In Search of Dracula: A True History of Dracula and Vampire Legends

Places of literary tourism in Romania. Case study: Borgo Pass and Bram Stoker’s Heritage

“…The two figures, count vampire Dracula and Prince Vlad the Impaler, were, over time, both abroad and in Romania, topics for numerous movies, video games, literary works (books, articles, studies, novels) graphics, ballet, tourism research, events, public debates, tourism development projects, sites on the internet and Facebook pages, which shows the extent of this phenomenon generated by a novel by Bram Stoker (Andreescu, 1998;Banyai, 2010;Bîca, 2012;Bîca and Rusu, 2017;Bîca, Rusu, 2017;Bucek, 2013;Cazacu, 2008;De Roos, 2012Florescu and McNally, 1972;Florescuand McNally, 1994;Florescu and Cazacu, 2013;Hovi, 2014;Koranteng, 2002;Light. 2012;Lupu and Brochado, 2017;McNally and Florescu, 1989;McNally and Florescu, 1992;Mureșan, Smith, 1998;Miller, 1999;Podonsky, 2010;Rusu, 2011;Stoker and Holt, 2010;Stoleriu and Ibănescu, 2014;Strutz, 2015;Zărnescu, 2010).…”

“…With the publication of the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, in 1897, the myth of Count Dracula vampire was born, which will generate the Dracula tourism in the twentieth century. In conceiving the character, Bram Stoker used several sources, such as vampire folklore of European countries, Gothic literature in the nineteenth century, and the figure of Wallachian prince Vlad Draculea III (1428-1476), nicknamed the Impaler (Florescu and McNally, 1972;Cazacu, 2008;Miller, 1999;Hovi, 2014;Lupu and Brochado, 2017;Stoleriu and Ibănescu, 2014;Stoleriu, 2014) -the town of Whitby, where Dracula and his mold boxes arrive, aboard the Russian schooner Demeter; here, the vampire count turns into a dog and disappears from the ship, while his mold boxes are taken over by lawyer S.F. Billington of Whitby; he meets Lucy Westenra, who spends her vacation here with her mother and Mina Murray, Jonathan Harker's fiancée, whom he contaminates (Stoker, 2008); -London, with the locations Hampstead (N-E), Purfleet (V), Godalming (S), Piccadilly, Walworth, Whitechapel where the London action of the novel takes place.…”