Romania Takes Its Stake in the Dracula Legend To Heart

Bran Castle, a medieval fortress, near the city of Brasov, has embraced the Dracula story and is drawing tourists even though there is no indication that Vlad the Impaler spent time there. (By Daniel Williams - The Washington Post)

"Besides shoving history aside, the movie Dracula is a kind of spiritual pollution," said Hans Bruno Frohlich, a Lutheran pastor in Sighisoara. "The myth attracts all kinds of fishy beliefs. Satanists visit our town and hold congresses. I try to persuade tourists that Sighisoara has many authentic and beautiful things to see. We don't have or need vampires."

Frohlich said he has seen only one Dracula movie, Mel Brooks's 1995 parody "Dracula: Dead and Loving It."

"I don't much like these kind of films," he said.

Adrian Gherca, proprietor of Sighisoara's Vlad Dracula Restaurant, expressed disappointment over the theme park's death. The restaurant is reputed to be Vlad the Impaler's birthplace, although Gherca acknowledges there is no documentary evidence to that effect.

"From a touristic point of view, everyone who comes here asks about Dracula. I care about history, but I also care about business," he said. "The park would not have affected our beauty, but it would have attracted visitors and created lots of jobs. Is there a Loch Ness monster? I don't think so, but that doesn't stop people from exploiting the story."

In any event, like the vampire itself, the Dracula theme park seems to have many lives. A new group of investors is proposing to build the facility on Lake Snagov and include a golf course, a Formula One race track, a hippodrome and water park.

In the meantime, for the current run of tourists, almost any castle will do as a Dracula landmark. Take Bran Castle, a medieval fortress near the city of Brasov. There is no indication that either Vlad pere, Vlad fils or any other of the celebrated Vlads spent time there. But it has plenty of horror-show ambiance: pointed towers, creaky doors and secret staircases. The parking lot is full of kiosks selling T-shirts printed with the words "Someone in Transylvania Loves You" and teeth dripping blood.

A tour guide takes it all in good-naturedly, happily mixing Vlad facts with Dracula fiction."Hey, Bram Stoker picked Transylvania out of a hat," he told a group of amused tourists. "It might just as well have been Pennsylvania."

Romania may soon have more cinematic guilt-by-association problems. The film "Seed of Chucky," the fifth installment of the series about a two-foot-tall killer doll, was shot in Bucharest last spring, even though the setting for the "story" is supposed to be Hollywood.

Next up: Chucky the Impaler?