Dracula's Castle Subject of Fight
DACIA LAN
By ALISON MUTLER
.c The Associated Press
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - The descendants of a former Romanian princess are
suing the government for the return of an ancient fortress popularly known as
``Dracula's Castle'' - or $25 million in compensation.
Culture Minister Razvan Theodorescu confirmed receipt of a letter from lawyers
representing the family of the former Princess Ileana, the state news agency
Rompres reported Tuesday.
``We will treat this matter calmly,'' said Theodorescu, suggesting the claim
was out of line since the state had already invested money for repairs of the
14th-century fortress in the Transylvanian town of Bran.
Vlad the Impaler - the Romanian warrior prince who gave rise to the Dracula
legend - never lived in the turreted gothic edifice. Nonetheless, it has been
nicknamed ``Dracula's castle,'' a favorite attraction of tourists and foreign
filmmakers alike. Vlad, whose legendary reputation for cruelty was founded on
his love of impaling his victims and watching them die while he ate dinner,
turned into the blood-drinking Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel.
Princess Ileana was a daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie and a
great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England and Czar Alexander II of
Russia. Ileana's mother left her the castle when she died in 1938.
Ileana emigrated to the United States in 1950 and founded a convent 17 years
later in western Pennsylvania. Before becoming a nun, she was married and had
five children. She died in 1991.
Her nephew, King Michael, was forced to abdicate the Romanian throne in 1947
and the royal family left Bucharest in 1948 as the Communists consolidated
their power.
Earlier this month, Michael, 79, sued the government for the return of a
separate home, the Peles Castle, built by his great grandfather Carol I as the
royal palace in 1873.
Michael's lawyers argue that the castle should be returned under existing laws.
The government has said it would like to negotiate with Michael.
DACIA LAN
DACIA LAN
Elizabeth Miller
Well, at least the article got one thing right - Bran Castle (in spite of
its being called "Dracula's Castle") had practically no connection with
Vlad Tepes, and none whatsoever with the vampire legend generated by Bram
Stoker.
Now, if only these reporters would realize that Vlad Tepes was not the
inspiration for the Count Dracula of Bram Stoker's novel. The evidence
just does not support this repeatedly stated fabrication. Stoker's only
known source of information for the name "Dracula" was an 1820 publication
that had two paragraphs on Vlad Dracul and his son Dracula (the source
actually refers to both as "Dracula").
Of course, the decision to locate the proposed Dracula Land theme park
near Sighisoara, birthplace of Vlad, will only add to the confusion. While
I can appreciate (in part) the desire to bring money into the economy, in
my view it would have been wiser to locate it far from the sites so
important to Romanian history and put it, say, in the Borgo Pass (Pasul
Bargau, Tihuta) where the fictional Dracula's castle is located (in
Stoker's novel).
Elizabeth Miller
emi...@mun.ca
http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/ ["Dracula's homepage"]