To say I have a love for vampire movies would be an understatement. In fact, the creatures of darkness are largely responsible for the fact that so much of my life now revolves around movies. When I first read Roman Polanski’s “dance of the vampires“When I saw it, it was over for me. From that day on, I didn’t just declare cinema my passion. I also wanted to see and explore everything related to the undead bloodsuckers.
Even now, almost twenty years and countless vampire films later, this passion has not waned. Quite the opposite! I still find it incredibly fascinating to delve into the world of cruel undead around Count Dracula and Co. That’s why I did that at the beginning of this year I decided to leave behind the fictional framework of my vampire affinity to follow in the footsteps of Count Dracula in Romania.
What is important right now: The castle now mainly associated with Dracula is located in a small community called Bran. Bram Stoker chose the castle as the setting for his novel ‘Dracula’, even though he had never been there himself. There is also the Princely Court of Targoviste, where Vlad Tepes, the historical role model of Count Dracula, lived. The Slavic military leader was known not least for his extreme cruelty – he liked to risk his enemies!
The royal court of Targoviste
Of course I did this during my trip to Romania I looked at the locations – and as a vampire friend, I was not disappointed. After spending a few days in Bucharest and really learning to love the city, I finally took a rental car to Targoviste. The current district capital Dambovita is located more than 80 kilometers from Bucharest – and with it the historic royal court… of which largely ruins remain today.
The area, which used to consist of a southern gate, a royal palace, a clock tower, royal gardens, several churches and fortifications, today only gives an idea of the splendor of that time. Yet this place (despite the many new buildings) is still worth a visit. A walk through the ruins has its own morbid charm when you consider who lived here many centuries ago. The fact that there are also family trees depicting Vlad Tepes obviously reinforces the eerie atmosphere.
After a stop of about two hours we continued from Targoviste to Bran in Transylvania. The community where Bram Stoker’s Dracula Castle is located was also where I (hopefully) wanted to get a good night’s sleep for the next few days! When choosing accommodation, as a true fan I naturally made sure I was as close to the castle as possible. Unfortunately it was not possible to spend the night in the castle itself…
Two hours later I reached Bran in the dark. And this is where a really creepy feeling first developed: The streets were empty. It seemed like word was getting around that it was better not to leave the house after sunset. In fact, instead of seeing people, all you heard were the howls of street dogs, before the animals’ silhouettes cast eerie shadows onto the asphalt from the side of the road.
Arrival at Bram Stoker’s Dracula Castle
When I finally reached my accommodation, not only did I find that several dogs had followed me – which was not exactly pleasant for someone who is prone to panic reactions to dogs. I was also alone in the building… The keys to the room were on the counter. It was quite late, so this is not an unusual procedure. After countless vampire films, I still had a bad feeling: Jonathan Harker finally reached Romania under similar circumstances. The rest is known.
After I moved into my wonderfully old-fashioned room (including a cross on the wall and a statue of the Virgin Mary in the corner of course!), the very statue I had traveled to Romania to see was revealed to me: As I stepped onto the balcony, a castle rose up before my eyes, and when you look at it you immediately understand why Bram Stoker used it as a model for his novel. It exudes this oppressive, mysterious aura. The premonition of evil that may lurk behind the castle’s ancient walls.
This prospect alone evoked in me all the feelings I had felt when I was 12 years old when I first encountered “Dance of the Vampires.” The fascination, the chill, the curiosity. The fact that the castle itself is now a tourist hotspot and there is a mannequin wearing a “Scream” mask on the fourth floor takes away from some of the mystical flair. The castle tour itself was quite sobering. By But here all horror expectations are met – and even exceeded. Because imagination can be scarier than the walls themselves…
That’s why I preferred to spend my days in Bran, staring at the castle in the dark, balancing the ambient noise with the beautiful sight. Or to walk to the gate of the castle and surrender to the idea that the light currently on within the walls was not only lit by a guard, but by a victim of the superhuman evil that we all too love to imagine. into the realm of shifting myths and legends. Here, in Bran, that horror became very real to me. And in the most beautiful way.