About Dracula,
the ”thirsty for blood” Prince of Transilvania...

Hello everybody and wellcome to my Dracula site!

Who was Count Dracula? Was the real Dracula actually a Vampire? Is the History of Dracula true or not? These are questions that many people ask themselves when they are watching the Dracula movie or something else related to Dracula.
There are two important things that I would like to mention on this page, that represent two big confusions made by people that dont know the history of Romania:

First...
...the legend of Dracula is so instense exploited these days and it is known in almost in all the houses in the world, that you can hardly know which is the legend and which part of the story is the truth. So thats one of the main reasons i made this website. To present you on short and for most of the people to understand the truth about Dracula.
From the begining, you all should know that Dracula is a pure fiction character. He is the character of Bram Stoker's book - ”Dracula”. This book is often believed to represent part of the life of Vlad Tepes, also known as Vlad Draculea (Tepes - the Impaler), who was the Prince of Valahia (Tara Romaneasca) in the periods: 1448, 1455-1462 and 1476. But you see, its not like that. Vlad Tepes was well known to punish his enemies by impaling but hey, in those times, cruelty was something in fashion and there were many other way in which war prisoners were punished in all the world.
Vlad Tepes (the Impaler) was also known as Vlad Draculea (Dracul - the devil) because he was a member of the Dragon Order which had as a sign, a dragon. In the eyes of the simple villages, the dragon sign represented the devil. The simple village people then gave him this nickname - the Devil.
By associating these two facts: cruelty against the enemies and the nickname Dracul (devil), the imagination of Bram Stoker created Dracula - the famous character. Vlad Tepes was not a blood sucker, a vampire or such. He was just one of the Romania's great leader that was also famous for his resistance against the Otoman Empire.
One more thing. He was not the Prince of Transilvania, but of Tara Romaneasca, since at that time Romania's provinces were not yet united. He was borned in Sighisoara city which is in Transilvania, its true but he did not ruled there. You can alo read this in the short biography I wrote on the page dedicated to him.
Of course Hollywood saw a great subject here and made the Dracula movie based on the Bram Stoker's book. Unfortunately i cant show you any pictures of Dracula, since he did not exist, but i have a nice photo of Vlad Tepes for you.

And the second thing...
...is related to Bran Castle. Since I am from Romania, I had the ocasion of visiting the castle affew times. In fact last time i was there last week (11.09.2010). This castle it is presented to be Dracula's Castle by most of the Travel Agencies and in many other ocasions related to Dracula. People should know that Bran Castle has nothing to do with Vlad Tepes (and so with Dracula).
Vlad Tepes never lived there since the residence of the ruler of province Tara Romaneasca was in the city of Targoviste. You can read more about Bran Castle on the page i dedicated to it. In fact, the fortress from Poienari was the place where Vlad Tepes built with war prisoners and other internal enemies that he captured. I also dedicated a page to this fortress.
Why am I so willing to mention this? Because its really so embarasing for me to see soooo many foreign turists beeing lied to in relation with this castle. They are taken there by Travel Agencies and told: Oh look, its Dracula's Castle. And so many people there are selling objects promoting Dracula's Legend, when in fact that has nothing to do with the one that is also fake promoted to be Count Dracula, Vlad Tepes.
Honestly, visiting Poienari Fortress is really a great experience because is very nice positioned exactly on the top of the mountain. Is not preserved too well. However The Bran Castle is better preserved but the arhitecture is not that impressive. And also most of the furniture is from the 20th century.
These beeing said, please enjoy the pictures I took at Poienari Fortress and also at Bran Castle. Also please feel free to post your impresions on our forum and ask questions.