Dracula’s Castles
In the novel Dracula, Castle Dracula is perched high on a rock in the Transylvanian Carpathians, and Bran Castle, pictured above, has been suggested as Stoker’s model for this. However, there is no record of the real Dracula, Vlad Tepes, ever visiting the castle, though he certainly knew of it, since it was positioned to protect one of his main targets, Brasov. This hasn’t stopped the current managers of Bran Castle marketing it as ‘Dracula’s Castle’, nevertheless. In truth, Dracula patronised several different castles, sometimes as the overlord, at other times as a guest, and still others as a prisoner.
If any building can be called ‘Dracula’s Castle’, it is Targoviste Fortress. Tepes lived here until he became an Ottoman hostage, and again when he became voivode of Wallachia. Vlad Dracul had fortified the formerly-wooden stronghold in stone after assuming the much-disputed Wallachian throne in 1436, simultaneously making it a residence worthy of a great voivode. Tepes himself added the Chindia Tower, which even today stands at 27 metres high, in order to strengthen the fortress and to allow a vantage point over the surrounding area. Tepes spent most of his time at Targoviste when not imprisoned or at war.
In terms of defence, Tepes’s most important possession was Poenari Castle, located on the high plateau of Mount Cetatea overlooking the Arges River and an important path through the southern Carpathians. It is said that when Tepes saw the ruined 13th-century fortification, he asked local boyars for money to refortify it against the Turks. When they refused, Tepes forced them to work day and night until they had done the work themselves. Although it was captured by the great Ottoman army that invaded Wallachia in 1462, Tepes managed to escape via an underground tunnel leading north through the mountains.
Hunedoara Castle, also known as Corvin Castle, was visited by Tepes in two different capacities. On his first visit, he was made a commander in John Hunyadi’s army and granted his residence at Sibiu. On his second visit, he was imprisoned by Matthias Corvinus, who wished to avoid further warfare with the Ottomans, who by now had returned to capture Wallachia with the assistance of Tepes’s hated brother, Radu the Handsome, a Muslim convert who had convinced much of the Wallachian army and mercenaries to switch sides. A series of blatantly-forged letters were produced to show Tepes conspiring with Mehmed.
Hunedoara Castle is by far the best-preserved and most impressive of all Dracula’s castles. A mixture of Gothic and Renaissance architecture, Hunedoara occupies a lofty position on a rocky precipice surrounded by a deep moat, and is entered by a great, stone bridge across a chasm. There is an interesting story attached to the 30-metre-deep well: it was dug by 12 Turkish prisoners over 15 years, who were promised freedom if they reached the water below the rock. Their captors reneged on the promise, and graffiti on the well’s wall records some of the names of the unfortunate prisoners.