Dracula and Tourism: Bran Castle

Bran Castle, located in Transylvania, was the inspiration of Dracula's castle. While, Bram Stoker never actually visited Transylvania, according the official Bran Castle website, it became his inspiration due to the description he got by word of mouth in Britain.

Due to the popularity of Stoker's novel, tourists flock to Bran castle every year to catch a glimpse of the famous Count's castle. In fact, in October of 2016, Bran Castle opened it's doors to allow guests a one night stay.

Frank Langella

Frank A. Langella

Frank Langella is an American film and stage actor who has won a four Tony Awards for his outstanding roles in two plays and two movies.

Inside Bran Castle

Many scholars and avid fans alike at some time have wondered what setting inspired Bram Stoker's Castle Dracula from his famous 1897 novel, Dracula. Contributing to the legacy that the novel created, one fortress, Bran Castle, stands tall in its Romanian home.

History of Bran Castle

A View of Bran Castle (5)

Before Bran Castle became "Dracula's Castle", the stronghold thrived in its rich culture.
Located on the historic
border of Transylvania and Wallachia, Bran Castle saw its beginning in 1377 (4). Standing in the crosshairs of battle, Bran Castle spent several decades serving as a prime war setting. Since this fortress was the perfect method of travel, many European powers fought over its possession.

In 1836, the border between Transylvania and Wallachia moved, leading Bran Castle into a more peaceful time (4). Unfortunately, this peace left the castle to decay for years. In 1920, Bran Castle was given new life as Romania became ruled by Queen Maria (3). After intense restoration, the castle served as a residence for the royal family.

Princess Ileana (4)

Since the castle was boastfully Queen Maria's, she left it to her family after she passed. Princess Ileana planned an extraordinary future for the castle, as she renovated it into a hospital for wounded soldiers (3). Once more housing military personnel, Bran Castle remained a hospital until 1948: under communist control, the royal family abandoned the castle and fled Romania (4).

With the communist government in power, Bran Castle became a museum with three distinct sections: royal artifacts, medieval artifacts, and cultural artifacts (4). After some time belonging to state officials, Queen Maria and Princess Ileana would have been proud to see the family regain ownership. Both women strongly influenced the historical relevance of the fortress. In 2009, ownership of Bran Castle was finally returned to three of Queen Maria's direct relatives, and today still remains with them (4).

Becoming "Dracula's Castle"

In 1897, Bram Stoker's famed Dracula reached the public. Since then, critics and fans have searched for a home to suit their favorite undead character. Count Dracula hails from Transylvania, according to Bram Stoker's novel; therefore, there is no better setting for the castle.

Bran Castle through the forest (5)

In the novel and it's many screen productions, Dracula's castle sits at the top of a steep cliff. Although there is no record of Stoker visiting Romania, the setting from the novel to Bran Castle reality cannot be simply coincidence (6). Given the description from Stoker, one can draw on the similar landscapes: "on the very edge of a terrific precipice…with occasionally a deep rift where there is chasm...where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests" (1).

Another strong connection linking these two castles together is Vlad the Impaler. Vlad the Impaler was a warlord and Prince of Wallachia. Since Bran Castle bordered Wallachia, few historians contemplate if Vlad the Impaler had visited and fought at the castle. (6) This is an important note because Vlad the Impaler is often viewed as the inspiration for the character Dracula.

Even though many historians have debunked connections between Bram Stoker's and Romania's castles, the unsolvable riddle plagues many readers and scholars. Having the right setting, Bran Castle became the symbol for the undead and its legacy.

Modern Bran Castle

A bedroom inside Bran Castle (1)

After being returned to the descendants of the royal family, Dracula's Castle opened its doors. Now serving as a tourist museum, the castle offers a full vampire experience to its guests (1). Showcasing Queen Maria's personal items and furniture, Bran Castle relishes in the rich history surrounding it. Each of the four floors of Bran Castle holds a collection of costumes, armor, furniture, and weaponry that all hold cultural significance. As many visitors describe it, the strongholds interior is "homely" (5). 

However, before Romania increased contact with the western world, the people and government had very little idea about Dracula. Upon discovering the legacy that brought travelers, Romanian government was unsure if they wanted to stick with the image of the supernatural (1). Many fans of vampire culture were turned away disappointed due to lack of Romanian interest into the folklore (5). Eventually, Romanian government saw a way to capitalize on Stoker's novel by advertising and encouraging vampire travelers (1).   

The museum town surrounding
Bran Castle (1)

Romania took advantage of the fame from Stoker's novel and made the town surrounding the castle a hotspot for activities. Hosting ski slopes, hiking trails, mountain biking, and several museums, the area encourages tourism (1). The town around the castle even celebrates a Halloween party, embracing the fame that Stoker provided. 

Dracula's Castle and the surrounding mountain towns have so much to offer to the avid readers of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Bran Castle has two seasons for tours: April-September and October-March. April begins the high traffic season and the castle extends its hours to accommodate the influx of travelers (2). In the beginning of October, the low season begins and the visiting time shortens by two hours. With many modes of transportation, the Carpathians mountains that house the castle is calling for visitors (2). 

To plan your visit, go to the Bran Castle official website. 

(1) Cretu, Bogdan. “Discover Bran Castle beyond the Myth of Dracula.” Rolandia, Rolandia Travel, 18 May 2018, rolandia.eu/bran-castle/.

“Directions // Plan Your Visit.” Dracula - Bran Castle, www.bran-castle.com/directions.html.

Gheorghe, Georgeta. “A Brief History of Bran Castle.” Culture Trip, 25 Jan. 2017, theculturetrip.com/europe/romania/articles/a-brief-history-of-bran-castle/.

“Historical Timeline // 1211 - 2009.” Dracula - Bran Castle, www.bran-castle.com/history.html.

O'Malley, Kate. “The Myth and Mystery of Bran Transylvania.” Vagrants Of The World Travel, Vagrants Of The World Travel, 3 Nov. 2018, vagrantsoftheworld.com/bran-transylvania/.

RFE/RL. “Romania: Did Dracula Ever Set Foot In Dracula's Castle?” RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, 2 Feb. 2012, www.rferl.org/a/1068701.html.

(2) “Directions // Plan Your Visit.” Dracula - Bran Castle, www.bran-castle.com/directions.html.

(3) Gheorghe, Georgeta. “A Brief History of Bran Castle.” Culture Trip, 25 Jan. 2017, theculturetrip.com/europe/romania/articles/a-brief-history-of-bran-castle/.

(4) “Historical Timeline // 1211 - 2009.” Dracula - Bran Castle, www.bran-castle.com/history.html.

(5) O'Malley, Kate. “The Myth and Mystery of Bran Transylvania.” Vagrants Of The World Travel, Vagrants Of The World Travel, 3 Nov. 2018, vagrantsoftheworld.com/bran-transylvania/.

(6) RFE/RL. “Romania: Did Dracula Ever Set Foot In Dracula's Castle?” RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, 2 Feb. 2012, www.rferl.org/a/1068701.html.

Bela Lugosi Legacy

Bela Lugosi is practically famous for his role in the film and play productions of Dracula. In his life, Lugosi continued his work as an actor but never really left the influence of Count Dracula. Bela as a actor had limited roles and mainly played in horror movies. Did you know that Dracula influence Bela Lugosi so much that he actually change his own appearance to look like Dracula?

Nosferatu:
(5)Lugosi took many several roles in silent films including Nosferatu. Nosferatu is a silent vampire film written by Murnau. This film borrowed Stoker's main plot, but changed a lot of details like characters name, and how his main vampire died at the end. In this film Bela Lugosi was the lead vampire.

Influence from Dracula:
(1)Occurring to the biography article about Bela Lugosi, he starred in the 1931 film of Dracula, and was "the first to introduce the mythology of the vampire into American pop culture."(4) Lugosi had actually played Dracula for about 9 months on Broadway. Lugosi was influenced by Dracula so much that he started to resemble Stoker "Dracula" from the novel.Lugosi career to the world was almost like a one hit wonder. (2) Sadly, Lugosi died from a heart attack and was buried in one of his own Dracula costume even with the cape.

This is a small moive clip of Bela Lugosi playing Dracula. This is the scene where Johnathan eats dinner at Dracula's castle.









Work cited:

1. Gilmore, Kim. “Remembering Bela Lugosi, The Classic Dracula.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 19 Apr. 2016, www.biography.com/news/remembering-bela-lugosi-the-classic-dracula-21004911.

2. Lamb, Bill. “The Story of Bela Lugosi, Hollywood's Most Famous Dracula.” ThoughtCo, www.thoughtco.com/biography-of-bela-lugosi-4164228.

3. Memo, Oscar, director. Favorite Part in Dracula 1931. YouTube, YouTube, 19 Oct. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf2IhYToDY4.

4. Pockross, Adam, and Ilise S. Carter. “There Is Still No Better or More Important Dracula than the Original, Bela Lugosi.” SYFY, SYFY WIRE, 20 Oct. 2017, www.syfy.com/syfywire/there-is-still-no-better-or-more-important-dracula-than-the-original-bela-lugosi.

5. Rutigliano, Olivia. “Blood Brothers: Dracula vs. Nosferatu.” Public Books, 3 Mar. 2017, www.publicbooks.org/blood-brothers-dracula-vs-nosferatu/.

The Vampire Fandom: The Dracula hype stays alive.

Malta Comic Convention, source (1)

When it comes to Vampirism and the fanbase surrounding it- there is no end to the phases that pulse. Of course there are many fans of the classics, like Dracula and Nosferatu, however the newer hype mostly surrounds stories like Twilight or the Vampire Diaries. Despite the newer phases of Vampirism, Dracula stills stands strong as one of the phases that will never die out (not only because of the movie adaptations or original novel, but because Dracula is in general a timeless classic enjoyed by many).

One of the many discussions I found was focused on Vampires in Film at the Malta Comic Convention, where a whole panel discussed the topic of Vampirism in film history and took questions from the audience and fans, only to debate it amongst themselves. This form of interaction is very popular in conventions for their informative and entertaining content often starting a strong connection with the crowd (2).

The Dracula Podcast, cover photo. Source (3).

Another ongoing form of discussion in Vampirism would be the Podcast, The Dracula Podcast. The description is: 'Home to the unofficial podcast of all things Dracula' With a Halloween special on October 29, 2015 (3). In the podcast they chat about Dracula, theories, news and predictions following Dracula's story. Podcasts are an extremely relaxing and focuses on the theme of your choice, it is kind of like the common radio but more complex where the hosts are often educated or professionals in their content area and talk about several researched subtopics surrounding your theme (4).

This comes from the common search, 'Vampire Chatrooms'
in google.

As far as I can tell, there is not much toxic content surrounding the Vampire & Dracula fandom. I've been in several chatrooms and although every person in there genuinely considers themself a vampire- everyone there is really relaxed in a hardcore kind of way. Some of the chatrooms demand that you send in pictures of your fangs before you get accepted, and the members often talk about what their favorite blood type is. To me, this is very odd behavior but everyone has their thing.







Works Cited:

- (1) Malta Comic Convention,  Dr Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone, August 5 2013.
http://www.maltacomic-con.com/events/vampires-in-film-revisiting-hammers-dracula-presentation-and-discussion/
- (2) "Panel Discussion", Nature Education. 2014. 
https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/panel-discussions-13909630
- (3) Dracula Podcast, Lawrence Burgess, Frank Stella, Zachary Hare. South Gate Media Group, October 28, 2015.
http://www.southgatemediagroup.com/dracula-podcast/
- (4) Podcast Host, Colin Gray. 2011.
https://www.thepodcasthost.com/listeners-guide/what-is-a-podcast/

Dracula Tourism Throughout Romania

Transylvania is well known throughout the world as being the home to Bram Stoker's infamous character Count Dracula.  However, to many people's surprise the home of the vampire prince has a mostly fictional background.  Looking for Dracula's castle and the site of his town can be difficult because it has been created from the author's imagination.  With this creation of Dracula Romania had to play their cards right to ensure that the tourism that followed the novel was also met with historical accuracy. 

The Beginning of Tourist Frenzy

A propaganda book created to help further tourism to Transylvania (6).

Bram Stoker's Dracula was published in 1897, but didn't make its way to Romania until 1990 (5).  This fact alone caused issues with the Romania government and the portrayal of Dracula and the Transylvania where he lived.  Romania at the time was a communist nation that wanted to promote themselves as independent.  Dracula's role in their society caused great strife in the community.  The work of supernatural entities compared with the science of the time was a problem for the Romanian government.  They were trying to present themselves as a modern industrialized country, while Stoker had portrayed them to be a sinister and backwards living space for an evil vampire (5).  Going further into this, Dracula, who was the villain of the novel, was now seen as the national hero.  In this communist society having a national hero be not only a fictitious supernatural being, but also a villain caused issues for the governments continued goal to be seen as a new and modern society (2).

Transylvania saw tourist come from all over the Western world to witness the supernatural that was found within Stoker's novel.  The Romanian government saw numbers of tourism increase from 5,000 in 1956 to 103,000 in 1960 (5).  When the tourism began to visit the home of Count Dracula many travelers were disappointed after leaving the country.  They were expecting to see the Count himself and visit his sinister home.   To further the confusion, the residents of Transylvania new nothing of vampires or Castle Dracula (5).  This caused the country's image in the modern world to be at risk to reverting to old customs and putting all of their hard work behind them.  To help draw the line between fact and fiction Dracula: Legend and Truth was published.  This differentiated between the novels evil Count and the history of Romania.  The ministry did not do much to stop the Dracula craze, but  they were not encouraging or promoting Dracula (5).

The Growth of the Count

Through the new wave of tourism in Romania many wealthy philanthropists were looking for waves to market the idea of Dracula.  Alexandru Misiuga, who was the head of Bistrita's tourist office, saw the chance that Romania had to gain more revenue from Dracula fans.  He created a hotel named, The Golden Crown, to mimic where Jonathan Harker stayed when he came to Bistrita (5). He also formed another hotel that would serve as the location of Castle Dracula.  At the time of communism he could not name it after the Count, so instead it was called Hotel Tihuta.  After the fall of the communist state it was renamed Hotel Castel Dracula (5). 

The interest of Dracula comes from outside of Romania, which made the tourism geared more towards a Western cultural background (2).  From the new wave of tourism many of the tours focused on the historical facts of the country, rather than the fictional influence that Stoker gave the nation.  The strongest amount of tourism was derived from real places and imagined life.  Vlad III was was real ruler in Romania but was also seen as the basis for Dracula (2).  This was also the case with Bran Castle, which is now known as Dracula's Castle.  There is no evidence that Stoker knew about Bran, but because this is the only historical landmark that compares to Castle Dracula tourists began to come and visit (2).  Many were disappointed after leaving the castle because it was focusing on the historical truth of the castle rather than what the novel portrayed. 

Castle Dracula

Bran Castle sits in between the mountains just as Dracula's Castle was described in the novel.

As stated above Castle Dracula does not exist in the world of reality, but instead Bran Castle has become an adaption of this mysterious fortress.  The government decided on this castle as the one be the trademark for all things Dracula.  It's gothic look and the position it held between Transylvania and Walachia served as the perfect place to house the legend of the vampire king (1).  This again makes the connection between real places and imagined life.  Stoker never visited Transylvania but it has eerily similar traits of Bran Castle (3).  The connection between the castle and Dracula continue because of the comparison to Vlad the Impaler.  It is not known whether Vlad captured Bran Castle or if he was a prisoner insides its walls (3).  This however furthers the notion of tourists believing that Bran Castle was home to Dracula (who again was often compared to Vlad).  Another connection between Bran and Dracula is the myths of the townspeople that live below the castle.  There was a legend that ghosts would haunt the the people during the night, but during the day they would walk with the rest of the people without being noticed (3).  This was then the basis for Dracula's character and gave the town and Bran Castle a bigger symbol of Count Dracula. 

Works Cited

1.) Alipio, Amy. “Inside the Fortress Known as 'Dracula's Castle'.” Visit 'Dracula's Castle' in Transylvania, Romania, 28 Sept. 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/destinations/europe/romania/dracula-castle-things-to-do-brasov-transylvania/.

2.) CANDREA, Adina Nicoleta, et al. "Marketing the Count's Way: How Dracula's Myth Can Revive Romanian Tourism." Bulletin of the Transilvania  University of Brasov. Series V: Economic Sciences, vol. 9, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp/ 81-90. EBSCOhost, proxy-bloomu-klnpa.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=bth&AN=121777847&site=eds-live&scope=site.

3.) “Count Dracula // The Myth.” Dracula - Bran Castle, www.bran-castle.com/dracula.html.

4.) “Dracula's Castle Full-Day Tour from Bucharest.” GetYourGuide, www.getyourguide.com/bucharest-l111/excursion-to-dracula-s-castle-with-lunch-included-t24039/.

5.) Light, Duncan. "Romania's Problem with Dracula." History Today, vol. 67, no. 5, May 2017, pp. 

62-65. EBSCOhost, proxy-bloomu.klnpa.org/login?

url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=30h&AN=122332425&site=eds-live&scope=site.

6.) Moon, Jim. “GREAT GHOSTS OF THE SHELVES #24 - The Tourist's Guide to Transylvania: A Traveller's Handbook of Count Dracula's Kingdom.” Hypnogoria, 1 Jan. 1970, hypnogoria.blogspot.com/2016/06/great-ghosts-of-shelves-24-tourists.html.