharest in 1476. It is saidthat he was decapitated by theTurks and his head sent toIstanbul where the Sultan hadit displayed on a stake as proof that the Impaler was finallydead. He was reportedlyburied at Snagov, an islandmonastery located nearBucharest. However, it should be noted that it is unclear whoactually killed Vlad Dracula.When he came to power, Vlad immediately had all theassembled nobles arrested.The older boyars and theirfamilies were immediatelyimpaled. The younger andhealthier nobles and theirfamilies were marched northfrom Târgoviste to the ruins of Poienari Castle in themountains above the ArgesRiver.g

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Vlad was determined to rebuild thisancient fortress as his ownstronghold and refuge. The enslaved

boyars and their families were forced tolabor for months, rebuilding the old castlewith materials from another nearby ruin.According to tradition, they laboured untilthe clothes fell off their bodies and thenwere forced to continue working naked.Very few of the old gentry survived theordeal of building Vlad’s castle.

Throughout his reign, Vladsystematically eradicated the old boyarclass of Wallachia. The old boyars hadrepeatedly undermined the power of theprince during previous reigns and had been responsible for the violent overthrow ofseveral princes. Vlad was determined thathis own power be on a modern andthoroughly secure footing. In place of the executed boyars, Vladpromoted new menfrom among the freepeasantry and middleclass, who would be loyal only to their prince.

Vlad Tepes’sreputation was considerablydarker in Western Europethan in Eastern Europe andRomania. In the West, Vlad IIITepes has been characterized as a tyrant who took sadistic pleasurein torturing and killing his enemies. The number of his victims rangesfrom 40,000 to 100,000. According to the German stories the number ofvictims he had killed was at least80,000. In addition to the 80,000 victimsmentioned he also had whole villagesand fortresses destroyed and burned tothe ground. These numbers are mostlikely exaggerated.

The atrocities committed by Vladin the German stories include impaling,torturing, burning, skinning, roasting, andboiling people, feeding people the flesh oftheir friends or relatives, cutting off limbs,drowning, and nailing people’s hats totheir heads. His victims included men andwomen of all ages, religions and socialclasses, children and babies. One Germanaccount includes the following sentence:“He caused so much pain and sufferingthat even the most bloodthirstiest

persecutors of Christianity like Herodes,Nero, Diocletian and all other paganscombined hadn’t even thought of.”

Impalement was Tepes’spreferred method of torture andexecution. His method of torture was ahorse attached to each of the victim’s legsas a sharpened stake was gradually forcedinto the body. The end of the stake wasusually oiled, and care was taken that thestake not be too sharp; else the victimmight die too rapidly from shock.Normally the stake was inserted into thebody through the anus and was often forced through the body until itemerged from the mouth.However, therewere manyinstances wh

ere victims

were impaledthrough other

bodily orifices or through the abdomen or chest. Infants

were sometimes impaled on thestake forced through their mother’schests. The records indicate that victimswere sometimes impaled so that theyhung upside down on the stake.

Death by impalement was slow andagonising. Victims sometimes endured forhours or even days. Vlad often had the stakes arranged in various geometric patterns. Themost common pattern was a ring ofconcentric circles in the outskirts of a citythat constituted his target. The height of thespear indicated the rank of the victim. Thecorpses were often left decaying formonths.There are claims that thousands of

people were impaled at a single time. One such claim says 10,000 were impaled inthe Transylvanian city of Sibiu (whereVlad had once lived) in 1460. Anotherallegation asserts that during the previousyear, on Saint Bartholomew’s Day (inAugust), Vlad had 30,000 of themerchants and officials of theTransylvanian city of Brasov impaled forbreaking his authority. One of the mostfamous woodcuts of the period showsVlad feasting in a forest of stakes andtheir grisly burdens outside Brasov, while a nearby executioner cuts apart othervictims.

Vlad Tepes is alleged to havecommitted even more

impalements and other torturesagainst invading Ottoman

forces. It was reported that aninvading Ottoman army

turned back in fright whenit encountered thousands

of rotting corpsesimpaled on the banksof the Danube. It has

also been said that in1462 Mehmed II, the

conqueror of Constantinople, a mannoted for his own psychologicalwarfare tactics, returned toConstantinople after being sickenedby the sight of 20,000 impaledcorpses outside Vlad’s capital ofTârgoviste. Many of the victims wereTurkish prisoners of war Vlad hadpreviously captured during theTurkish invasion. The total Turkishcasualty toll in this battle reachedover 40,000. The warrior sultanturned command of the campaignagainst Vlad over to subordinates andreturned to Constantinople, eventhough his army had initiallyoutnumbered Vlad’s three to one andwas better. The German storiescirculated first in manuscript form inthe late 15th century and the firstmanuscript was probably written in1462 before Vlad’s arrest.g

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In addition to the manuscripts andpamphlets the German version of thestories can be found in the poem of

Michel Beheim. The poem called “Vonainem wutrich der hies Trakle waidavon der Walachei” (“Story of aBloodthirsty Madman Called Draculaof Wallachia”) was written andperformed at the court of Frederick III,Holy Roman Emperor during the winterof 1463. To this day four manuscriptsand 13 pamphlets are found as well asthe poem by Michel Beheim. Thesurviving manuscripts date from the last quarter of the 15th century to the year1500 and the found pamphlets date from 1488 to 1559–1568.

Eight of the pamphlets areincunabula: they were printed before 1501. The German stories about Vlad Tepesconsist of 46 short episodes, although none of the manuscripts, pamphlets or the poemof Beheim contain all 46 stories. All ofthem begin with the story of the oldgovernor, John Hunyadi, having Vlad’sfather killed, and how Vlad and his brother renounced their old religion and swore toprotect and uphold the Christian faith.After this, the order and titles of the storiesdiffers by manuscript and pamphleteditions. The German stories were writtenmost likely for political reasons, especially to blacken the image of the Wallachianruler. The first version of the German textwas probably written in Brasov by a Saxon scholar. According to some researchers,the writer expressed the general feelings of the Saxons in Brasov and Sibiu who hadborne the brunt of Vlad’s wrath in1456–1457 and again in 1458–1459 and1460.

Against this political and culturalbackdrop, it is quite easy to understandthe hostility towards Vlad Tepes.Although there is historic background forthe events described in the Germanstories, some are either exaggerated oreven fictitious. The Hungarian kingHunyadi Mátyás, also called Corvinus,also had political reasons for promotingVlad’s image as an evil prince. Corvinushad received large subsidies from Romeand Venice for the war against the

Ottomans, but because of a conflict withHoly Roman Emperor, EmperorFrederick III, he couldn’t afford themilitary support for the fight.

By making Vlad a scapegoat,Corvinus could justify his reasons for nottaking part in the war against theOttomans. He arrested Vlad and used aforged letter in which Vlad announced his loyalty to Mehmed II, as well as horrorstories about Vlad, to justify his actions to the Pope. In 1462 and 1463, the court inBuda fostered negative stories of Vlad incentral and Eastern Europe, andcapitalized on the horrors attributed tohim. The stories eventually changed frompropaganda to literature and became verypopular in the German world in the 15thand 16th centuries. Part of the reason forthis success was the newly-inventedprinting press, which allowed the texts tofilter to a wide audience.

In later accounts of thesestories, Vlad’s atrocities against thepeople of Wallachia have sometimesbeen interpreted as attempts to enforcehis own moral code upon his country.According to the pamphlets, he appears to have been particularly concernedwith female chastity. Maidens who lost their virginity, adulterous wives, andunchaste widows were all targets ofVlad’s cruelty. Such women often hadtheir sexual organs cut out or theirbreasts cut off. They were also oftenimpaled through the vagina on red-hotstakes that were forced through thebody until they emerged from themouth. One report tells of theexecution of an unfaithful wife. Thewoman’s breasts were cut off, then she

was skinned and impaled in a squarein Târgoviste with her skin lying ona nearby table. Vlad also insistedthat his people be honest andhard-working. Merchants whocheated their customers were likelyto find themselves mounted on astake beside common thieves.TheRussian or the Slavic version of thestories about Vlad Tepes called“Skazakie o Drakule voevode”(“The Tale of Warlord Dracula”) isthought to have been writtensometime between 1481 and 1486.Copies were made from the 15thcentury to the 18th century, of which some twenty-two extantmanuscripts survive in Russianarchives. The oldest one, from 1490, ends as follows: “First written in theyear 6994 (1486), on 13 February;then transcribed by me, the sinnerElfrosin, in the year 6998 (1490), on28 January”. The Tales of PrinceDracula is neither chronological norconsistent, but mostly a collectionof anecdotes of literary andhistorical value concerning VladTepes. There are 19 anecdotes in TheTales of Prince Dracula which arelonger and more constructed than theGerman stories. It can be divided intotwo sections: The first 13 episodes arenon-chronological events most likelycloser to the original folkloric oraltradition about Vlad.The last sixepisodes are thought to have beenwritten by a scholar who collectedthem, because they are chronologicaland seem to be more structured.g

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The stories begin with a short introduction and the anecdoteabout the nailing of hats to ambassadors heads. They endwith Vlad’s death and information about his family. Of the

19 anecdotes there are ten that have similarities to the Germanstories. Although there are similarities between the Russian andthe German stories about Vlad, there is a clear distinction withthe attitude towards him. The Russian stories tend to give him amore positive image: he is depicted as a great ruler, a bravesoldier and a just sovereign. Stories of atrocities tend to seem tobe justified as the actions of a strong ruler. Of the 19 anecdotes,only four seem to have exaggerated violence. Some elements ofthe anecdotes were later added to Russian stories about Ivan theTerrible of Russia.

The nationality and identity of the original writer of the anecdotes Dracula is disputed. The two most plausibleexplanations are that the writer was either a Romanian priestor a monk from Transylvania, or a Romanian or Moldavianfrom the court of Stephen the Great in Moldova. One theoryclaims the writer was a Russian diplomat named FedorKuritsyn.

It is most likely that Bram Stoker found the namefor his vampire from William Wilkinson’s book, AnAccount of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia:with various Political Observations Relating to Them. It isknown that Stoker made notes about this book. It is alsosuggested by some that because Stoker was a friend of aHungarian professor (Arminius Vambery/HermannBamberger/Ármin Vámbéry) from Budapest, Vlad’s namemight have been mentioned by this friend. Regardless ofhow the name came to Stoker’s attention, the cruel historyof the Impaler would have readily lent itself to Stoker’spurposes. However, recent research suggests that Stoker

actually knew little about the Prince of Wallachia. Somehave claimed that the novel owes more to the legends aboutElizabeth Báthory, a 16th century Hungarian countess whoallegedly murdered hundreds of her servants.

The legend of the vampire was and still is deeplyrooted in that region. There have always been vampire-likecreatures in various stories from across the world. However,the vampire, as he became known in Europe, largelyoriginated in Southern Slavic folklore — although the tale isabsent in Romanian culture. A veritable epidemic ofvampirism swept through Eastern Europe beginning in thelate 17th century and continuing through the 1700s. Thenumber of reported cases rose dramatically in Hungary andthe Balkans. From the Balkans, the “plague” spreadwestward into Germany, Italy, France, England, and Spain.Travelers returning from the Balkans brought with themtales of the undead, igniting an interest in the vampire thathas continued to this day. Philosophers in the West began tostudy the phenomenon. It was during this period that DomAugustine Calmet wrote his famous treatise on vampirism inHungary. It was also during this period that authors andplaywrights first began to explore the vampire legend.Stoker’s novel was merely the culminating work of a longseries of works that were inspired by the reports coming from the Balkans and Hungary. Given the history of the vampirelegend in Europe, it is perhaps natural that Stoker shouldplace his great vampire in the heart of the region that gavebirth to the story. Once Stoker had determined on a locality,Vlad Dracula would stand out as one of the most notoriousrulers of the selected region. He was obscure enough that few would recognize the name and those who did would knowhim for his acts of brutal cruelty; Dracula was a naturalcandidate for vampirism.

Romanian folklore and poetry, on the other hand,paints Vlad Tepes as a hero. His favorite weapon being thestake, coupled with his reputation in his native country as aman who stood up to both foreign and domestic enemies,gives him the virtual oppositesymbolism of Stoker’s vampire.In Romania, he is considered oneof the greatest leaders in thecountry’s history, and was votedone of “100 Greatest Romanians” in the “Mari Români” televisionseries aired in 2006.

His famous contemporaryportrait, rediscovered by Romanian historians in the late 19th century,had been featured in the gallery ofhorrors at Innsbruck’s AmbrasCastle. g

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His image in modern Romanian culture has been established in reaction to foreign perceptions: while Stoker’s book dida lot to generate outrage with nationalists, it is the last part

of a rather popular previous poem by Mihai Eminescu,“Scrisoarea a III-a”, that helped turn Vlad’s image into modernlegend, by having him stand as a figure to contrast withpresumed social decay under the Phanariotes and the politicalscene of the 19th century (even suggesting that Vlad’s violentmethods be applied as a cure). This judgment was in tune withthe ideology of the inward-looking regime of NicolaeCeausescu, although the identification did little justice toEminescu’s personal beliefs.

All accounts of his life describe him as ruthless, butonly the ones originating from his Saxon detractors paint him as sadistic or insane. These pamphlets continued to bepublished long after his death, though usually for luridentertainment rather than propaganda purposes. It has largely been forgotten until recently that his tenacious efforts against the Ottoman Empire won him many staunch supporters in hislifetime, not just in modern day Romania but in the Kingdomof Hungary, Poland, the Republic of Venice, and even theHoly See, not to take into account Balkan countries. AHungarian court chronicler reported that King Matthias “hadacted in opposition to general opinion” in Hungary when hehad Dracula imprisoned, and this played a considerable partin Matthias reversing his unpopular decision. During his time as a “distinguished prisoner” before being fully pardoned and allowed to reconquer Wallachia, Vlad was hailed as aChristian hero by visitors from all over Europe.

Unlike the fictional Dracula films, there have beencomparatively few movies about the man who inspired thevampire. The 1975 documentary In Search of Dracula exploresthe legend of Vlad the Impaler. He is played in the film byChristopher Lee, known for his numerous portrayals of thefictional Dracula in films ranging from the 1950s to the 1970s.In 1979, a Romanian film called Vlad Tepes (sometimesknown, in other countries, as The True Story of Vlad theImpaler) was released, based on his six-year reign and briefreturn to power in late 1476. The character is portrayed in amostly positive perspective though the film also mentions theexcesses of his regime and his practice of impalement. Thelead character is played by Stefan Sileanu. Dark Prince: TheTrue Story of Dracula, a film released in 2000, tells the lifestory of Vlad the Impaler mostly accurately while endingfictionally with Vlad rising from the grave and gaining eternalworldly life as supernatural abilities, implying that he has nowbecome the fictional Dracula. Vlad is played in the film byRudolf Martin. Numerous film adaptations of Bram Stoker’snovel Dracula and original works derived from it haveincorporated Vlad the Impaler’s history into the fictional CountDracula’s past, depicting them as the same person, including,among others: the 1972-1979 comic book series The Tomb ofDracula from Marvel Comics, the 1973 film Dracula, starringJack Palance, and the 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula,starring Gary Oldman.g


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