About Vlad Tepes, or Count Dracula, and his land
16:50 Mar 10 2005
Times Read: 649
I come from The Land of Moldavia (not Republic of Moldavia, but from a region of Romania), once one of the Romanian Lands, which got united later. Those Lands where The Land of Moldavia, The Romanian Land (not Romania) and The Land of Transylvania, where Count Dracula comes from.
Transylvania (Romanian Transilvania), region in central Romania, before 1918 a part of Austria-Hungary. The region is an elevated plateau entirely surrounded by the Transylvanian Alps, a range of the Carpathian Mountains. The mountains curve around the region like a wall and in various places spread over the land. The chief rivers are tributaries of the Tisza. The terrain is suitable for growing fruits, cereal grains, and sugar beets. Wine is also produced, and livestock is raised. Transylvania is rich in minerals, including gold, silver, salt, and coal.
Part of the Roman province of Dacia, the region became part of the kingdom of Hungary in 1003. In 1526, after the defeat of Hungary by the Turks, Transylvania became a separate principality under the protection of the Turkish sultan. Austria, which had previously claimed Transylvania, obtained possession of the region by the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, which concluded war between Austria and Turkey. In 1765 the region was made a grand principality of Austria and in 1849 an Austrian crown land, but it was reunited with the Hungarian Kingdom in 1867 upon the formation of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Transylvania became a part of Romania in December 1918 following World War I. Hungary persisted in claiming the area because of its large population of Magyars, who form the major ethnic group in Hungary. In 1940, during World War II, by the Italo-German award of August 30, the northern part of Transylvania, including 44,030 sq km (17,000 sq mi) with a population of 2,700,000, was given to Hungary. Following the war the ceded area was returned to Romania. Today, the majority of ethnic Hungarians in Romania live in the region of Transylvania. Area, about 62,160 sq km (about 24,000 sq mi).
The history of the well-known Count Dracula
The Baragau Mountains, situated between the rivers called Somesul Mare and Somesul Mic (The Big Somes and The Small Somes) and Bistrita Baragaului is a great sight with very pictoresque landscapes, with big forests and gentil summits, which make them easy of access. From the end of the XIXth century, this romanian carpatian area obtained a world wide renow and a certain veil of mystery. In 1897, the Irish-man Bram Stoker published the novel “Dracula”, a fiction where vampirism, horror and suspance are the main atributes of the narrative
The novel “Dracula” gave birth to a fantastical character who lives his adventures in the legendary background of Transylvania of the end of the XIXth century. The author was never interesed by the writing of a historical novel, but he was just searching for a fabulous place where he could place his fiction.
The great hold on the public of the novel establishes a great Dracula myth, which conquered the whole world, myth which was extended also in cinematography (more than 200 films), journalism and tourism. Nowadays there are even “Dracula fan clubs”
Although the Count vampire Dracula from the novel of Bram Stoker has nothing to deal with Vlad Tepes Dracula, for the most forneigner tourists the two characters overlap.
There are even some historians who advanced some opinions which belittled the personality of Vlad Tepes, saying that the name Dracula was given for the cruel actions of the hospodar.
In Romanian history, the hospodar Vlad the II th (1448. 1456-1462. 1476) is known as Vlad Tepes. This nickname is due to the frequent utilization of a terrible penalty: he was sticking the evildoners (alive) in slivers, and let them die in dreadful torments (Tepes Teapa=Sliver)
The name Dracula arises from his father’s nickname, Vlad the I st , known as the founder of the Draculescu family (Drac=Devil). In 1431, during his visit at Nurnberg, as the guest of Sigismund of Luxemburg, Vlad the I st received the title of Knight of Crusader Order of the Dragon (Ordinis Draconis). The symbol of that title was a necklace which was up-holding a dragon. For the Christianity, the dragon is the spirit of evil and the power of the demon. It is supposed that the name Dracul (the name of Vlad the I st) and then Dracula (the mane of his son, Vlad the II nd) arises from this symbol of the Dragon’s Order.
...For all that... it is said that before Death came for his soul, he made a pact with the Devil, and in exchange of eternal life, he gave Him his soul...and became a “living dead”,a so-called Vampire
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