When in Romania a visit to Transylvania, the country’s most iconic region, is obligatory; non-negotiable. Some come to this place for the scenic lush green valley and nearby colorful farm fields. Some seek the awesome majesty of the great line of rugged Carpathian Mountains, and many seek the ski slopes of Transylvania in winter. But Romania’s most famous, most visited landmark is the tall commanding fortress, Bran Castle, otherwise known as Vlad the Impaler’s Castle or . . . Dracula’s Castle.
Perched on a stone peak high up in the Carpathian Mountains, it merely looms like a giant over the peasant villages below and in its day provided a clear strategic military watch over the valley as well as the nearby trade route through the mountain pass that once separated Transylvania from the Walachia (now southern Romania.).
The castle’s story is wrought with intrigue, folklore, superstitions, and magic. Even though Count Dracula is a fictional character, seeing the castle for the first time spawned old thoughts of nighttime awakenings by the Count as he sought his next source of seduction and sustenance. Lovely trees and parklike landscaping have softened the castle’s once stark and foreboding appearance; this place is, after all, a bonified tourist attraction. Still, the castle retains its eerie, ominous presence.
The original 1212 wooden castle or perhaps a better term, fortress, was destroyed by the Mongols in 1242 . . . the same invaders who also attacked Bucharest. In 1377, King, Louis I of Hungary gave the Saxons the right to build the stone castle on the same mountain peak to defend against invasions by the Ottoman Empire. Although it began service in 1388, the next fifty years were spent in its completion. The entire project was financed solely by the Saxons with no help from the king. Bran Fortress was actively used for military defense for 400 years before becoming obsolete.
At the end of WWI, Hungary lost Transylvania and, in a solidarity move, three territories, Romania, Moldova, and Transylvania formed current Romania.
No longer useful, the crumbling castle, was rescued by Queen Marie III of Romania in about 1920. She ordered repairs and renovations to the old castle, turning it into one of her favorite residences. She changed the dark fortress intended for warfare into a lovely castle for retreat and the entertainment of her friends and important people. There are secret passages and hidden doors as well as fake doors in the castle that simply ensure symmetry. At her death, the castle became the property of her youngest daughter, Princess Lleana. The princess had fine royal blood. She had direct lineage to Queen Victoria of the UK, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, King Ferdinanda II, and Queen Maria II of Portugal. Not only was LLeana a rare royal beauty but she was quite accomplished as well. This remarkable woman was an early scout, an organizer of the Girl Reserves of the Red Cross, a sailor, an artist, a writer, and a gifted sculptor.
Then came WW II. Lleana turned the castle into a hospital for wounded Romanian soldiers. At the war’s end, Romania fell under Communist rule. They took over the castle and expelled the royal family in 1948. Princess Lleana and her children escaped and ultimately settled in the USA where she continued her work with the church, she lectured on communism and wrote two books. One was her memoir, I Live Again: A Memoir, about her last years in Romania. I hope to read it someday. At the time of her death, Princess Lleana was a nun in the Orthodox monastery she founded in Ellwood City New Jersey.
Many years after the fall of communism, the Romanian government granted restitution on properties illegally assumed by the communist government. Ownership of the castle was finally returned to the children of Princess Lleana. Only one son remains today. He is in his 90s and lives in New York. To this day, the castle remains a privately owned museum.
While visiting this great castle made of stone, mortar, brick, and great wooden beams, it struck me that it has stood on this great granite rock for 700 years.
Bran Castle was an important fortress from 1400 until 1946. During that time, many rulers held positions of power. One in particular, is Prince Vlad III Dracula, also called Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, born in Transylvania. This sadistic prince protected his country with a firm hand. And in doing so committed unfathomable atrocities. A narrow hardened steel spike about two feet long was attached to a board. The enemy or convicted criminal was forced to sit on this spike so that it entered his anus. It slid upward sometimes to the throat without ever harming an organ. The person died a slow agonizing death. Some victims were simply impaled horizontally, front to back. It is said he killed more than 80,000 foreign and domestic enemies in his lifetime using this method and other horrifying means. His middle name was Dracula meaning dragon or devil.
Vlad never lived in Bran Castle or even spent the night there. He never impaled anyone there, but he did pass by through the Bran Mountain pass many times. Despite his ruthlessness, Vlad is a folk hero; he successfully defended his country from Ottoman encroachment.
Oh, Transylvania is wrought with superstitions, and vivid, lurid tales of ghosts, and lost souls. Imagine a young child being told the soul of a murder victim or a person who may have taken his own life could never die or rest but would be cast to some miserable un-world between here and there. The spirits of lost souls float about at night . . . unleashed and haunting in the form of a night being . . . a bat, a cat, or a wolf seeking blood. The only way to put the soul to rest was to dig up the body whose soul was lost, hammer a wooden stake into its heart, and re-bury the body in the Christian way.
Irishman Bram Stoker never set foot in Transylvania. Although he never saw Bran Castle, the descriptions of its image intrigued him. He also became fascinated with the story of Elizabeth Bathory, Queen of Hungary who between 1590 and 1610, kept her youth by bathing in the blood of virgins. She sacrificed as many as 60,000 virgins for that cause. Stoker learned about the atrocities of Vlad Dracula, and the haunting Transylvanian lost soul folklore. Stoker, admittedly a troubled sleeper, is said to have had a vivid nightmare about blood-sucking creatures. Out of his imagination, intense research, and nightmares, came one of the world’s most beguiling books ever, Dracula.
Although depicted in over 300 movies, I can only picture one man’s face as Count Dracula . . . Bela Lugosi.
