The Return Of Dracula To Favor Romania Gives New Life To The Vampire Legend

Romania for decades shrugged off its reputation as the land of vampires, and foreigners drawn by tales of Count Dracula and his cohorts found only a dank, medieval castle and homemade Dracula sweaters.

Now, a lifeless state tourist industry is trying to infuse new blood into the Dracula trade, and on Thursday, opened the world’s first Dracula congress.

“If tourists want hands rising out of coffins … we’ll give it to them,” said tourism minister Dan Matei.

Under communism, Romania tried to distance itself from one of the world’s most enduring myths, and dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who saw his country as a modern industrial powerhouse, went so far as to ban the Bram Stoker book that created the Dracula legend.

The efforts failed to put an end to people’s curiosity, and Romania is taking a fresh stab at promoting the vampire legend.

Its Dracula congress opened in Bucharest, the capital, with about 25 academics and scores of foreign journalists debating subjects ranging from the arcane (“Dracula’s role in Gothic literature”) to the bizarre (“Psychic Vampire: America’s First Vampire Holiday”).

Then, it’s off to Transylvania for a mock witch trial and a masked ball at Bistrita Castle, an eerie structure 200 miles northwest of Bucharest where Stoker set his novels.

“I think it’s a great idea to get the myth, the man and Stoker all together,” said Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, a novelist. But efforts to revive the Dracula legend for tourists are new, and visitors may find their vampire fantasies disappointed.

Part of the problem is that, for Romanians, Dracula isn’t Stoker’s count at all, but a 14th century Romanian prince, Vlad the Impaler, who imposed his rule by impaling and otherwise dealing cruelly with robbers and cheats. Stoker based his Dracula on Vlad, but enriched the figure with vampire tales from Romanian folklore.

Reportedly, Vlad spent only a few nights at Bran castle. The castle didn’t appear in Stoker’s writings.

Some myths endure, however.

Nicolae Paduraru, head of the Dracula Transylvania Society, recognized that early on.

“There is no use trying to explain that Vlad the Impaler was not a vampire. Dracula has a life of his own.”