Dracula

:Alternate meaning: Dracula (orchid genus).

Dracula in Romania

While Dracula became the most popular Romanian icon abroad, isolation due to underdevelopment and, later, communism blocked the work of Stoker from becoming known in Romania.

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After the death of Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanians found out about it, and a touristic industry sprung up in Transylvania (and, to a lesser extent, in Wallachia). However, Romanians have mixed feelings about linking one of their national heroes and the vampire monster.

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Historical places connected to Vlad Ţepeş are publicised under a Dracula theme catering largely, but not entirely, to foreign markets. Bran Castle, which has only a very tangential connection with the historical Vlad Ţepeş, now exaggerates that connection and promotes itself as "Dracula's Castle". http://www.draculascastle.com/ A dungeon-themed disco, catering to a mostly Romanian crowd and located in the basement of a former inn immediately adjacent to the Curtea Veche ("Old Court") -- onetime site of Vlad Ţepeş's castle in Bucharest -- calls itself by the English-language name "Impaler". The well-preserved medieval town of Sighişoara, Vlad Ţepeş's birthplace, seriously considered building a Dracula theme park on the edge of town, but in the end it was decided that such a site would cheapen the beauty and history of the medieval city and the plan was blocked. The park was then to have been built close to Bucharest (which is nowhere near Transylvania) but plans have subsequently been scrapped.

Related Topics:
Bran Castle - Curtea Veche - Bucharest - Sighişoara - Theme park

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