@romania: Do you believe in vampires? Bran Castle in Transylvania is famous for spawning the original vampire legend of Count Dracula. Long before sparkly vampires à la Twilight, the original bloodsucking creature of the night was said to roam the shadowy halls of this Transylvania ‘Dracula’ castle. Irish author Bram Stoker invented Dracula as we know him today. The count-turned-villain was the main character of Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror novel, set in a vast (and creepy) castle perched high above a valley. Beneath the stone fortress, a river flowed past. Whether fact or fiction, its resemblance to Bran Castle is uncanny, notwithstanding the fact that Stoker never actually visited the castle. In fact, he never even set foot in Romania! Stoker did look to history for some inspiration, however. Although Dracula is said to be entirely fictional, Stoker modelled the predator after a real-life ruler, Vlad III Dracula, otherwise known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula. And this blood-thirsty ruler of Wallachia did actually stay at Bran Castle, albeit only for a few months as a prisoner of the Hungarian army in the 15th century. Romanian locals believed that strigoi roamed the area after dark. These spirits rose from the dead and fed on their victims’ blood. Sound familiar? As the story goes, the strigoi were actually ‘normal’ people during the day. Come nightfall, however, their souls left their sleeping bodies to torment their neighbours. Anything else you would add to this story? Video by @georgemihaiescu

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Friday 21 July 2023 10:00:00 GMT