Transylvania: Bran Castle, Vlad the Impaler, and the Dracula Legends

August 2010
What do Transylvania's Bran Castle, Vlad Tepes (Tepes means Impaler), and  vampire legends have in common?  Actually, very little, but I will try a brief explanation of their connecting points.  Vlad III was born in Translyvania (then part of the kingdom of Hungary) in 1431.  His father was Vlad II who had been inducted into the prestigious Order of the Dragon in Nuremberg.  But the name of this chivalric order did not translate well into Romanian:  Dracul not only meant "dragon," but also "devil."  The son of Vlad II,  Dracul, would be called Vlad III, Dracula.

It was an era of political unrest and cruelty. When Vlad II was dethroned by locals, he formed alliance with the hated Ottomans who put him back on the throne.  But as surety of his loyalty, he had to send two of his sons to Edrine (Istanbul--photo at right). Radu, the younger son, converted to Islam, became an Ottoman officer, and ultimately led Ottomans against his brother.  Vlad III was rebellious in Istanbul and grew in his hatred for the Ottomans.  Vlad III also distrusted his family, but returned to Wallachia (the area around today's Bucharest--see RO Bucharest post) when released by the Ottomans.  His bitterness increased when the Boyars, in alliance with the Hungarians, killed his father and had his older brother blinded and buried alive.

Three times Vlad III ruled the kingdom of Wallachia.  While most of the world shudder when they hear of Vlad Tepes, Romanians remember him as a great national leader.  He brought his court to an outpost which grew to be Bucharest,  fought back the Ottomans and others who tried to conquer Wallachia, expanded their territory, re-established trade, helped the peasants, and restored order.  True, they admit, he was ruthless--but mostly against their enemies.  Those were brutal times, but his brutality stood out above all else.  Vlad III trusted few and fought most everyone.  Those he conquered or invaded (men, women, and children)  he had impaled-- a thick wooden stick run through their bodies and left to rot.  When one of his servants complained of the stench of rotting bodies, Vlad had him impaled.

However, some of the later Saxon and Russian tales of Vlad Dracula exaggerated his deeds and the numbers (no evidence he roasted and ate the victims).  Still, some estimate he may have impaled 40,000-100,000.  At one time he sought alliance with Hungary, but they tricked and imprisoned him in Visegard ( photo at right--see HU Szentendre and the Danube Bend post).  In 1476,  he was finally killed in battle against the Ottomans.  Reportedly, his body was buried near Bucharest and his head was buried in Istanbul.  However, in the early 1900s when Vlad was to be exhumed for "research," they found his supposed grave empty.  Hum.........

I confess I have never read Bram Stoker's Dracula or been very interested in Dracula or vampire movies.  My nephew suggested that I take The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova to read during my Danube Cruise.  I downloaded an audio copy and found myself  immersed in this excellent novel that weaves together the history of Vlad Tepes and the Dracula legends into a suspenseful mystery with a twist at the end.  Like the speaker in the book, I found that I had been pulled unknowingly deeper and deeper into the Dracula tales in my travels.  I had previously traveled to  Istanbul.  Stoker's Dracula  starts in Budapest (see HU Budapest's Glory Days post), Dracula leaves from the port of Varna, Bulgaria, (see BU Varna post), and  is shipwrecked on the cliff's of Whitby, England, where  Bram Stoker wrote his story in 1897. (see UK Whitby posts).  Now I was traveling through the very areas where the real Vlad Tepes had lived.

The Romanians had ancient superstitions about strigoi---the "undead."  There were a variety of kinds and ways one could become undead--such as a child who was marked by the devil because its careless mother might have gone out with her head uncovered.  Those who died before they could marry were considered vulnerable to being undead--so should  be wed to another unmarried dead person of the same age.  Ways of protecting you from the undead included garlic, stakes in the heart, holly, and burying them with a bottle of whisky so they couldn't find their way back.  Some strigoi had magical powers to transform into animals or disappear and gained strength through the blood of victims.  In the nineteenth century, interest increased about Eastern Europe, and legends of strigoi  and stories of Vlad Tepes were circulated.  Although these had never been connected before, Bram Stoker had the genius in  1897 to turn the bloody Vlad into a blood-sucking, undead vampire.  Misty, little-known Transylvania was the perfect setting, and Dracula (dragon, devil) was the perfect name.


So why is the medieval Bran Castle in Transylvania now called Dracula's Castle?  It was a mountain fortress mentioned in 1377 in defense against the Ottomans.  Vlad III besieged it in retaliation against the Saxons at one time.  But it never was Vlad's castle, nor is it even mentioned by Stoker.  The Bran Castle mostly served as a customs post and then as a home to local rulers.  Royalty did not live there until after WWI when Transylvania was transferred from Hungary to Romania.  Queen Marie (granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Tsar Alexander II), unhappily married at age 17 to an older duke who later became king, made Bran Castle her home.  She served as a Red Cross nurse in WWI, helped negotiate the peace, and adopted Romanian ways.  Most rooms in the castle reflect the furnishings of her time.  The communists confiscated the castle when they came to power, but it was returned to the royal descendants  when communism fell.

Then in some unknown way, people heard of this remote medieval

castle with a secret passage that reminded them of Stoker's description, and Bran Castle started being called "Dracula's Castle."  The Romanians need tourist attractions, and they welcome, with some amusement, the countless visitors that flock  to the site of "Dracula's Castle."  They have dedicated an upstairs room to the tales of Vlad and Dracula to appease the masses.  The castle is interesting, and the drive through  Transylvania is beautiful.  We arrived on a cloudy, rainy day which added even more to the atmosphere.  However, I had come to the castle hoping to find those difficult "guy gifts," like a Vlad pen or Dracula pencil that are good to show around the office.   There were some nice Romanian craft items, but things related to Dracula were too big, heavy, or tacky.  But if you look around, you might just happen to see a bearded werewolf or a wide-eyed strigoi, disguised in human forms, following you.....

Click link below for slideshow:
Bran Castle and the Dracula Legend
Music:  Overture, Dracula, the Musical

More information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_III_the_Impaler
http://www.bran-castle.com/en/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strigoi