After a victory over the Turkish army, some Wallachian peasants witnessed a forest of stakes 1 km by 3 km wide, upon which 20000 Turkish and Bulgarian captives were impaled. He was detained at Visegrad castle, north of Budapest for 16 years. Besides Vlad Tepes was said to play in his cell in Visegrad with bats, which are, as everybody knows, one of the animals Dracula can metamorphose into. When eventually released, Vlad returned home, and he was betrayed by the boyars and killed. Dracula and Vlad Tepes are both famous for their cruelty and savagery.
History actually is full of cruel figures likely to inspire legends and myths.
Dracula in literature and cinematography Think of Romania and literature together, and what may come to mind is the story of the famous vampire Count Dracula. Vampirism, in some form or another, has appeared in all times, in all cultures. Very often it has emerged during periods of spreading epidemics, of social changes and anxiety over the future or at the end of millennia. In 19th century England the mythology of vampires was quite popular. The end of the 19th century was propitious to a profusion of horror stories and while writing the novel Stoker lived for a time in Whitechapell, the London neighbourhood where Jack the Ripper murdered many girls in 1888.