Dracula in one day! You want to discover the myth of Dracula? Well....you can start by visiting Bran Castle, also named Dracula's Castle. You can discover here if the myth is a reality or if the story will continue or will stop here...Just find out!
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Dracula Best Tour - Folow in the footsteps of legend!

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Dracula Tour in Transylvania

Legend and truth about VLAD TEPES - The Impaler (DRACULA)
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Vlad Tepes Dracula

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Week-end with Dracula

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TRANSYLVANIA - The mistery of the country beyond the forests

Legend and truth about VLAD TEPES - The Impaler (DRACULA) Prince of Wallachia 1448,1456-1462,1476

Legend and true history about Dracula intermingle and are being kept alive by extremely interesting destinations like Bran Castle near Brasov, House where Vlad Dracul was born in Sighisoara, Borgo Pass or Transylvania.

Dracula was born in 1431 in the Transylvanian city of Sighisoara as son of Vlad II Dracul (Knight of the Order of the Dragon-1431)and Grandson of Mircea the Great, King of Wallachia (1386-1418). Dracula's father was at that time living in Transylvania in exile. In Romanian, "Drac" means "devil" and "ul" is like "the". The name literally meaning "the Devil". "ulea" means "the son of". So Dracula means literally, "the son of the devil".

The alternate meaning of "drac" was dragon. Vlad II was part of the Order of the Dragon by the Holy Roman Emperor of Luxembourg. So Vlad III's name could have also meant "son of the Dragon". All the members of the order had a dragon on their coat of arms, and that is what brought him the nickname of Dracul (the Devil). Vlad the Impaler used to sign himself Draculea or Draculya - the Devil's son -, a name which was distorted into Dracula.

Dracula's renown reached the West through the Saxons from the Transylvanian towns of Brasov (Kronstadt) and Sibiu (Hermannstadt), who often gave shelter to those who claimed the Wallachian throne. In order to escape the peril of losing his throne, Vlad would punish the Saxons. Sibiu and the neighbouring area were pillaged and burnt down by Vlad, and many Saxons were impaled. The same happened to the Saxon merchants who came on business to T?rgoviste. In fact, Vlad was called Tepes (the Impaler) only after his death (1476). He ruled in Wallachia between 1456-1462 and in 1476. In 1462, having been defeated by the Turks, Vlad took refuge in Hungary. In 1476, with the help of the Hungarian king Matias Corvin and the Moldavian prince Stephen the Great, Vlad took over the Wallachian throne again for a month. A battle followed, during which Vlad was killed. His body was buried in the church of the Snagov Monastery, on an island near Bucharest. His body lies in front of the altar. In 1935, a richly dressed but beheaded corpse was exhumed at Snagov, a fate known to have overtaken Dracula, whose head was supposedly wrapped, perfumed and dispatched as a gift to the Turkish sultan.

They say that impalling was one of Dracula's favourite punishments, but he was not the only one who made use of it at the time. Other German and Spanish princes would do the same. He used the method for boyars, thieves and criminals, Turks, Saxons and those who conspired against him; more than once it happened that a whole forest of sharp stakes with enemies' heads would rise around T?rgoviste, the capital of Wallachia at the time. Horrified by these atrocities, the Saxons printed books and pamphlets in which they told about Vlad's cruelty. These booklets also reached Germany and Western Europe, where Dracula became known as a bloody tyrant.

In 1897, the Irish writer Bram Stoker published Dracula, which made Vlad the Impaler famous world-wide. Stoker read the stories about Dracula printed in the 15th and 16th centuries and was struck by his acts of cruelty. He decided to make him his character; he also read several books about Transylvania (a name of Latin origin, meaning "the country beyond the forests"), and thought that this "exotic" land would make a proper setting for Dracula's deeds. His story takes place in the Bistritza area, and the castle lies near the Borgo Pass (in the Carpathian Mountains).