How is the word dracula translated from Romanian. Vlad III Tepes: biography, interesting facts and legends. Relations between prince and nobility

Count Dracula, created by Bram Stoker, is one of the most famous vampires in literature. It was he who became the "classic" prototype of the modern vampire - an elegant and mysterious man, thirsty for human blood. However, if you didn’t know, he was no match for his namesake Vlad Tepes, the ruler of Wallachia, known for his excessive “humanism” and “love” for people ...

For many years he kept the whole of Wallachia in fear with his unpredictable and unbridled cruelty. Of course, he did not drink the blood from the necks of the victims, but thousands of bloody executions, the murders of "unworthy" residents of the city and impalement were very to his liking, which is confirmed by the manuscripts of the 15th century. Nevertheless, there are two directly opposite points of view about him.

According to the first, Tepes was a crazy sadist who enjoyed torturing his victims. According to the second - a fighter against the hated Turks. In this way, he simply tried to fight the cowardice of the soldiers and the betrayal of the boyars. Be that as it may, manuscripts have survived to this day that describe all the cruelties of the prince.

All researchers agree that the nickname "Dracul" was inherited by Vlad III from his father, Vlad II, who was a knight of the Order of St. George (Order of the Dragon). Each knight of the order should have worn the sign of the dragon on their clothes, but the father of Vlad III, emphasizing his belonging to the order, went even further - he placed the image of the dragon on gold coins that he minted in his own name.

Coins became widespread in Wallachia and gave rise to the nickname, which was then inherited by Vlad III. Although over time, the people assigned a different meaning to the name - “the son of the Devil”, which was more like the truth.

Dracula's father - Vlad II

In his youth, Vlad III was called Dracul (rum. Dracul), inheriting his father's nickname without any changes. However, later (in the 1470s) he began to indicate his nickname with the letter “a” at the end, since by that time it had become most famous in this form.

A 15th-century manuscript tells how Dracula once invited several guests to his mansion, threw a feast, and then impaled them right at the dinner table. Then he slowly finished his dinner, dipping bread into buckets of their blood.

Dracula avenged his father by killing hundreds of people. And he not only killed, but ripped open the bellies with blunt swords. Vlad spent most of his youth in a Turkish prison, and when he was released, he learned that his father had been betrayed by his own people, including the boyars. And since the young prince did not know the names of the traitors, he invited them all to a feast, at which they were executed.

Theodore Aman, "Boyars Caught at a Feast by the Messengers of Vlad the Impaler"

One of the most horrifying stories says that Dracula liked to have breakfast at the place of execution or the site of a recent battle. He ordered to bring him a table and food, sat down and ate among the dead and dying on the stakes of people.

There is also an addition to this story, which says that the servant who served Vlad food could not stand the smell of decay and, clutching his throat with his hands, dropped the tray right in front of him. Vlad asked why he did it. “No strength to endure, a terrible stench,” the unfortunate man replied. And Vlad immediately ordered to put him on a stake, which was several meters longer than the others, after which he shouted to the still living servant: “You see! Now you are above everyone, and the stench does not reach you.

Dracula had a sense of humor - though a very unusual one. For example, when people impaled twitched like frogs, the prince looked at them and seemed to casually remark: “Oh, what amazing grace they have!”

It may seem that Dracula was an ordinary madman who only did what he ran and killed people, but this is not so.

Impaling was accepted as a punishment for a crime, whether the perpetrator committed murder or stole a loaf of bread. Of course, there were exceptions. Once a gypsy from a camp traveling through the lands of Dracula stole something. When he was caught, the prince ordered the unfortunate man to be boiled, and the other gypsies forced him to eat.

Dracula got rid of all the sick and the poor, burning them alive in an attempt to restore order in the streets of the capital of Wallachia. One day he called all the poor, the sick and the vagabonds to one of his houses under the pretense of a holiday.

After they had eaten, Dracula politely apologized, went out and ordered all the windows and doors in the house to be boarded up. Then the house was burned down. According to the chronicles of that time, not a single person survived.

These were still flowers: sometimes the prince burned entire villages in his possessions for no apparent reason.

Dracula "gave" golden goblets to his subjects. The result of hundreds of murders was that Dracula was in complete control of his people and he knew it. To test how much his subjects feared him, he placed cups of pure gold on the main square of the capital.

It was announced that anyone could drink from them, but under no circumstances should the goblets leave the square. At that time, about 60,000 people lived in the city, but during the entire period of the reign of the prince, no one even touched these bowls, although they were in full view of thousands of people living in poverty.

Theodore Aman, "Vlad the Impaler and the Turkish Ambassadors" (1861-64)

Dracula asked the ambassadors of the Ottoman Empire who arrived at Tepes demanding recognition of vassalage: “Why didn’t they take off their hats to him, the ruler.” Hearing the answer that they would bare their heads only in front of the Sultan, Vlad ordered the caps to be nailed to their heads.

There is a story about a mistress who tries to deceive Tepes by talking about her pregnancy. Tepes warns her that she does not tolerate lies, but she continues to insist on her own, then Tepes rips open her stomach and shouts: “I told you that I don’t like lies!”

According to an old Russian story, Tepes ordered to cut out the genitals of unfaithful wives and widows who violate the rules of chastity, and rip off their skin, exposing the bodies to the point of decomposition of the body and eating it by birds, or do the same, but first pierce them with a poker from the crotch to the mouth

One day, Dracula sent troops to drive the Turks out of their land. And when the Turks began to win, he ordered the burning of their own villages, so that the Turks had nowhere to rest and resupply provisions. Moreover, he poisoned all the wells and killed thousands of inhabitants so that the invaders would not get all this.

Bran Castle gained fame after Bram Stoker wrote his famous novel Dracula, where the main character is Count Dracula, the "vampire of Transylvania". In fact, Count Dracula never lived there. He simply liked to hunt here and from time to time stopped for the night. The rest is the imagination of writers and filmmakers.

Bran Castle was nicknamed "Dracula's Castle" three decades ago by Western tourists who came to Romania in search of Dracula. Upon visiting a castle in Transylvania, they were struck by its resemblance to the castle described by Stoker in his novel, so they nicknamed it "Dracula's Castle".

Unfortunately (or fortunately, this is a moot point), over time, the connection between Stoker's novel and the castle became firmly ingrained in people's minds.

Corvinov Castle has more to do with Dracula - according to legend, it was in the local dungeon that the deposed ruler Vlad Tepes languished for 7 years.

During the war with the Turks, the prince died on the battlefield. It is believed that Dracula's body was buried in the cemetery of the Snagov Monastery on the outskirts of Bucharest. But there are conflicting rumors: some claim that the body of the prince was never found, others that the remains were buried, but then disappeared.

The second version seems to be true, since Vlad III was probably buried with treasures, and robbers could have reached the grave.

Few names have cast more fear into the human heart than Count Dracula. Created by author Bram Stoker in his 1897 novel of the same name, the legendary vampire has inspired countless horror films, television shows, gory tales of vampires.

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Although Dracula is a purely fictional creation, Stoker called him the infamous character of a real person who had a taste for blood: Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, or, as he is better known, Vlad the Impaler. The morbid nickname is evidence of the Wallachian Prince's favorite way of leaving his enemies.

According to historians who have studied the connection between Stoker's vampire and Vlad III, there is nothing to do with Dracula.

Count Dracula: the real story

Vlad the Impaler (Vlad III) was born in 1431 in what is now Transylvania, the central region of present-day Romania. The connection between Vlad the Impaler and Transylvania is unwavering, according to Florin Kerta, a professor of medieval history and archeology at the University of Florida.

[Stoker's] Dracula is associated with Transylvania, but the real historical Dracula - Vlad III did not own anything in Transylvania. Bran Castle, a modern tourist attraction in Transylvania often referred to as Dracula's castle, was never the residence of the Prince of Wallachia.

Since the castle is located in the mountains in this foggy area and it looks intimidating, this is what one would expect from Dracula's castle, but Vlad III did not live there, he did not even set foot there.

Vlad III's father, Vlad II, lived in Sighisoara, Transylvania, and Vlad the Impaler was born in Targovishte, which at that time was the royal seat of the Principality of Wallachia, where his father was the "voivode" or ruler.

Tourists can visit the castle where Vlad III spent his time. At around age 12, Vlad III and his brother were imprisoned in Turkey. In 2014, archaeologists discovered the likely location of the dungeon. Tokat Castle is located in northern Turkey. It is an eerie place with secret tunnels and dungeons currently under restoration and open to the public.

In this painting, "Vlad the Impaler and the Turkish Envoys" by Theodor Aman (1831-1891) allegedly depicts a scene in which Vlad III

Order of the Dragon

In 1431 King Sigismund of Hungary, who later became Holy Roman Emperor, inducted the elder Vlad into a knightly order, the Order of the Dragon. This designation brought Vlad a new surname: Dracul. The name comes from the old Romanian word for dragon, "draco". His son, Vlad III, would later be known as "son of Dracula" or, in old Romanian, Draculea, hence Dracula. In modern Romanian, the word "drak" refers to another terrible creature - the devil.

In 1890 Stoker read a book about Wallachia. Although he did not mention Vlad III, Stoker was struck by the word "Dracula". He wrote in his notes: "In the Wallachian language means the Devil." Therefore, it is likely that Stoker chose to name his hero Dracula for the word's diabolical associations.

The theory that Vlad III and Dracula were the same person was developed and popularized by historians Radu Florescu and Raymond T. McNally in their 1972 book In Search of Dracula. Although it has not been accepted by historians, the thesis has captured the public imagination.

The Order of the Dragon was dedicated to a single task: the defeat of the Turkish or Ottoman Empire. Situated between Christian Europe and the Muslim lands of the Ottoman Empire, Vlad II's (later Vlad III's) principality of Wallachia was often the site of bloody battles as Ottoman forces pushed west into Europe and Christian forces repelled the invaders.

Watch the video: The real story of Count Dracula

years of captivity

When Vlad II was summoned to a diplomatic meeting in 1442 with the Ottoman sultan Murad II, he brought his young sons Vlad III and Rada with him. But the meeting was actually a trap: all three were taken hostage. The elder Vlad was released on the condition that he would leave his sons.

“The Sultan held Vlad and his brother as hostages so that their father, Vlad II, would commit his forces to the war between Turkey and Hungary.

Vlad and his younger brother were trained in science, philosophy and art by the Ottomans. Vlad also became a skilled horseman and warrior, according to Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally, former history professors at Boston College who wrote several books about Vlad III, as well as his alleged connection to Stoker's Dracula, in the 1970s and 1980s.

They were treated reasonably well by the current standards of the day. Nevertheless, the capture annoyed Vlad, while his brother seemed to agree and went over to the Turkish side. But Vlad kept the enmity and that was one of his motivating factors for fighting the Turks for keeping him prisoner.

Father of Vlad Tepes

While Count Vlad Tepes and Radu Tepes were in Ottoman hands, Vlad's father fought to keep his place as voivode of Wallachia. In 1447, Vlad II was forced out as the ruler of Wallachia by local nobles (boyars) and was killed in the swamps near Balteni, halfway between Targovishte and Bucharest in modern Romania. Vlad's older half-brother, Mircea, was killed along with his father.

Shortly after these harrowing events, in 1448, Count Vlad undertook a campaign to regain his father's place from the new ruler, Vladislav II. His first attempt at the throne relied on the military support of the Ottoman rulers of the cities along the Danube River in northern Bulgaria. Vlad also took advantage of Vladislav's absence at the time by going to the Balkans to fight the Ottomans for the Hungarian governor John Hunyadi.

Vlad won back his father's place, but his time as the ruler of Wallachia was short-lived. He was deposed after only two months when Vladislav II returned and took the throne of Wallachia with the help of Hunyadi.

Little is known about the whereabouts of Vlad III between 1448 and 1456. But it is known that he went over to the side of the Ottoman-Hungarian conflict, renouncing his ties with the Ottoman rulers and receiving military support from the King of Hungary Vadislav V, who did not like Vlad's rival, Vladislav II of Wallachia.

The political and military policy of Vlad III came to the fore in 1453. Vlad, who had already strengthened his anti-Ottoman position, was proclaimed governor of Wallachia in 1456. One of his first acts in his new role was to end the annual tribute to the Ottoman sultan, a measure that had previously secured peace between Wallachia and the Ottomans.

Strengthening the power of Vlad

To consolidate his power as a ruler, Vlad the Impaler had to quell the ongoing conflicts that had historically taken place between the boyars of Wallachia. According to the legends that circulated after his death, Vlad invited hundreds of these boyars to a banquet and, knowing that they would challenge his authority, forced the guests to stab them.

This is just one of many horrific developments that Vlad the Impaler earned with his posthumous nickname Dracula. This story - and others like it - have been recorded in printed materials since the reign of Vlad III.

In the 1460s and 1470s, just after the invention of the printing press, many of these stories about Vlad circulated orally and were later collected by various people in pamphlets and printed.

These stories are not entirely true or greatly embellished. After all, many of those who printed the pamphlets were hostile to Vlad III. But some of the pamphlets of the time tell the worst news about Vlad, leading to believe that the tales were historically accurate. Some of these legends were collected and published in the book "The Tale of Dracula" in 1490 by a monk who presented Vlad III as a cruel but just ruler.

Vlad the Impaler's victory over the Ottoman invaders was celebrated throughout Wallachia, Transylvania and the rest of Europe - even Pope Pius II was impressed by the event.

The reason why he is a positive character in Romania is because he was a just, albeit very harsh, ruler.

Death of Vlad

Shortly after the release of the Ottoman prisoners of war in August 1462, Vlad was forced to flee to Hungary after failing to defeat his much more powerful adversary, Mehmet II. Vlad was imprisoned.

Vlad's younger brother, Radu, who had sided with the Ottomans in the ongoing military campaigns, took over the administration of Wallachia after his brother's imprisonment. But after the death of Radu in 1475, local boyars, as well as the rulers of several nearby principalities, spoke in favor of Vlad's return to power.

In 1476, with the support of the governor of Moldavia, Stephen III the Great (1457-1504), Vlad made a final effort to regain his place as ruler of Wallachia. He successfully stole the throne, but his triumph was short-lived. Later that year, after going through another battle with the Ottomans, Vlad and a small vanguard of soldiers were in an ambush and Vlad was killed.

There is a lot of controversy over the location of the tomb of Vlad III. It is said that he was buried in the monastery church in Snagov, on the northern edge of the modern city of Bucharest, in accordance with the traditions of his time. V Lately historians have established that Vlad was buried at the Comana monastery, between Bucharest and the Danube, which is close to the supposed location of the battle in which Vlad was killed.

One thing is certain: unlike Count Dracula Stoker, Vlad III is definitely dead. Only harrowing tales of his years as ruler of Wallachia continue to haunt the modern world.

There was a governor in the Muntian land, a Christian of the Greek faith, his name in Wallachian is Dracula, and in our opinion - the Devil. He was so cruel and wise that whatever his name was, such was his life...

Fedor Kuritsyn, "The Tale of Dracula Governor"

He drank the blood of his enemies and loved to dine among his thousands of impaled victims. He cut out women's breasts, skinned people alive, pierced their bellies, and nailed hats to their heads. The most important and bloody monster is the Prince of Darkness. The one whose name means "son of the Devil" in Romanian. The one who loves cinema so much and who today has thousands of fans. The mysterious tyrant of the Middle Ages - Vlad Tepes Dracula. This is what our contemporaries think.

He died five centuries ago and then he was buried with honors, called the most just ruler, honest and noble. People could not hold back their tears because they knew he gave his life to protect them. Vlad Dracula built churches and monasteries, founded the capital of Romania Bucharest and saved Europe from the Turkish invasion. He was a protector Orthodox faith but died a Catholic. He was a brilliant commander, but went down in history under a terrible nickname - Tepes, i.e. "impaling". He is credited with tens of thousands of executions. Who was he really? Why did he acquire such fame? And when did the building of the reputation of a man who is still considered a national hero in Romania begin?

In the 15th century the prince Vlad III Dracula was the ruler or ruler of the small country of Wallachia, located in the center of Europe on the territory of modern Romania. Even during his reign, rumors spread around Europe about the extreme cruelty of Dracula. and after his sudden death, he was generally declared a servant of the Devil. Below is one of the medieval engravings, where Vlad quietly dine among thousands of impaled people.

Perhaps this excitement would have passed with time, but soon after the death of Dracula, an ambassador from the Russian Tsar Ivan III arrived in Romania Fedor Kuritsyn . He heard about the deeds of the prince and brought back from this journey his heartbreaking story - "The Tale of Dracula". In Russia, the book was immediately banned - Kuritsyn admired the actions of the prince too much. But one day the legend fell into the hands of a minor Ivan IV the Terrible . For the young king, this book became a guide to government. He carefully studied the methods of execution according to the method of Dracula and over time surpassed him. Began to combine flaying with burning; impaled and at the same time cut out pieces of meat from the unfortunate; boiled the victims in oil, set fire to them and tore them by the legs.

All tyrants are the same. Something makes everyone be cruel: the situation in the country, conspiracies, opposition, a difficult childhood, or innate insensitivity and cruelty. But why did Dracula stand out so much that he was proclaimed Prince of Darkness No. 1? Did he really drink blood? It's all the Irish writer's fault Bram Stoker . He lived in the 19th century and wrote horror novels, but none of them brought him success until he decided to write a novel about vampires. It was in the 19th century that everyone believed that ghouls exist. These are not just characters from folk tales. They live somewhere in the unknown and terrible forests of Eastern Europe, among the Serbs, Czechs and Russians. Stoker heard about Vlad the Impaler Dracula from his friend, a Hungarian scientist, who told about the forgotten tyrant and gave medieval books about the monster. In gratitude, Stoker made this scientist a vampire fighter and introduced him into the book under the name Van Helsing . In Stoker's novel, a vampire count lives in a Transylvanian castle who bites through the necks of his guests, drinks their blood, and turns them into zombie slaves. He sleeps in a coffin, he has red elongated fangs, a deformed spine and, most importantly, he is very afraid of sunlight. Naturally, Stoker changed and invented a lot. And Dracula was not a count, but a prince. And he did not live in Transylvania, but in Wallachia. and slept not in a coffin, but on an ordinary bed.

Disease or vampirism?

Regarding Dracula's appearance and photophobia, Stoker described the symptoms of a real illness, unknown at the time. Such people really have long fangs, they cannot be in the sun, because the skin becomes blistered, their skeleton is deformed and they become very scary. All of these are sick porphyria. It occurs very rarely when a person's metabolic process in the blood is disturbed. Doctors managed to determine porphyria not so long ago - in 1963. Patients with porphyria, of course, did not drink blood, but because of their ugly appearance they were feared and often called the living dead. Of course, such clinical features leave an imprint on the psyche. Thus, a person who is afraid of daylight and has anatomical defects begins to acquire a certain halo of mystery. Perhaps Stoker saw in his life a patient with porphyria. His appearance impressed the writer so much that he endowed her with his hero, the bloodsucker Dracula. And what did the real Prince of Wallachia look like?

Appearance of Vlad Dracula

A lifetime portrait of Dracula and its description have come down to us: "He was a short, densely built, broad-shouldered man. The features are rough. The skin is delicate. He had an aquiline nose, wide nostrils, very long eyelashes, wide eyebrows and a long mustache." Nothing to suggest porphyria. So the appearance of the literary Dracula has nothing to do with the appearance of the prototype. Moreover, there is no information in any historical source that Dracula drank blood. Other atrocities were attributed to him, but he was not seen in vampirism.

The tradition of drinking the blood of their enemies existed among the Kurds, Japanese samurai and the Papuans of New Guinea. It has nothing to do with pleasure, but with conviction. Drinking the blood of your enemy, you get his strength and youth. Eating the heart - you seize his courage. These traditions were unknown to medieval Romanians. But Stoker knew very well about them in the 19th century, who had been interested in the memoirs of famous European travelers all his life. So the writer's fantasy, in addition to a frightening appearance, endowed the Romanian prince with love for fresh blood. and behind these horrors one can no longer see the image of the real Dracula, the one whom the Romanians still consider a national hero. and they were so offended by Bram Stoker that they even banned the novel Dracula. Ceausescu declared that the novel dishonors the honorable name of the illustrious son of the Romanian people, Vlad Dracula. But why was one tyrant so protective of another? What was good about Vlad Tepes and his crimes? And why do Romanians love Dracula so much?

In the Middle Ages, Wallachia was a small principality adjacent to Transylvania, and today it is part of Romania. Mountains and dense fog hiding small towns. It seems that the Romanians there and now are afraid of vampires, but they do not know what it is. In their fairy tales, no one drinks blood. Such characters in folk representations never existed. Then it is not at all clear where the legend of the bloody Dracula came from.

Childhood and youth of Vlad Dracula

In 1431 in the city of Sighisoara in the family of the prince Vlad II Dracula and Moldavian princess Vasiliki a son was born. In general, the ruler of Wallachia had four sons: the eldest Mircea , average Vlad and Radu and the youngest - also Vlad (son of the second wife of Prince Vlad II - Koltsuny , subsequently Vlad IV Monk ). Fate will not be favorable to the first three of them. Mircea will be buried alive by the Wallachian boyars in Targovishte. Radu will become the favorite of the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II , and Vlad will bring his family the bad reputation of a cannibal. Vlad IV The monk will live his life more or less calmly. The family crest was a dragon. It was in the year of Vlad's birth that his father joined the Order of the Dragon, whose members swore on blood to protect Christians from the Muslim Turks. They wore long black cloaks. By the way, the bloody prince Dracula will wear the same.

Over time, details of his birth appear in the legends about Prince Dracula. Allegedly, when the baby was born, one of the icons in the room wept blood. It was the birth of the Antichrist. In addition, two comets appeared in the sky at once, which was also not a good omen. Such stories are often invented after the birth of many prominent people.

In the 15th century, the Turks took over the country. Sultan Murad II demands to pay tribute - to send boys and animals to Turkey. It is impossible to argue with the Turks, they have just captured Constantinople and have become a threat to the whole world. Gradually, the small countries of Eastern Europe came under their rule. From the Balkans, the Turks went to Romania and Wallachia had to become a Turkish province. The prince fought back as best he could, secretly joined the knightly order of the Dragon, and played a double game with the sultan. He taught his sons that the main thing is freedom.

But one day the sultan revealed his secret plan and summoned the prince and his sons to him and accused him of treason. And in order for the prince to serve him faithfully, he took his two sons as hostages: Vlad and Rada. If their father had rebelled against the Turks, the boys would have simply been killed. However, there were some advantages to this conclusion. Education in Turkey at that time was considered one of the best. Only there could Vlad learn martial arts and military strategy to face this empire. It had to be studied from the inside. That's what Vlad's father would have wanted. Several years passed and all this time the brothers were together. Vlad supported the younger Rada, took care of him. Together they dreamed that they would run away home and, together with their father and older brother, take revenge on the Turks.

But it happened differently. Wallachia had many enemies: Hungarian neighbors who wanted to take away her lands; the boyars, who wanted to put their protege on the throne, and the Turks, who established their own rules. Chaos reigned in the country. The Romanians gradually converted to Islam. And Dracula Sr. fought as best he could for the preservation of his rights and religion. But one day his captured sons found out - their father was killed. His older brother Mircea also died with him. The boyars elevated their candidate to the throne. Now it turned out that the fourteen-year-old Vlad Dracula became the heir to the throne. An heir who had nothing - no power, no freedom. He cherished in his soul hatred for the Turks and revenge for the death of his relatives. In his hatred, he did not notice how the irreparable happened - his younger brother liked the heir of Sultan Mehmed. Known for his perverse predilection for boys, he took the weak Radu into his harem and made him a favorite. Vlad choked with hatred. Through the prison bars, he saw the Turks executing Christians - how they sharpen smooth sticks with a diameter of about 25 cm and impale people on them. The unfortunate died for 12 hours, because the stake gradually passed through the whole body, pierced internal organs and passed through the mouth. Then Vlad decided to learn the language, techniques and customs of the Turks, and when the time comes, to kill them, in their own favorite way. so another six years passed in hatred and sadness.

Once, Vlad was brought to the Sultan and he said: "Come back home. Sit on the throne of your father and serve me more honestly than he served." Returning, Vlad saw his country in ruins. Boyar strife and the struggle for power gave rise to chaos. Theft, lynching and lawlessness flourished. Part of the population became turkish and converted to Islam. Neighboring Transylvania threatened war. It was then that Vlad Dracula made three oaths to himself: to avenge the death of his father and older brother, save his younger brother Rada from captivity and free the country from the Turks. He will not pay tribute, will not give boys to numerous Janissary barracks, because he is not a puppet, he is Vlad Dracula. The one whose name will become a nightmare for the Sultan. Personal life For four years, Vlad conscientiously paid tribute to the Turks, sent humble letters to the Sultan, assured of his loyalty. At the same time, he secretly formed his army.

Continuing the work of his father, he began to establish ties with his neighbors. He made friends with the king of Hungary and at his court found what he never had - a friend and love. The successor of the Hungarian king became a friend Matthias Korvin and love is beautiful Lydia , the daughter of a Romanian boyar - a quiet, submissive and beautiful girl. She was going to be the bride of the Lord, to spend her life in a convent. But a chance meeting with Vlad Dracula turned her life upside down. The prince, in love, begged on his knees to refuse to be tonsured, and Lydia agreed to become his wife. This decision will make her unhappy and make her die young. They were married in a small Hungarian church. Vlad was happy. For the first time in his life, he wanted not to fight, but to enjoy quiet family joys.

Domestic and foreign policy of Vlad Dracula

But Vlad understood that life under the rule of the Turks could not last forever. All this time he lived in captivity of his nightmares, and woke up from his own scream. In a dream he saw his dead father. He was lowered into the grave alive. I saw a little brother who was still at the mercy of the Turkish sultan. The dead called for revenge, while the living waited for his return. And Vlad finally made up his mind. The bloody revenge of Vlad Dracula. At this time, the Pope tried to organize a new crusade against the Turks, but only Wallachia and Hungary agreed to fight. Other countries feared the sultan's revenge. Vlad Dracula was so happy about the opportunity to get rid of Turkish dependence that he refused to pay tribute to the Sultan. It was a challenge, but the sultan, busy with the war with Greece, decided to postpone the punishment of the impudent Dracula. Vlad understood that before the war it was necessary to strengthen his power. There was little time, so the prince did not choose the methods.

To begin with, he tried to stop the boyar strife that was tearing apart his small country. In his family castle Targovishte, Vlad avenged the death of his father and older brother. According to legend, he invited the boyars to a feast, and then ordered them all to be stabbed to death. It is believed that it is with this execution that the bloody procession of the great tyrant Vlad Dracula begins. So the legends tell, but the chronicles convince in a different way - at the feast, Dracula only scared the boyars, and only got rid of those whom he suspected of treason. During the first years of his reign, he executed 11 boyars who were preparing a coup against him. Having avoided a real threat, Dracula began to restore order in the country. He issued new laws. For theft, murder and violence, criminals were expected to be executed - they were supposed to be burned at the stake. When public executions began in the country, people realized that their ruler was not joking.

Vlad Tepes quickly became famous as a just ruler. In his time, money could be left right on the street and no one would dare to steal it, because everyone knew that the punishment would be terrible. There was not a single thief in the country. For Vlad, it didn’t matter if a nobleman, a boyar or an ordinary beggar committed a crime. The decision for all was one-execution. The legend claims that in this way he destroyed all the beggars and those who did not want to work. gradually he deliberately made people afraid of himself. He even selected scary stories about his cruelty. He believed that only in this way would he make himself respected and prepare the people for a difficult war with the Turks. In each city, Vlad left a golden goblet at the main well so that anyone could drink water. People were so afraid and respected their ruler that no one dared to steal this cup. Some of his reforms healed the economy of Wallachia in record time. Under Dracula, even hominy was boiled in milk, since milk was cheaper than water. He gave the green light to local merchants, and imposed a heavy duty on foreign merchants. And when the merchants of neighboring Transylvania tried to rebel, he staged a demonstrative execution. In front of the entire merchant community, he ordered to impale ten merchants who violated his law. But he was not forgiven for this. Vlad punished the Saxons near Brasov, after which they began to write terrible stories about him. The Saxons portrayed Dracula as a terrible, bloody and cruel ruler. To them, he was a monster. Thus began the creation of the image of the Devil. The merchants decided to take revenge and spread gossip that Dracula is the Devil who destroys his people, that he burns entire cities, impales even babies, burns women's breasts, and then feasts among the corpses. Later, other terrible inventions were added to these fantasies.

Once Dracula arranged a dinner and invited the beggars to his place. When the guests had eaten, the prince asked if they always wanted to be so full and happy. The guests nodded happily. Then Vlad went out, and the servants locked and set fire to the house from all sides. Nobody survived. The same thing happened with the Turkish ambassadors. They came to the prince for negotiations, but refused to take off their turbans as a sign of respect. Then Dracula ordered to nail these turbans to the embassy's heads with nails. There is only part of the truth in these stories. The beggars in the country really disappeared, but no one burned them at a feast. They were punished, and those who refused to work were burned. And no one nailed turbans to the heads of ambassadors. Dracula knew Turkish customs too well. Since there was no chronicler at Dracula's court, there is too little information about him. The only "reliable" document was a pamphlet written by Saxon merchants. In it, he is naturally presented in the most negative light. But for the Romanian people, he is a hero and a just ruler who never killed innocent people.

Thus, in four years, Dracula completely changed the situation in his country. He founded the future capital - Bucharest, began the construction of new castles and fortresses and continued not to pay tribute to the Sultan, realizing that they would soon want to punish him. But when Vlad turned to his allies in Hungary and Moldova for support, they refused to help him. Friend and King of Hungary Matthias Corvinus has already spent the money allocated to him by the Pope for the crusade. Therefore, he was forced to support Dracula, but he did it in a very cunning way - he equipped the army and ordered him to stay on the border with Wallachia and wait. the angry sultan gathered 250 thousand soldiers and put them on Wallachia. Vlad was in despair, because he had only 30 thousand soldiers. Then he decided to retreat and lead guerrilla war. His warriors only attacked at night, howling like wolves. The Turks were terrified, they thought they were fighting werewolves. This is exactly what Prince Dracula wanted. His army quickly appeared, killed and also quickly disappeared. The Turks found nothing in Wallachia, not even horse food. The water in the wells was poisoned. The Turks drank and died. In addition, ambushes awaited them in all mountain gorges and forests.

The tactics of "scorched earth" worked - the huge army of the Turks was melting before our eyes. Everyone volunteered to join Dracula's army. even 12-year-old boys and women were accepted into the army. And in 1462, one of the most famous and daring attacks of this war took place. Vlad dressed his soldiers in Turkish clothes and attacked the headquarters of the Sultan at night. The panic began. No one knew who was attacking them and from where. The frightened Turks cut each other down. The Sultan was not killed only by mistake - he was confused with the vizier. That night, Dracula's small army massacred 30,000 Turks. And the next day, the Sultan discovered a forest of impaled Turkish soldiers - 4,000 dead. So Vlad surpassed his teachers in cruelty. The conqueror of Constantinople, the great and invincible sultan, after what he saw said: "I will not conquer a country ruled by such a bloodthirsty and great warrior" and simply retreated. King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary credited this victory to himself. Allegedly, it was he who led Dracula in the war. O sent a letter to the Pope - reported that the money was not spent in vain.

Now all of Europe glorified Dracula and Corwin as heroes. Offended by Dracula, the Hungarian king said that he could not help him. I just didn't have time to raise an army. And Vlad believed a friend. He had only to finish off the retreating Turkish troops. Once, during a regular fight with the Turks, Dracula suddenly ran into the commander of the Turkish detachment in battle. A battle ensued, and when Vlad removed the helmet from the Turk with a blow, he saw his brother Radu. He realized that his brother had become a traitor and a loyal servant of the Sultan. Vlad wanted to kill him, but his brother shouted that Vlad owed him. It was he who begged the Sultan to grant him freedom and the throne. Having killed hundreds of enemies, Dracula could not kill a single one. This mistake will cost him his life.

Betrayal

Soon he learned that Rada was supported by the boyars and made a new pretender to the throne. A rebellion broke out against the prince. The boyars concluded a secret treaty with the Turks. and they launched a new offensive against the country. It was a trap - Vlad's small army could not fight on two fronts. He had to give up positions and retreat to the mountains, and keep the last defense high in the mountains - in his impregnable fortress Poenari . It was here that Dracula's hopes to free his country were buried. Here, his army held the Turkish siege for several months, and here he managed to transport his wife, saving the boyars from possible revenge. The Turks still surrounded the fortress. With the last of his strength, Vlad fled to the tower with a secret exit, where the unfortunate Lydia was waiting for him. But Vlad did not have time - the Turks had already made a hole in the wall of the tower. Lydia preferred death to Turkish bullying and jumped from the tower into the river. For a woman of that time, being captured by the Turks was worse than suicide. She died defending her honor. It is said that Dracula sold his soul to Satan after the death of Lydia. Dracula fled from the fortress, but his life stopped - his wife died, his brother renounced, his allies betrayed him. All he had left was revenge. The Turks, led by Radu, captured Wallachia. Meanwhile, the king of Hungary had to answer for the failure of the campaign before the Pope. And he found the culprit...

Vlad, hoping for his support, came to Buda, but he was seized. Corwin threw accusations of treason against him, allegedly he agreed with the Turkish Sultan to capture Hungary. Dracula was imprisoned and brutally tortured to force him to confess to "treason". He pleaded not guilty to nothing. so he spent ten whole years in a Hungarian prison. So the best friend of the Hungarian king Matthias Corvin shamelessly betrayed Dracula, slandered, forged letters to the Sultan, ordered to create documents about the cruel crimes of the prince. And the reason for betrayal is as old as the world - money. Royal life required royal expenses and Matthias appropriated the money allocated by the Pope for the crusade, and decided to shift the blame for the failure of the campaign to Vlad Dracula, part-time his best friend.

In order to convince the Pope that the prince is capable of treason, he called the offended merchants from Transylvania (the very ones Dracula once punished for lying). Now they could take revenge and created an anonymous pamphlet in 1463, which described the inhuman atrocities of Dracula and tens of thousands of tortured civilians. so in Europe they learned about the bloody monster Dracula. While he was in prison, terrible stories about his cruelty spread throughout the world.

Five centuries have passed, and after the success of Bram Stoker's book, cinema became interested in Dracula. The first silent horror story about Dracula "Nosferatu - a symphony of horror" saw the world. It was from her that the bloody procession of the movie vampire Dracula began. Over the past 80 years, more than 200 films have been made about the main vampire of the world. From the iconic film by Francis Ford Coppola to the ironic film starring Leslie Nielsen. All this time, the Romanians have not heard anything about Dracula the vampire. Films and books simply did not fall behind the Iron Curtain. Only in 1992 did they learn in Romania - their Vlad Dracula for the entire Western world is the Prince of Darkness and a symbol of evil.

Castle of Vlad Dracula

Thanks to Stoker's book, Romania became known to the whole world and tourism began to develop in the country. Today, thousands of tourists seek to see the castle of Count Dracula. However, there are many such castles throughout Romania, and Dracula simply did not see most of them - they were built after his death. For example, Bran Castle is considered the true residence of the prince, but he never visited there either. We can definitely say that Dracula visited only the fortress of Poenari and the ancient city of Sighisoara, where, in fact, he was born. But the Romanian guides naturally do not talk about this. By the way, the house where Dracula was born is now a restaurant with a vampire theme. Is it worth the slandered name of the national hero, only money will answer.

Last offspring of Dracula

A direct descendant of Vlad Dracula now lives in the center of Bucharest - Constantin Bolacianu-Stolnic . The uniqueness of the situation lies in the fact that he is already 90 years old, and he has no children. so he is the last of Dracula's lineage. Constantin Bolacianu-Stolnich is a neuropsychologist, anthropologist and geneticist. The old professor is descended from the older brother of Vlad Tepes - Mircea. He knows everything about his legendary ancestor Dracula. And he tells people what Vlad really was - a man who fought for the independence of his country, but, unfortunately, fell victim to political intrigues. He is a hero, a national hero. And not only in official history, but also in folk legends. It is not known what the history of Europe would have been if the Turks had conquered it. And the fact that they did not do this is the merit of Tepes. He was a strong personality. He was well educated, as he received the best education at that time - Turkish. He was a good warrior and one of the few who could resist Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople. The last descendant of Dracula has already come to terms with the fact that they made a gold mine out of his ancestor. But the secret of the last months of the prince's life is still trying to unravel.

The last years of the life and death of Vlad Dracula

Vlad spent 12 years of imprisonment in the prisons of Buda and Pest. In the meantime, the Pope of Rome has changed, the Turks have become more active again. Europe faced the threat of Turkish invasion. In his native Wallachia, the traitor brother Radu III the Handsome and, of course, the Turks ruled. There are suggestions that Radu converted to Islam. Therefore, the new Pope Pius II was afraid that the country might become completely Muslim. Then he remembered the captive Dracula. Who, no matter how he should fight for his country?

So after 12 years, his imprisonment ended. The Hungarian king Matthias Corvin released him so that he drove the Turks away and again ruled Wallachia. At the same time, he set two conditions for him: 1) he would marry his relative Ilona so that Corvin would not suspect him of treason; 2) accept Catholicism in order to prove his honesty to the Pope. Vlad will dutifully accept all the conditions - he married a second time and became an apostate. All in order to return and fulfill his third oath - to liberate the country. When he made his last campaign against the Turks he was 45 years old. His wife managed to give birth to two sons to him, and the king of Hungary finally fulfilled his promise - he gave him an army. With battles, Vlad ascended the throne for the third time. But at home, an unpleasant surprise awaited him - now everyone was scared to death of him, even his own servants. He renounced his faith. Behind him they whispered: a sorcerer, a devil, an apostate. In addition, Wallachia was again weakened by civil strife. Dracula again fought with the Turks and the victory was his. One day in 1462, in battle, he suddenly felt a terrible blow to his back. He was killed by his own boyars, treacherously, in battle...

Then, before burial, superstitious people plunged a stake into the chest of the prince and cut off his head. So then they did with the traitors of the faith. Vlad Dracula was buried by the monks Snagovsky monastery. But a few years later, the grave was opened and only garbage and animal bones were found in it. The panic began. Gossip has gone that Vlad Dracula is alive. No one knew that his grave was securely hidden under a slab in front of the entrance to the same church. Someone reburied the body on purpose so that the parishioners would trample on the ashes of Dracula. According to ancient Orthodox custom, this meant that by such humiliation the deceased atones for his earthly guilt.

Many centuries have passed and now for Romania the prince has again become a hero. time put everything in its place. People realized too late the role that Dracula played in the liberation of the country. Today, the song is popular in Romania: "Where are you, Tepes, our god? Come back and send all the rulers of Romania to hell..."

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Fifth guard. 1 season. Episode 1 Prologue

Episode 24

Dracula. A real vampire from Transylvania Tuesday, January 14, 2020 04:06 PM ()

Dracula ... In the minds of millions of people, this name is associated with the image of the legendary vampire from the gloomy and mysterious country of Transylvania - during the day he pretends to be a lifeless body, and at night he goes on a murder trail, terrifying entire generations of residents and ... spectators, as well as readers since 1897 of the year. It was in that year that he became the protagonist of Bram Stoker's wildly successful horror novel.
But far fewer people know that the name of the immortal Stoker character is borrowed from the real Dracula, who lived in the real Transylvania four centuries before. And although that Dracula was not at all a bloodsucker in the truest sense of the word, he acquired for himself no less terrible fame as a bloody tyrant, whose cruelty became the eternal and, perhaps, the most striking example of sadism.
The real Dracula was born in 1430 or 1431 in the ancient Transylvanian town of Sighisoara and was the second son of Vlad II, Prince of Wallachia. Having inherited the power of his father, he became Vlad III, although he was better known as Vlad the Impaler, that is, the Impaler. His father's name was Dracul - "the devil" - perhaps because he was a fearless fighter, or because - and this is most likely - that he was a member of the Catholic sect of the order of the dragon, and in those areas the dragon was synonymous with the devil. In any case, Vlad III called himself Dracul oh, the son of Dracul.
He was a brave warrior, but sometimes it was difficult to understand whose side he took in this or that battle between eastern and western religions, churches and cultures, mixed in the principality subject to him. Either he leaned towards the Turks, then towards the Hungarians, he switched from the Roman Catholic Church to the Orthodox, fought under the banner of Islam on the side of the Ottomans. In the political chaos of that era, he never stood firmly on his feet. Three times he lost and regained Wallachia - a part of Southern Romania, including the regions of Transylvania.
Bram Stoker, author of Dracula. Born from the imagination of the author in 1897, the vampire count still roams the world in films, novels and plays.
He first appeared on the Wallachian throne in 1443, on which the Turks put him, after his father and elder brother fell at the hands of Hungarian mercenaries. Frightened by the Turks, who at one time patronized him, he fled, but returned to the throne in 14S6, already with Hungarian support. The next six years of his reign were marked by atrocities. In those days, torture and murder of political opponents were commonplace - the XIV - XV centuries were imprinted in history as an era of unheard-of atrocities and crimes. But Vlad's antics, which later became an example for Ivan the Terrible, broke records even of those years. The number of his victims is incalculable. According to one legend, he ambushed a detachment of Turks, whom he was supposed to meet peacefully for negotiations, inviting them to the city of Tirgovishte, took off their clothes, put them on stakes and burned them alive.
His victims were not only enemies, but also his own subjects - to know and ordinary peasants, as well as random travelers. Suspecting everyone indiscriminately, he executed innocent people. So, his soldiers discovered and burned a group of merchants crossing his lands. They did not forget to kill even the drivers. Another time, for the same reasons, he gathered together 400 foreign students, mostly boys, who studied the language and customs in Wallachia, drove them into one room, locked and set fire to the house.
He usually impaled his victims on stakes. But this seemed not enough to him, and the sadist came up with all sorts of other ways of killing the victims - he pierced them with stakes in front, behind, on the side, through the chest, stomach, navel, groin. He strung them on stakes through his mouth, upside down; came up with ways to make a person suffer longer. Invented different types of death for people of different ages, genders and positions. For this purpose, he prepared special stakes in the form of geometric figures, especially loved curved ones. For some unknown reason, he executed the population of the entire village, placing stakes of various lengths in a circle on a hillside, placing the headman and other representatives of local authorities from above so that they could take a last look at their former possessions with a blurred look.
He decorated the general picture of executions with torn nails, heads, ears and genitals. Those who lacked stakes were strangled, boiled in oil, or blinded. He took particular pleasure when the victims "danced and writhed on their stakes." Watching their torment, he would say: “Oh, what wonderful moments they experience!”
Thanks to the recent invention of the printing press, stories of Dracula's "arts" were spreading throughout Europe during his lifetime. He became a favorite character of pamphleteers, whose writings were popular in many countries. As forerunners of future illustrated magazines, these publications on title pages placed appeals to readers who were frozen in horror like: “A nightmare story of a monster and tormentor named Dracula, who distinguished himself by such acts hostile to Christianity as impaling people, chopping them to pieces, boiling women and children alive, as well as cannibalism.” The public bought and read such little books, thrilled with fear and curiosity at the same time, and at the same time forgetting that their native inquisition was much more terrible actions ...
So Dracula became the first international media character.
But, despite his crimes, in his homeland, in Romanian folklore, he remained a heroic figure who drove out the invaders. The Germans, in the books they published, emphasized the cruelty and sadism of Dracula, since among his Transylvanian victims there were many immigrants from Germany. But many chilling scenes were also drawn from other sources - Russian testimonies, the memoirs of Pope Pius II (his legate in Hungary met Dracula), Romanian ballads and legends that only confirmed and multiplied German examples.
One of the most memorable atrocities of Dracula took place on April 2, 1459 in Brasov and was the result of a long dispute between Vlad and local merchants. At the end of the day, the prince's detachments began to drive the people to the hill near the chapel on the outskirts of the city. In total, about 20 thousand people gathered, mainly representatives of the local nobility. They watched in horror as the soldiers burned their houses, and then the traditional stakes began.
Closer to the night, the hillside turned into a forest of stakes, through which streams of blood flowed and the heads of those who could not find a place on the points rolled. During the execution, one local boyar, as they say, shuddered from the terrible smell and sight of blood. And Dracula, who had a peculiar sense of humor, ordered to put the unfortunate man on the highest stake so that he would be less bothered by unpleasant odors. The prince himself was not embarrassed either by the sight itself or by the stench. According to legend, he calmly dined near the dead and dying in agony of fellow citizens.
Nor could he be accused of preferring one class or another. Once he gathered the boyars of the whole region and began to ask them who lived under whose rule. They did not suspect that Dracula set out to avenge the brutal murder of his brother and father and tried to find out which of the boyars could have been present at their death. As a result, more than 500 people were put on stakes and died a terrible death near his palace.
On another occasion, he invited poor residents to his palace, invited them to undress, and treated them to dinner. When they relaxed, all the doors suddenly slammed shut and the house blazed at once from different angles. “I did this in order to eradicate poverty in my state forever, so that no one else would suffer,” the prince declared with cynical humor.
Women were a special target for this monster. The story tells that one day Dracula met a poorly dressed peasant. “Your wife is clearly not worthy of you,” he said. And although the peasant tried to assure the prince that his wife was quite satisfied with him, he ordered her to be put on a stake, and the widower to pick up a new woman.
Unfaithful wives, girls who lost their virginity early, and widows who broke mourning were punished immediately. Their genitals were cut out, skinned alive and put on public display.
One of the legends has brought to our days the case of one of his mistresses, who also did not manage to escape death. Finding the master in a grumpy state, she tried to return him to a good mood, telling him that she was pregnant. Dracula accused her of lying. Wanting to prove that she was deceiving him, he drew his sword and cut open her stomach. The legend does not say whether he was right in his guess.
The insidious disposition of Dracula also manifested itself when the ambassadors of the Turkish Sultan arrived at him, but did not take off their turbans when they bowed. Dracula asked why they didn't show him respect. “This is the custom of our country,” they replied. To this, the count said that he supported this custom, and ordered their turbans to be nailed to their heads with nails.
No one knows how many people were executed or tortured in various ways by this tyrant. The papal legate, Bishop Erlau, who had no reason to exaggerate, reports that Dracula doomed 100,000 people to death, but other sources suggest that this number is too low.
"The Tale of Dracula the Governor" ... In the "History of the Russian State" N. M. Karamzin called this story "the first Russian historical novel." Her manuscript ends with the name of the scribe - this is the monk of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery Euphrosyn. But who is the author? It is known that in 1482 Ivan III sent the diplomat Fyodor Kuritsyn to Buda. According to Academician A. Kh. Vostokov, “it is quite likely that the composition of this story can be attributed either to Kuritsyn himself, or to someone from his retinue who heard the descriptions of what happened by his eyewitness.”
Here summary"Tales" in the transfer of N. M. Karamzin.
There was a governor in the Muntian land, a Christian of the Greek faith, his name in Wallachian is Dracula, and in our opinion - the Devil. He was so cruel and wise that whatever his name was, such was his life.
One day, ambassadors from the Turkish king came to him and, entering, bowed according to their custom, but did not remove their caps from their heads. He asked them: “Why did they do this: they came to the great sovereign and inflicted such dishonor on me?” They answered: "This is the custom, sir, of ours and in our land." And he said to them: "And I want to confirm your law, so that they hold fast to it." And he ordered caps to be nailed to their heads with iron studs...
The king was very angry, and went to war with Dracula, and attacked him with great forces. The same, having gathered all his army, struck at the Turks at night and killed many of them. But he could not defeat the huge army with his small army and retreated. And he himself began to inspect everyone who returned with him from the battlefield: who was wounded in the chest, he paid honors to him and made him into a knight, and who in the back ordered him to be impaled ...
And the king sent an ambassador to Dracula, demanding tribute from him. Dracula gave the ambassador magnificent honors, and showed him his wealth, and said to him: “I am not only ready to pay tribute to the king, but with all my army and with all my wealth I want to go to his service, and as he commands me, so he I will serve ... ”And the king was glad, for at that time he was waging war in the east. And he immediately sent to announce to all cities and all over the earth that when Dracula went, no one would do him any harm, but, on the contrary, they would meet him with honor. Dracula, having gathered all the army, set off on his way, and the royal bailiffs accompanied him, and gave him great honors. He, having gone deep into the Turkish land for five day's marches, suddenly turned back, and began to ruin cities and villages, and captured and killed many people, planted some Turks on stakes, cut others in two and burned them, not sparing even infants. He left nothing in his path, he turned the whole land into a desert, and took away the Christians who were there and settled in his land. And he returned home, capturing untold riches, and dismissed the royal bailiffs with honors, admonishing: “Go and tell your king about everything that you saw: as much as you could, served him. And if my service is love to him, I am ready to serve him in the same way, how much my strength will become.
He lost his throne in 1462 and, overthrown by the boyars, spent 20 years in a Hungarian fortress. Then he was released to take part in the fight against the Ottomans, and after Dracula again took possession of the Wallachian throne. And there was the last battle with the Turkish army near Bucharest. Sources describe his death in different ways. Some argue that traitors-boyars killed him. Others say that he disguised himself as a Turk and fled, but the plan failed: his companions stabbed Dracula by mistake, and his head flaunted in Istanbul for a long time, impaled on a stake. So ordered Sultan Mehmed II.
The remains of the Wallachian ruler rest in the Snagov Monastery, two dozen kilometers from Bucharest. This is one of the memorable historical places in Romania.
By the end of the 15th century, the monastery was known as one of the three largest monasteries in the country. Shortly after Dracula's death, the Church of the Annunciation collapsed. In the 17th century, the monastery experienced a new period of prosperity, becoming a recognized center of education in the southeast of Europe. One of the first printing presses in the country, Antim Ivireanu, the publisher of the Romanian translation of the Gospel, was installed in the monastery cells. Then the monastery was adapted for a prison, and by the middle of the 19th century it was empty, and the ancient buildings gradually fell into disrepair.
Here is what the Romanian writer Alexandru Odobescu wrote in 1862 in the short story A Few Hours in Snagov:
“The chipped slabs are located in different parts of the temple, but who can say over whose ashes they are erected? Only one, the largest, which lies opposite the royal doors at the altar, keeps a legend. They say that this is the tombstone of one cruel and masterful ruler Tepes, who in Snagov set up something like a torture chamber, from where the convict, who was tormented by fire and iron, was then thrown into the lake with the help of a throwing weapon. ... Metropolitan Filaret allegedly ordered that letters be cut from the stone on the grave of the despicable ruler who created such a terrible machine, and that this stone be put under eternal trampling or for the sake of saving an unfortunate soul under the feet of the priest when he comes out with holy gifts.
In the 30s of our century, the Romanian historians Dinu Rosetti and Gheorghe Florescu, who carried out archaeological excavations in Snagov, found confirmation that the remains of Vlad Tepes were in one of the burials. However, in the writings of later Romanian historians, this discovery is not only questioned, but somehow not considered indisputable.
... Fate did bring them together. Dracula rests in Snagov after completing earthly affairs in a grave behind the monastery wall, and Nicolae Ceausescu liked to be here, very close, in his palace, indulging in rest in between earthly affairs. In the evenings, a veil of twilight immediately covers Lake Snagov, the monastery standing on the island and the former country residence of the now executed and secretly buried dictator.
Previously, pleasure boats went on the lake, boat stations took tourists. But the “beloved leader”, a few years after coming to power, decided to protect himself as much as possible and banned any movement.
In winter, the icy lake freezes quickly. And by transparent ice, it seems that in one sitting, pushing off the shore, roll, slide to the island where Dracula sleeps. Or you might not get there - how lucky ... They say that the messengers who brought Dracula either good or bad news were also lucky in different ways: even the one who announced the victory was sometimes prepared with a spruce stake in case the ruler was not in in a better mood. What to say about those who brought bad news ...
Only stones remained from the fortifications of the former monastery. The church is deserted and quiet. Although it is noticeable that someone is looking after the sad place. This is Elder Emilian Poenaru, giving thanks to the Lord every day, and has been praying here for ten years now.
Here is the door to the temple. The darkened painting on the walls is barely visible. There is a stone slab on the floor in front of the altar - no name, no dates, no words about exploits and accomplishments. As Filaret commanded, everyone who comes to the altar puts their foot on this slab...
Maybe Dracula was buried on the island so that he could not overcome the body of water at night and disturb people's memory? ..
The catastrophic earthquake of 1977 severely damaged the church and the bell tower, and destroyed the main dome. But the slab and the one under it were not awakened by the shudder of the earth. A few years ago the dome was recreated. Elder Poenaru wants to organize a museum of Vlad Tepes here, but he can’t find a companion for himself, no one stays on the island for a long time. It's like a curse hangs over him.
Romanians love hoaxes. No matter how tragic and bloody the grand spectacle played out on the streets of revolutionary Bucharest in last days December 1989, victims and losses cannot obscure the culmination of that crazy action - the execution of the Ceausescu couple in one of the military garrisons in the city of Targovishte (the same one). Only many weeks later, footage of a secret burial ceremony at one of the unnamed cemeteries was shown on television. Naturally, however, for a good bribe, the Bucharest cemetery caretakers revealed the secret to journalists and began to conduct one excursion after another to two burials located 30 steps apart and marked, like all fresh graves, with iron crosses with tablets. Here are just fictitious names inscribed on the plates.
Time passed, the crosses were removed and no new ones were installed. And two graves remained nameless - and terrible: after all, it was not just that someone's hands lowered the coffins - on TV they showed only hands - into reinforced concrete pits. The same hands covered the graves with heavy slabs, and then piled them on top of the mound.
But the Bucharest old women were not afraid of these graves, they scouted everything and brought bouquets of flowers here. And soon, as the promises of the new rulers did not come true, people of younger age were also drawn here. Also with flowers. And with candles.
A person is weak and remembers the evil of yesterday with good today. Or perhaps ordinary Christian custom draws them here. And yet - a hidden, unspoken desire to atone for the sin of the imminent and therefore seeming today doubtful trial of the ruler, who for so many years was worshiped in blindness and servility.
Trembling in the wind, creaking trunks, cemetery aspens. There will be something to cut down the stake.

One of the most mysterious and cruel kings who ever lived on earth, whose name is surrounded by mysticism. Vlad III Tepes (1431-1476) received the nickname "ear-bearer" for his particular cruelty during the massacre of enemies. The ruler of Wallachia was born in 1431. His real name is Vlad III Dracul, translated from Romanian means "son of the dragon." His father Vlad II was knightly order Dragon, wore a medallion and minted the badge of the order on his coins depicting a dragon. There is another translation of the name Dracul - "son of the devil", perhaps that was what his enemies and frightened subjects called him.

When Vlad III was 12 years old, he was kidnapped by the Turks, for the next 4 years he and his younger brother were held hostage, which had a very negative effect on his psyche. He became unbalanced, acquired strange habits. At the age of seventeen, he learned about the murder of his father and older brother by the boyars, which became the reason for his hatred of the boyars and the subsequent struggle with them.

Vlad the Impaler liked to arrange feasts next to the dying in agony of enemies, enjoying their groans and the smell emanating from decaying bodies. He was not a vampire, but he was a cruel sadist, reveling in the suffering of those who disobeyed his will. They say that he executed more than 100 thousand boyars, but only 10 of those who were involved in the death of Dracula's father and brother are documented.

As a statesman, Vlad Tepes was the liberator of his native country from the Turks and a man of honor, fulfilling his national duty. He refused to pay tribute, created a peasant militia who defended their homeland from the Turkish troops who came to punish the disobedient king. All captured Turks were executed on the square during the holiday.

Dracula was a religious fanatic, donated land to churches, received the support of the clergy, which means that his actions were consecrated by the church. The people had to obey silently. Once Vlad gathered the worshipers on the feast of the Great Easter and forced them to build a fortress until their clothes fell apart from time to time.

The merciless ruler completely eradicated crime in his state through a cruel trial and painful death. Not a single beggar dared to take someone else's. Even scattered coins on the streets were not touched. The population became exceptionally honest after many thousands of executions, there was no similar phenomenon in the whole world. Thanks to the amazing cruelty, Vlad Tepes gained fame and memory of his descendants. He had a special dislike for gypsies, thieves and loafers, whom he exterminated in whole camps.

The elite of Europe was outraged when they learned about the atrocities of Dracula, they decide to take him into custody and such an opportunity is provided. During the escape, Vlad abandoned his wife and all his subjects, dooming them to death, but was detained by the Hungarian king. I had to spend 12 years in prison. For the sake of freedom, he needed to convert to Catholicism. This move was accepted by the king as a sign of submission, and he even helped Dracula take the throne again. But soon they want to kill him again. During his life, Vlad Tepes tried to escape many times, but this time he was not lucky. The boyars, chopping his body into pieces, sent the Turkish Sultan's head. The monks, to whom Dracula was kind, quietly buried his remains.

Modern archaeologists became interested in the history of Vlad Tepes, but the grave they opened turned out to be empty. Nearby was a burial without a skull, and it is considered to be the remains of Dracula. Subsequently, his remains were transferred to the island, which is guarded by monks to avoid tourist invasions.

Vlad III, also known as Vlad the Impaler or simply Dracula, was a legendary voivode-prince of Wallachia. He ruled the principality three times - in 1448, from 1456 to 1462 and in 1476, during the beginning of the period of the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Dracula became a popular folklore character in many Eastern European countries for his bloody battles and the defense of Orthodox Christianity from the Ottoman invasion. And at the same time is one of the most popular and bloody figures in the history of pop culture. The chilling legends about Dracula are known to almost everyone, but what was the real Vlad Tepes.

1. Small homeland

The real historical prototype of Dracula was Vlad III (Vlad the Impaler). He was born in Sighisoara, Transylvania in 1431. Today, a restaurant has been built on his former birthplace, which attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world every year.

2. Order of the Dragon

Dracula's father was called Dracul, which means "dragon". Also according to other sources, he had the nickname "devil". He received a similar name, because he belonged to the Order of the Dragon, which fought with Ottoman Empire.

3. Father was married to the Moldavian princess Vasilisa

Although nothing is known about Dracula's mother, it is assumed that at that time his father was married to the Moldavian princess Vasilisa. However, since Vlad II had several mistresses, no one knows who Dracula's real mother was.

4. Between two fires

Dracula lived in a time of constant war. Transylvania was located on the border of two great empires: the Ottoman and the Austrian Habsburgs. As a young man he was imprisoned, first by the Turks and later by the Hungarians. Dracula's father was killed, and his older brother Mircea was blinded with red-hot iron stakes and buried alive. These two facts greatly contributed to how vile and vicious Vlad became later.

5. Constantine XI Palaiologos

It is believed that the young Dracula spent some time in Constantinople in 1443 at the court of Constantine XI Palaiologos, a legendary figure in Greek folklore and the last emperor of Byzantium. Some historians suggest that it was there that he developed his hatred of the Ottomans.

6. The son and heir of Mikhn is evil

It is believed that Dracula was married twice. His first wife is unknown, although she may have been a Transylvanian noblewoman. She gave birth to Vlad's son and heir, Mikhn the evil. Vlad married a second time after serving his sentence in Hungary. Dracula's second wife was Ilona Siladi, the daughter of a Hungarian nobleman. She bore him two sons, but neither of them became the ruler.

7. Nickname "Tepes"

The nickname "Tepes" in Romanian means "kolschik". It appeared 30 years after Vlad's death. Vlad III earned his nickname "The Impaler" (from the Romanian word țeapă 0 - "stake") as he killed thousands of Turks in a macabre way - by impaling them. He learned about this execution in adolescence, when he was a political hostage of the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople.

8. The worst enemy of the Ottoman Empire

It is believed that Dracula is to blame for the deaths of more than a hundred thousand people (most of them are Turks). This made him the worst enemy of the Ottoman Empire.

9. Twenty thousand rotting corpses frightened the Sultan

In 1462, during the war between the Ottoman Empire and Wallachia, which was ruled by Dracula, Sultan Mehmed II fled with his army, horrified by the sight of twenty thousand rotting corpses of Turks impaled on stakes on the outskirts of the capital of the Principality of Vlad, Targovishte. During one battle, Dracula retreated into the nearby mountains, leaving behind prisoners impaled on stakes. This caused the Turks to stop their pursuit, as the sultan could not bear the stench of decaying corpses.

10. Birth of a legend

The impaled corpses were usually displayed as a warning to others. At the same time, the corpses were white, because the blood flowed completely from the wound on the neck. This is where the legend that Vlad Tepes was a vampire came from.

11 Scorched Earth Tactics

Dracula also became known for the fact that when retreating, he burned villages along the way and killed all the locals. Such atrocities were committed so that the soldiers of the Ottoman army had no place to rest and so that there were no women whom they could rape. In an attempt to clear the streets of the capital of Wallachia, Targovishte, Dracula invited all the sick, vagabonds and beggars to one of his houses under the pretext of a feast. At the end of the feast, Dracula left the house, locked it outside and set it on fire.

12. The head of Dracula went to the Sultan

In 1476, 45-year-old Vlad was eventually captured and beheaded during a Turkish invasion. His head was brought to the Sultan, who put it on public display on the fence of his palace.

13. The remains of Dracula

It is believed that archaeologists who were looking for Snagov (a commune near Bucharest) in 1931 found the remains of Dracula. The remains were transferred to the historical museum in Bucharest, but they later disappeared without a trace, leaving the secrets of the real Prince Dracula unanswered.

14 Dracula Was Very Religious

Despite his cruelty, Dracula was very religious and surrounded himself with priests and monks throughout his life. He founded five monasteries, and his family founded more than fifty monasteries in 150 years. He was initially praised by the Vatican for defending Christianity. However, the church subsequently expressed its disapproval of Dracula's cruel methods and ended their relationship with him.

15. Enemy of Turkey and friend of Russia.

In Turkey, Dracula is considered a monstrous and vile ruler who executed his enemies in a painful way, purely for his own pleasure. In Russia, many sources consider his actions justified.

16. Transylvanian subculture

Dracula enjoyed immense popularity in the second half of the twentieth century. More than two hundred films have been made featuring Count Dracula, more than any other historical figure. At the center of this subculture lies the legend of Transylvania, which has become almost synonymous with the land of vampires.

17. Dracula and Ceausescu

Weird sense of humor. | Photo: skachayka-programmi.ga

According to the book Finding Dracula, Vlad had a very strange sense of humor. The book tells how his victims often twitched on the stakes "like frogs". Vlad thought this was funny, and once said of his victims: "Oh, what great grace they show."

20. Fear and the golden bowl

In order to prove how much the inhabitants of the principality feared him, Dracula placed a golden bowl in the middle of the town square in Targovishte. He allowed people to drink from it, but the golden cup had to remain in its place at all times. Surprisingly, during the entire reign of Vlad, the golden cup was never touched, although sixty thousand people lived in the city, most in extreme poverty.