Romania - Eastern Europe - page 517

Vlad & the Epic Mythology of Count Dracula
Etched into popular consciousness by countless horror films, Count Dracula
is best described as a mythical figure loosely based on blood-drinking ritu-
als known to have occurred in certain Balkanic regions. However, Bram
Stoker's anemic somnambulist is most fittingly linked with a Wallachian
warlord nicknamed Vlad Tepe@—Vlad the Impaler—in honor of his pen-
chant for bloodletting and cruel tortures. In fact, his real-life atrocities were
far more terrifying than anything conjured up by Bela Lugosi or Gary Old-
man. As young boys, Vlad and his brother, Radu the Handsome, were sent
to the Turks as hostages by their own father, who was nicknamed Dracul, or
“Devil,” because of a knightly order to which he belonged.
Undoubtedly witnessing all sorts of terrible tortures and abuses, and liv-
ing in fear of his young life, Vlad remained in Adrianople until he was 17,
when his father was assassinated by the Hungarians, and the Turks gave him
an army in order to reclaim the Wallachian throne. It took him almost 10
years to finally capture the Wallachian throne convincingly and establish his
court in Târgoviste. There he earned his reputation for dire cruelty; in one
popular story, he set fire to a sealed castle filled with sick, poor, and desti-
tute people, “to rid them of their troubles,” as he callously put it. He ruth-
lessly did away with any perceived threat and enjoyed watching his victims
die, often setting up banquets from which to observe the spectacle of suf-
fering. Impalement was favored because the torment could go on for days,
and he took great pleasure in mass executions; some estimates place the
number of men, women, and children who died at his hands at 500,000.
Eventually, it was his brother, Radu the Handsome, who caused Vlad to flee
to Hungary where he was first imprisoned but then converted to Catholi-
cism. After Radu's death, he once again took control of Wallachia, but was
killed in 1476 in a battle with the Turks who displayed his head in Constan-
tinople to prove to the world that he was indeed dead, while his body was
supposedly buried at a monastery on the island of Snagov near Bucharest.
Apparently, excavations there in 1931 found no sign of his coffin.
BRA!OV
Bra@ov is 168km (104 miles) NW of Bucharest
Also known by its Saxon name Kronstadt, Bra @ ov grew to prominence from the 13th
century when Germanic knights arrived and fortified their settlement with walls and
watchtowers and it became a prosperous trade center for the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. Although it's hemmed in by the thick outer layer of a modern, industrial city,
Bra @ ov's medieval and baroque heart is gorgeously well preserved, and seemingly
sequestered from the world by mountains that surround it on three sides. A popular
base for exploring legendary Bran Castle and hilltop Rasnov Fortress, Bra @ ov also has
its own ski resort, Poiana Bra @ ov, which is a wonderful setting for summer hikes in the
lovely, practically untouched Ardeal mountains.