Due to the popularity of Dracula,
Transylvania has now become a synonym for "Vampire-Land". The first chapters of
Stoker's book take place here, focusing on
Jonathan Harker's encounter with the Count and the seductive Vampire Sisters. In
the last chapters the Vampire Hunters travel through Moldavia and Bukovina, in
the East and North of what later became a united Romania. Places associated with the historical Dracula family
are mostly found in Wallachia, south of the Carpathians. Stoker permitted himself to mix
the history of this Wallachian dynasty with that of the Szeklers, based in
the East of Transylvania. In our Travel Guide, we sort out these ethnical and
historical influences, present our insights about the Vampire Count's
lifetime identity and lead you to places never described in Dracula-related literature
before.
Directly after the Stoker Centenary Conference in April 2012,
Hans made a trip to Romania in order to explore the site of Castle Dracula he
had discovered from old maps and Bram Stoker's notes. Six more Romanian trips
followed. From September 2012 until May 2013, he acted as a co-supervisor of a school seminar on vampires in
fiction at the Munich
Edith-Stein-Gymnasium, and guided this group together with a class of
the Samuel-von-Brukenthal-Gymnasium, Sibiu, on a trip aiming to follow Jonathan Harker’s footsteps.
In November 2013, we made a trip to Romania together, in order to share insights and
experiences and meet with local working partners. Stops on the route were, among others, Alba Iulia, Cluj
(Klausenburg), Bistriţa (Bistritz), the Borgo Pass region, Sighişoara, Bran
Castle, Târgovişte, Bucharest and Sibiu (Hermannstadt). In Bucharest, we
were styled as Knights in the Order of Count Dracula - a title especially
created for us by Daniela Diaconescu, co-founder and Vice-President of The
Transylvanian Society of Dracula.
In August 2014, Hans visited Romaina once more, to participate in the opening event of the Via Maria Theresia, a route through the Borgo and Călimani Mountains formerly used by the Habsburg military, in order to provide the frontier posts in this region with munition and food. During the times of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this track was about four meters wide and well-maintained, so that horse-drawn carriages could drive all the way to the Călimani caldera. Jonathan Harker, Count Dracula, Professor van Helsing and Mina must have used parts of this historical path to get from the Borgo Pass to the location of Castle Dracula on Mount Izvorul Călimanului.
During this trip, Hans was joined by Daniela Diaconescu,
Vice-President of the T.S.D., and by Petre Tutunea, a graphic artist from
Bucharest. On their return to Bucharest, Hans was awarded one of only
four watches especially designed for the T.S.D., to honour him for his
groundbreaking research on the Dracula novel; one of the other bearers of
such a watch is Prof. Elizabeth Miller from Toronto.
See the photo gallery about our November 2013 tour to Romania.