Where Exactly is Transylvania The answer is: it lies in the central part of the country, surrounded by the Carpathians which cross Romania. One of the main cities, Cluj-Napoca, stands on the plateau, while Brasov and Sibiu are at the foothills of the southern Carpathians. The shepherd is honoured as a guardian of an ancestral rural heritage. Brasov and Romania's Mountain Resorts This medieval city, picturesquely situated nearby the Postavaru Mountain, is both fascinating in itself and is close to Transylvania's major mountain resort area, with first class hotels (see the page on the Mountains). Look for its old Saxon architecture around the 14th century Black Church, the ruins of the citadel, and the 18th century Old Town Hall. The Bran Castle and the Royal Resort of Sinaia A trip to take from Brasov is to the castle of Bran, supposed to have been the home of Prince Vlad Tepes, who inspired Dracula's legend.

Beginning with the stark contours of the Bran Castle, where Prince Vlad Tepes, the legendary Dracula, is said to have lived Also, don't miss the castle of Peles, fancifully built in 1883 at the foot of a mountain side for King Carol I, in Sinaia. This resort was first made popular by the King and it is worth a stay either in summer for its glorious mountain scenery, hiking and riding, or in winter for skiing, not to mention health cures. Sibiu Sibiu, also Saxon in origin, is a very pretty town, with cobbled streets and pastel colored houses. The open air Museum of Folk Technology in woodland by a lake is a "must" to visit, just as the Brukenthal Art Museum. The town is well placed for excursions to mountain villages, such as Sibiel, where there is a fascinating museum of icons. Further away near Deva stands the Corvin Castle, rebuilt in the 15th century in Gothic style by Prince Iancu Corvin, who gave it a sumptuous Knights Hall and towers and buttresses that remind one of the Chateaux de la Loire.

Banat This south-western corner of the country has a drier, more Mediterranean climate than most of Romania and is also slightly different from the cultural point of view. Habsburg rule until 1918 gave it an Art Nouveau architecture, while almost 1,900 years earlier the Romans had established a spa at Baile Herculane that is still one of Romania's most fashionable ones. Nearby Mount Domogled is a 60,000 ha protected area, while the Semenic Mountains have a few small ski resorts. Finally, the capital of Banat, Timisoara, is the city where the 1989 Revolution started. Originally a Roman town, Sighisoara is one of the greatest medieval cities left in the world. Sighisoara, one of the great medieval cities of Europe The city has a walled citadel on the hilltop, secret gateways and passages, a 14th century Clock Tower and the house where Prince Vlad Tepes lived. Festivals and Folklore Wherever you go in Transylvania, you will discover rural traditions that are a real part of everyday life.

Shepherds produce large round cheese which you will see for sale by the roadside. The house doors are intricately carved. Colourful traditional costumes are worn on Sundays and for weddings and festivals because they have special meaning. As to festivals, you will find them in full swing from Easter on. An Ideal Place to Get Away To sum it up, both in summer and winter, the valleys and mountains of Transylvania are refreshingly unspoilt and welcoming, an area where you can genuinely get away. Timisoara a city famous throughout the world since the dramatic days of the December 89 revolution A SHORT HISTORY OF TRANSYLVANIA A SHORT HISTORY OF TRANSYLVANIA Transylvania is situated in the south-eastern corner of the Carpathian Basin. Its area is roughly 100,000km2 (40,000 sq. miles). The Carpathian Mountains, reaching above 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) in places, form its boundary to the east and the south, separating it from the Romanian regions of Moldavia and Wallachia .

Easy to cross hill country borders it to the north, while to the west its limits are defined by the Great Hungarian Plain. The first known state that existed in this area was that of the Dacians, an Indo-European tribe, in the 1st century B.C. The Roman Emperor Trajan vanquished Decebal , King of the Dacians, after a bloody struggle in A.D. 106, and annexed the area to the roman Empire . During the subsequent period of migrations, waves of conquerors passed through the region: the Goths, the Gepidae , the Huns and the Avars , none of whom were able to establish a durable state. Around 890, when the Hungarians arrived, Transylvania had a sparse Slavic population, who owed nominal allegiance to the Bulgarian Empire centred on the lower Danube . [1] Hungarian tribes occupied the Carpathian Basin, including Transylvania, during the ninth century. The first Christian King of Hungary , St. Stephen , was crowned in the year 1000. From that time on, right up to 1920, Transylvania was part of the Kingdom of Hungary.

At first, the horse-riding, cattle-raising Hungarians settled in the river valleys of central Transylvania. The defence of the eastern borders was entrusted by the kings of the House of ďż˝rpďż˝d (the first Hungarian royal family) to one of the Hungarian ethnic groups, the Szďż˝kelys ( Szeklers ). The southern borders of Transylvania were settled in the 12th century by colonists invited from the Holy Roman Empire, i.e. Germany . In Hungary these German settlers were known as Transylvanian Saxons . While most Transylvanian peasants were serfs of the nobility, the Szeklers retained their status of free soldiers, and the Saxons obtained the right of self-government. The ancestors of the Romanians first appeared in the high mountains of South-Transylvania towards the end of the eleventh century. They were shepherds who migrated in from Wallachia and lived in scattered settlements in the mountains. They were distinguished from the roman Catholic Hungarians and Saxons by belonging to the Greek Orthodox religion.

Towards the end of the fifteenth century, Transylvania had a population of about 800,000, of whom 65% were Hungarians, the rest split evenly between Saxons and Romanians. In 1526 the Kingdom of Hungary was defeated by an invading Turkish army in the battle of Mohďż˝cs , the King himself dying on the battlefield. The heart of the country was conquered by the Turks , while its western and northern parts passed, together with the Hungarian crown, to the Habsburgs in Vienna . Transylvania became an autonomous principality, paying tribute to the Turks, but ruled by Hungarian princes. This principality, now Protestant , became for a time the center of Hungarian culture, and it was here that the political traditions of Hungary survived at their best. At the end of the 17th century the Turks were expelled from Hungary by a coalition of Christian armies, and Hungary regained its unity. The Habsburgs however, although Kings of Hungary, did not allow Transylvania to be administered by the Hungarian authorities, and ruled it directly from Vienna.

Living mostly in the plains, the Hungarians had borne the brunt of the warfare against the Turkish and Mongolian invaders during the preceding two centuries. Consequently, their numbers were heavily reduced. Meanwhile the Romanians, protected against the invaders by being high up in the mountains, had increased their numbers considerably. Their population was further increased during the 18th century by the influx from Wallachia of numerous refugees fleeing rulers installed by the Turks . By the middle of the 18th century the number of Romanians in Transylvania had increased to 50% of the population. This was the period of national awakening among Romanians, when the theory of Daco- Romanian continuity was invented. According to this theory, Romanians are the descendants of the Dacians and of Roman legionaries, and Transylvania is theirs by right of inheritance. After the Hungarian revolution of 1848 against Habsburg rule, the Transylvanian Diet (Parliament) voted union of the principality with Hungary . After the defeat of the Hungarian War of Independence in 1849, this union was dissolved in Vienna , but it was restored when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was established in 1867.

With the Trianon Peace Treaty (1920) that followed World War I, Hungary lost to Romania not only historical Transylvania, but also parts of the Hungarian plain bordering in the north and west, in total disregard of the ethnological realities. Among the inhabitants there were 1.650,000 Hungarians . The newly created Great Rumania , whose national minorities included Germans, Ukrainians, Serbs , Jews , Armenians and others in addition to Hungarians, declared itself a 'national' state, which endeavoured, in all fields of activity, to diminish the influence of minorities - in particular that of the Hungarian minority, judged to be the most dangerous. These infringements of minority rights were in complete disregard of the engagements undertaken by Romania at the Peace Conference, where full protection had been promised to national minorities. The Second Vienna Award in 1940 cut Transylvania in half. Northern Transylvania and the region inhabited by the Szďż˝kelys ( Szeklers ) were returned to Hungary . However, the Paris Peace Treaty following World War II restored once again the boundaries established by the Treaty of Trianon.

After 1945, while Prime Minister Groza was the leader of Romania, there was a brief flicker of hope that Romania would assure the economic and cultural development of its Hungarian minority, by then over 2 million strong. But starting in the 1950's an opposing trend prevailed: the increasingly clear aim of the Romanian Government became the crushing and assimilation of the Hungarian and other minorities in the country. This policy has gone to extreme lengths under President Ceausescu : the Hungarian universities and other historic Hungarian education institutions were closed, Hungarian primary schools are constantly diminishing in number, Hungarian-language theatres are closed or are forced to show Romanian plays, there are hardly any Hungarian books published and Hungarian-language newspapers are simply transmitters of official Romanian nationalist propaganda. Hungarians rarely get into managerial positions, the great majority of Hungarian students can only attend Romanian-language primary and secondary schools, and a Hungarian can hardly ever get into university. No Hungarian cultural institutions survive, books and newspapers published in Hungary are not allowed across the border, and the use of the Hungarian language is prohibited in public places. There has been a systematic settlement of non-Hungarians into purely Hungarian-inhabited areas in order to break up their continuity.

Historical Hungarian cities, such as Kolozsvďż˝r ( Cluj -Napoca), Nagy vďż˝rad (Oradea) and Marosvďż˝sďż˝rhely ( Tirgu-Mures ), are flooded by the influx of Romanians. Hungarian intellectuals are moved to Moldavia or Wallachia , while teachers and civil servants moved to Transylvania speak Romanian only. Workers in some factories are forced to move with their families to 'old' Romania , to be replaced by ethnic Romanians. The Romanian families receive as an incentive a resettlement allowance. Several thousand Hungarian villages in Transylvania have been declared 'unviable' to be bulldozed into the ground, and their population to be forcibly scattered and resettled in Romanian-speaking areas. The press, broadcast media and the schools all present Transylvania as historically Romanian territory, where the Hungarians are 'barbarian and fascist invaders, who for centuries had oppressed and exterminated the peaceful and civilized Romanians'. To divert attention from the inhuman living conditions and the disastrous economic situation in the country, government propaganda turns Hungarians into scapegoats, blaming them for all problems.

The hatred stirred up against Hungarians is such that their daily life is filled with terror. There are frequent atrocities against them, and nothing is done against the perpetrators. If anyone dares to protest, he is imprisoned or sentenced to forced labour in the Danube delta camps. By Dr. Kďż˝lmďż˝n Benda , Historian, Institute of History, Budapest , 1988. [1] New research results show that strong groups, such as the Szďż˝kelys, - most likely forming parts of the Avar realm (567 - approx. 800) - had settled in the Carpathian Basin prior to the 9th century an0,000,d spoke a Uralic language akin to Hungarian / Magyar used by the newcomers. L.K. Lajos Kazar: Facts against fiction Transylvania | Halloween Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Share Ad blocker interference detected! Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected.

Bran Castle is a popular tourist attraction in Transylvania. It is sometimes called "Dracula's Castle" but it has no real connections with either the historical Vlad the Impaler or the fictional Count Dracula . Transylvania is a region of the present-day country of Romania. It is located in the center of the country and surrounded to the south and east by the Carpathian mountains. Its name comes from the Latin for "beyond the forest". The region has changed hands several times over the centuries. For most of the 16th and 17th centuries, it was an independent country ruled by a prince, although the prince of Transylvania accepted the Ottoman sultan as his overlord for most of that time. In 1699, it became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and remained so until the empire was dissolved at the end of World War I. Most people in Transylvania today are ethnic Romanians and Romanian is spoken by almost all of its inhabitants. Ethnic Hungarians, most of whom speak Hungarian as their first language, make up about 20% of the population. Transylvania is also home to smaller communities of German-speaking Saxons, Ashkenazi Jews and Roma (Gypsies).

The coat of arms of Transylvania from 1659 to 1867. The Transylvanian town of Sighisoara was the birthplace of Vlad Tepes (1437 - 1476), also known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracul, a nobleman who was famous for the cruel and bloodthirsty way in which he treated both the invading Ottoman Turks and his own people. Stories of the manner in which Vlad tortured people to death for his own amusement circulated widely in central Europe during his own lifetime. However, the popular association of Transylvania with horror (and by extension with Halloween ) only dates back to 1897, when Bram Stoker chose it as the homeland of his vampire villain in his novel Dracula . Stoker took the name of the vampire count from a variation of Vlad Dracul. In the novel, the character Van Helsing speculates that the vampire might be Vlad the Impaler himself. The Universal monster movies of the 1930s and 1940s, beginning with the 1931 adaptation of Dracula, helped to form the modern popular image of Transylvania.

Universal movies which feature Frankenstein's monster and the Wolfman but not Dracula also appear to take place in the same region. It is explicitly stated in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943) that the setting is Transylvania. However, Transylvania is never mentioned in Mary Shelley's original novel Frankenstein, most of which takes place in Switzerland. As depicted in the Universal movies, Transylvania is a region of German architecture where people wear traditional German costumes. It is the home of frightened peasants who gather in the local inn at dusk. Strangers are initially treated warmly but that soon changes if the stranger speaks about going to the castle to see the Count or the Baron. At best, the locals may then mutter cryptic warnings, at worst the stranger may be treated coldly or without outright hostility. Eventually, the peasants may tire of the Count or the Baron's reign of terror and attack the castle, brandishing torches and pitchforks.

Many of the Hammer horror films of the 1960s and 1970s, especially those centered around the characters of Count Dracula or Baron Victor von Frankenstein, take place in a near identical central European setting to that of the Universal movies from thirty years earlier. However, the name "Transylvania" is rarely used in the Hammer films, instead there are references to towns with German names and shop signs and other notices in German often appear in the background. The kind of fantasy Transylvania depicted by Universal and Hammer amongst others, which may or may not be referred to as "Transylvania" in the movie, book or television program in which it appears, is sometimes referred to by devotees of popular culture as "Uberwald", a name which first appeared in Terry Pratchett's "Discworld' series of novels. "Uberwald" is a bad German translation of "beyond the forest". The real Transylvania has drawn considerable benefits from its associations with horror, in that it has become a popular tourist destination. Not surprisingly, many people choose to visit the region around the time of Halloween and Halloween parties are often arranged at hotels.

Largely as a result of tourism, Transylvania is one of the most developed regions in Romania today. There is also a real Transylvania University, a liberal arts school located in Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.A. [1] They participate in the annual Lexington PumpkinMania with hundreds of jack-o-lanterns . Transylvania: History Transylvania History The area now constituting Transylvania became part of the Roman Empire in A.D. 107. After the withdrawal (A.D. 271) of the Romans from the region it was overrun, between the 3d and 10th cent., by the Visigoths, the Huns, the Gepidae, the Avars, and the Slavs. The Magyar tribes first entered the region in the 5th cent., but they did not fully control it until 1003, when King Stephen I placed it under the Hungarian crown. The valleys in the east and southeast were settled by the Székely, a people akin to the Magyars. It is not known, however, whether they came into Transylvania with or before the Magyars. In the 12th and 13th cent.

the areas in the south and northeast were settled by German colonists called (then and now) Saxons. Siebenbürgen, the German name for Transylvania, derives from the seven principal fortified towns founded there by the Saxons. The German influence became more marked when, early in the 13th cent., King Andrew II of Hungary called on the Teutonic Knights to protect Transylvania from the Cumans, who were followed (1241) by the Mongol invaders. Large numbers of Romanians, called Vlachs or Walachians, were in the region by 1222, although the exact date that their penetration began is disputed. Originally seminomadic shepherds, the Vlachs soon settled down to agriculture. The administration of Transylvania was in the hands of a royal governor, or voivode, who by the mid-13th cent. controlled the whole region. Society was divided into three privileged "nations," the Magyars, the Székely, and the Saxons. These "nations," however, corresponded to social rather than strictly ethnic divisions.

Although the nonprivileged class of serfs consisted mostly of Vlachs, it also included some people of Saxon, Székely, and Magyar origin. A few Vlachs, notably John Hunyadi, hero of the Turkish wars, joined the ranks of the nobility. After the suppression (1437) of a peasant revolt the three "nations" solemnly renewed their union; the rebels were cruelly repressed, and serfdom became more firmly entrenched than ever. When the main Hungarian army and King Louis II were slain (1526) in the battle of Mohács, John Zapolya, voivode of Transylvania, took advantage of his military strength and put himself at the head of the nationalist Hungarian party, which opposed the succession of Ferdinand of Austria (later Emperor Ferdinand I) to the Hungarian throne. As John I he was elected king of Hungary, while another party recognized Ferdinand. In the ensuing struggle Zapolya received the support of Sultan Sulayman I, who after Zapolya's death (1540) overran central Hungary on the pretext of protecting Zapolya's son, John II.

Hungary was now divided into three sections: W Hungary, under Austrian rule; central Hungary, under Turkish rule; and semi-independent Transylvania, where Austrian and Turkish influences vied for supremacy for nearly two centuries. The Hungarian magnates of Transylvania resorted to a policy of duplicity in order to preserve independence. The Báthory family, which came to power on the death (1571) of John II, ruled Transylvania as princes under Ottoman, and briefly under Hapsburg, suzerainty until 1602, but their rule was interrupted by the incursion of Michael the Brave of Walachia and by Austrian military intervention. In 1604, Stephen Bocskay led a rebellion against Austrian rule, and in 1606 he was recognized by the emperor as prince of Transylvania. Under Bocskay's successors—especially Gabriel Bethlen and George I Rákóczy—Transylvania had its golden age. The principality was the chief center of Hungarian culture and humanism, the main bulwark of Protestantism in E Europe, and the only European country where Roman Catholics, Calvinists, Lutherans, and Unitarians lived in mutual tolerance.

Orthodox Romanians, however, were denied equal rights. After the Turkish defeat near Vienna (1683), Transylvania vainly battled the growing Austrian influence, and its alliance with Turkey under Emeric Thököly and with France under Francis II Rákóczy proved fatal to its independence. In 1711, Austrian control was definitely established over all Hungary and Transylvania, and the princes of Transylvania were replaced by Austrian governors. The proclamation (1765) of Transylvania as a grand principality was a mere formality. The pressure of Austrian bureaucratic rule gradually eroded the traditional independence of Transylvania. In 1791 the Romanians petitioned Leopold II of Austria for recognition as the fourth "nation" of Transylvania and for religious equality. The Transylvanian diet rejected their demands, restoring the Romanians to their old status. In 1848 the Magyars proclaimed the union of Transylvania with Hungary, promising the Romanians abolition of serfdom in return for their support against Austria. The Romanians rejected the offer and instead rose against the Magyar national state.

In the fighting that followed (1849) between the Hungarians and the Austro-Russian forces (supported by the Romanians and most of the Saxons), the Hungarian republic of Louis Kossuth was suppressed. The ensuing period of Austrian military government (1849–60) was disastrous for the Magyars but greatly benefited the Romanian peasants, who were given land and otherwise favored by the Austrian authorities. However, in the compromise ( Ausgleich ) of 1867, which established the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Transylvania became an integral part of Hungary, and the Romanians, having tasted equality, were once more subjected to Magyar domination. After World War I the Romanians of Transylvania proclaimed at a convention at Alba Iulia (1918) their union with Romania. Transylvania was then seized by Romania and was formally ceded by Hungary in the Treaty of Trianon (1920). The expropriation of the estates of Magyar magnates, the distribution of the lands to the Romanian peasants, and the policy of cultural Romanianization that followed were major causes of friction between Hungary and Romania.

It was now the turn of the Magyar and German nationalists to complain of Romanian oppression. During World War II, Hungary annexed (1940) N Transylvania, which was, however, returned to Romania after the war. Many of the Saxons of Transylvania fled to Germany before the arrival of the Soviet army, and most of the remaining Saxons followed after the fall of the Communist government in 1989. Sections in this article: Transylvania | Uncyclopedia | Fandom powered by Wikia during Roman times. Transylvania must not be confused with Pennsylvania . After all, vun is full of monsters with huge teeth ; the other is in Eastern Europe. edit Economy Ze Transylvania is based on tourism . Many people stay in quaint country houses, ven cars break down in ze frequent storms. Transylvania Tourist Bureau has discount for virgins dressed in diaphanous nightgowns tour groups. Other major exports include garlic, silver and splintery wood; approximately 100% of Transylvania's annual production of these substances is exported, often at heavily discounted prices. Transylvanian exports include horrible Eastern European beverages, monsters , coal, bauxite, wheat and coffin-sized boxes full of soil.

Imports include virgins on Transylvania The area ve now know as... Transylvania vas first described by the Roman geographer Abrahamus Vanhelsingus , who conducted a survey of ze region in the first century BC. He described two distinct groups of locals. Vun group he described as being swarthy, superstitious and prone to forming angry mobs at the slightest provocation. Zese he described as Tribus Superfluae, or ze tribe of extras. Ze other, smaller group consisted of paler, spookier people who had pointy teeth, pronounced vidows peaks, mocking laughs and a deep seated compulsion to count things during thunderstorms. Zese he referred to as the Gothae; an odd attributions, since at zis time the Visigoths and Ostrogoths were both based in Scandinavia, and the people of Transylvania are ethnically unrelated to them. Ze Transylvanian region had remained largely closed to outsiders before ze Romans conquered the region. Over the centuries, only the Romans, Turks and Russians have successfully conquered Transylvania. Curiously, all these peoples were fond of garlic. In ze middle ages, the Transylvanian aristocrats began a program of castle building.

Oddly, these castles were not sited vere zeir defensive structure would be useful, ie, on strategic land and river routes, to protect resource centers, or to control mountain passes. Instead, zey vere built high up in inhospitable mountain ranges, often many miles from ze nearest population center. In ze 16th century, the area vas conquered by ze Turks. Ze Turks brought vith them astronomers and alchemists, who began Transylvania's long tradition of forbidden cutting-edge scientific research. Notable Transylvanian inventions include corpse-robots flesh-eating nanobots , and ze glow-in-the-dark keyring. In the late 19th century, ze Congress of Berlin established Transylvania as a part of the newly-formed Kingdom of Romania. However, ze people of the region maintained many of their own dialects, customs, genetic mutations and burial practices. During World War I, Transylvania... uh... vich side was Romania on during WWI? Oh, vell, let's skip this bit. During World War II, Romania vas neutral, an Axis country and an Allied country. Must have made sense at the time.

Anyhoo, Transylvanian soldiers volunteered in great numbers, almost as if they were happy to be leaving the country. Meanwhile, many Transylvanian scientists vent on sabbatical to German research centers in Poland . When they returned at the war's end, zey claimed to have "learned much." After the war, Romania came under Soviet occupation. Oddly, the Transylvanian peasantry seemed pretty much at ease over this, and Soviet authorities were often surprised to receive "application letters" from peasants wishing to be relocated to forced labour camps in Siberia. Ven European Communism collapsed in the 1990s, Romania followed the lead of Russia and reformed as a quasi-feudal post-industrial kleptocracy modern democracy and economic powerhouse. Ze departure of the communists allowed many exiled aristocrats to return to their ancestral castles, vile the peasants vept with what could well have been joy, perhaps. edit Government Transylvania is governed by the Transylvanian Regional Council, which in turn reports to the Romanian central government. It just doesn't report very often.

The council consists of six members: GOVERNOR Minister for the Environment Minister for Transportation Baron Fronkensteen, Minister of Health since 1998. Won three Nobel Prizes in single combat with their previous owners. Caused international controversy when he claimed that AIDS was caused by Gypsies. Dr. Henry Jellyk, Science Minister since 2002. Best known for his radical experiments in the field of psychopharmacology, Dr. Jekyll is internationally renowned as an ethical and conscientious scientist Mr. Edward Hynde, Minister for Internal Security since 2002, internationally despised maniac and winner of the Amnesty International "Rottenest Guy" award for the last five years running. Larry Tolbot, Minister for the Environment since 2000... uh... hairy, isn't he? Robur the Conqueror, Minister for Transportation since 2008. A newcomer to the cabinet, Robur is expected to revive Tranbsylvania's flagging air-travel industry. Immediately below the Council are five Junior Ministers. Minister for Industry Transylvania Transylvania! The name alone makes us think about vampires and werewolves.

Transylvania is an area in the north central part of the country encompassed by the Carpathian Mountains to the west and south and the Apuseni Mountains in the east. Until World War I Transylvania was part of Hungary. After the revolution in 1989 many of the Germans who had lived in Transylvania migrated to Germany and reduced the number of Germans in the area roughly by half leaving approximately 120,000 in the area. And this number was reduced by 50% by 1995. We are told that Hungary continues to not be happy about Transylvania being a part of Romania The first place we visited in Transylvania was Bran Castle (above) which served for many years as a tax collection station on the road between Transylvania and Wallachia. It sits atop a small hill and provided a secure location for the residents. The castle itself is a rambling series of rooms at odd angles, with a lovely courtyard in the center (left). There was some furniture still in the castle, and we particularly were taken with the heavily carved bed (below right). We also visited the hill top fortress located above the town of Rasnov.

Rasnov has decided to entice tourists to visit by placing the sign pictured below left on the outskirts of town where there is a fork in the road - take the road to the right and come to Rasnov and the one to the left leads to Bran. Most of the tourist hordes head for Bran to see the castle. However, we did both. Rasnov is an old medieval town sitting upon the hill, reached by a rocky dirt road that was a joy on the bikes. Rasnov was created as a refuge and defense fortress in the 13th century by the inhabitants of the town. It was made to ensure protection against both the Turkish and Tartar invasions and the trespasses of the feudal noblemen. Over time it was reinforced so that it was one of the most solid fortresses in the 15th century. The picture at right shows the perimeter houses, most of which have been rebuilt to a great extent. Various carts and farm implements fill the center area. The photo below, left shows the condition of the walls an ramparts not yet rebuilt, as we look out to the Fagaras Mountains.

One of the interesting tales of Rasnov is the well that was dug by 2 Turkish prisoners who were promised their freedom upon completing the well (completed in 1640). All well and and good except that it took them 17 years to complete the project! However, it did provide more security for the residents as they no longer had to open the gates to get water. Now, what about that Dracula tale? Well, Vlad Tepes, ruling prince of Wallachia in the mid-1400s, gained the name Tepes (Impaler) because of the form of capital punishment he employed to punish his enemies. A wooden stake was driven carefully through the enemy’s backbone without touching any vital nerve, ensuring at least 48 hours of conscious agony before death. The Impaler usually dined with at least one Turk on a stake in front of him. This was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula. Vlad was called Dracula (meaning “son of the dragon”) because his father, Vlad Dracul who was a knight of the Order of the Dragon.

While at Rasnov, we found a print which depicted the infamous Impaler, dining before the Turks on the stakes (below, right) Sometime in the afternoon we had stopped at a gas station for a break and a soda. Jim was inside and Verna was standing outside with her soda when a Romanian woman in a car motioned to Verna, asking if she would like one of the covrigi (a small round bread, either salty or slightly sweet, photo above, left) the woman was eating. Verna politely motioned “no,” but the woman got out anyway and came over and offered her one from the bag. Finally giving in, Verna took one and thanked her. Later Jim came out and Verna told him what had transpired then gave him the last bite. The woman from the car then got out and came over with a whole bag of the covrigi and insisted we take them. We tried to say no, but she wouldn’t accept. She pointed to our license plate, then the bag, then handed the bag to us. She then got in the car and drove off, blowing us a kiss and waving goodbye. Luckily it was a small bag and Verna found a space for it.

For the next couple of days we savored not only the covrigi, but the generosity and kindness of the woman For the night we stopped in Brasov and had a wonderful Chinese meal for something different. We have been told that Brasov is the most visited city in Romania. The city has many old buildings which have been restored and maintained. It makes for a pleasant, interesting walk around town. There is even an old bastion sitting on the hill overlooking the town. In a quiet park area south of town we found an old city gate from the 1500s (above, right). There is a large pedestrianized area, lots of well stocked shops and lots of people out and about. At left is the main square, late in the day when the locals were enjoying their city. There are lots of restaurants that border the square and it is really quite a pleasant place. The people of Brasov have done a lot of work in restoring their town and it shows. We rode to Sibiu after leaving Brasov. Founded by the Romans during the 12th Century Sibiu has always been important town in Transylvania. During the 19th Century Sibiu was the seat of the Austrian governors of Transylvania.

It has some lovely old architecture and several open squares, one of which is pictured above. They have even closed one of the main streets and made it a quiet pedestrianized area complete with shops and outdoor bars and restaurants. One of the highlights is the Gothic Evangelical Church (1300-1520) whose 5 pointed tower is visible from a distance (right). The church contains the largest pipe organ in Romania with a total of 6002 pipes. There is also a lovely fresco in the sanctuary originally painted in 1445. From Sibiu, we rode north to Cluj-Napoca whose roots can be traced to 1st century AD. In 124 the city attained municipal status and Emperor Marcus Aurelius elevated it to a colony. Because it was located in the middle of Transylvania, it became a crossroads which led it to later become an educational and industrial center. Today it is a university town and a busy city center. It has several major squares and many interesting architectural sites as well as sidewalk cafes where one can sit and enjoy the people-watching scene.

As with much of Romania, we found that most of the older buildings had lots of potential, but were in need of cleaning and renovation. St. Michael’s Church from the 15th century (left) was the focal point of the central square along with the equestrian statue of the Hungarian King Matthias. Hungary had an influential role in Transylvania’s history as represented by this prominent statue. Our home for the night was outside the city center, up a little hill. From our room, we had a view of the city skyline, which was fairly one-dimensional except for the obviously new building near the center of the photo below. We have no idea what it is, but is this the beginning of a new skyline for Cluj-Napoca? Heading west from Cluj-Napoca, we traveled through the Apuseni Mountains. a low mountain range of about 2,000 ft. They are very green and lush with some nice smooth winding pavement to enjoy. On the western side, we were treated to an expansive view of the plains below, full of crops in various stages of maturity and a colorful patchwork of colors (below, right).

Here, like in most of Romania, the crops are planted in long strips rather than huge fields. We expect this reflects the land ownership, each farmer tending his own land, rather than huge acreages owned by agricultural firms. Our last stop in Romania was in Oradea, very near the Hungarian border. The first thing we noticed when walking around this town was that it had more of a western European look and feel to it. The wide pedestrian path with shops and sidewalk cafes had a very western feel and something we had seen in only one other city in Romania. One of the finest buildings in terms of architecture and current state was the lovely town hall (below, right), situated on the banks of the river which bisects the town. We were pleased to see, however, that several buildings in town were undergoing restoration. What particularly caught our eye was the scaffolding being used. While obviously very functional, we were a bit concerned about the safety of the structure. Our favorite site was the scaffolding around the tower of the Black Vulture Hotel (below, left). The upright poles are bare tree trunks with 2x4s providing the cross bracing.

Then planks are set across for the workers to walk on, but from what we could see from other scaffolds, none are secured. The pole extensions are interesting as well (below, right). Would you like to spend your day working up there? Well, aside from the scaffolding, you can see that the building above has a lot of interesting architectural detail and we think it will be a very positive addition to the cityscape. If you find typographical errors or have any other problems when looking at the site please contact the Webmaster describing the problem and the page involved. Copyright © 2000-2009 Jim Seavey and Verna Norris All Rights Reserved BBC - Travel - Mystical tales from Transylvania Cultural Activities Mystical tales from Transylvania Stories of werewolves, witches and vampires still swirl among the peaks and forests of the Carpathian Mountains. Be guided through the country’s myths and legends by a Romanian count. By Oliver Berry 18 January 2013 It’s a freezing midwinter evening just outside the Transylvanian village of Miklósvár, and the forest is eerily quiet.

Icicles dangle from the branches and silver blades of sunlight filter through the conifers, casting the forest floor in an iridescent glow. Apart from the crackle of the campfire and the stamp of horses’ hooves, there’s not a sound to break the wintry silence. It’s then that Count Tibor Kálnoky begins to tell the tale of the first time he visited the village witch. Related slideshow: Transylvania's medieval tradition ‘One of my sons was suffering from sleepwalking,’ he explains, staring into the campfire as he pours out a round of pálinka, a fiery Hungarian fruit brandy. ‘Every night he would wake up and wander in his sleep. We tried many treatments, but nothing worked. So we asked some local people and they told us to visit an old lady by the name of Marika Neni, who everyone just called Auntie.’ He sips his brandy, stirring the embers of the campfire with his leather boot. ‘She used an old remedy which involved melting some lead in an iron pot and then looking at the shape the lead made as it cooled, rather like reading tea leaves.

Then she said some spells, gave us the lead to put under his pillow as he slept, and sent us home.’ He looks up from the fire, downs his pálinka and breaks into a roguish grin. ‘And believe it or not, he’s never sleepwalked since.’ With his dapper hair, jodhpurs and knee-high boots, Count Kálnoky doesn’t strike you as the kind of man who would believe in witches’ cures. But superstitions such as these are still a fundamental part of everyday life in Transylvania, even after decades under Communist rule. Having spent most of his childhood in government-enforced exile, Kálnoky finally returned to reclaim his family’s estates in 1999, following the fall of Ceaușescu’s regime and after an eight-year legal battle. Since then the count has learned to embrace Transylvania’s old ways. ‘It’s good luck if a stork nests on your rooftop,’ he explains, ducking through the timber gateway of a courtyard cottage, one of several he’s renovated around Miklósvár over the last decade. ‘And bad luck if you knock them down.

We’ve got a nest that hasn’t been used for years, but I’m not brave enough to remove it!’ Entering the cottage feels like stepping into a Brothers Grimm fairytale. Stout oak beams underpin the roof and rough plaster lines the walls, while an antique ceramic stove pumps out warmth and shuttered windows peep onto the moonlit courtyard. ‘You should be cosy in here,’ says Count Kálnoky. ‘Don’t be alarmed if you hear noises in the night. It’s probably just the watchman stoking the fire. And, if not – well, that should help keep out the vampires.’ He gestures to the doorway, where a bunch of dried garlic has been nailed into the plaster. Sprawling along the edge of the snowy Carpathians, Europe’s last truly wild mountain range, Transylvania is a land that is rich in myths and legends. A region of Romania since 1918 but historically an independent province, Transylvania’s history has been shaped by the many transient populations that have passed through over the centuries: Saxons, Ottomans, Hungarians, Jews, Serbs and Roma Gypsies.

With them came stories collected on their travels: tales of goblins and giants, fairy queens and woodland nymphs, unearthly phantoms, man-eating ogres and predatory ghouls. Venture out on a moonlit night and you might encounter the pricolici, the devilish werewolves said to be the restless spirits of violent men. Even more terrifying are the samca, wizened hags with dagger-like fingernails that sometimes appear to children and women during childbirth; their appearance signifies certain death. And then there are the legends of the strigoi, or vampires – undead creatures risen from the grave to feast on the blood of the living – which fired the imagination of an Irish writer by the name of Bram Stoker, and inspired him to write his Gothic bestseller, Dracula, in 1897. Like many rural corners of Europe, Transylvania has a tradition of oral storytelling that stretches back centuries. In a pre-scientific world, these allegorical tales served a dual purpose. They helped explain otherwise inxplicable events – disease, death, natural disasters – but also offered a source of entertainment to pass the long winter nights.

Often, legends also provided moral guidance: one tale tells of the bau-bau (also known as the omul negru, or ‘black man’), a spindly figure dressed in a cloak who steals naughty children and hides them in his cave for a year. Many of Transylvania’s superstitions have proved remarkably resilient, although perhaps this is unsurprising in a land where some villages have hardly changed since the Middle Ages. Driving through the sleepy hamlets around Miklósvár feels like journeying through Europe’s pre-industrial past: pastel-coloured cottages and tumbledown barns line the streets, horse-drawn carts rattle through the snow, and wood smoke drifts up from rickety chimneys. Many houses are still protected by ornate kapu, the distinctive carved wooden gateways which were imported to Transylvania by Saxon settlers over eight centuries ago. Similarly, most villages have a witch or folk-healer who dispenses spells, removes curses and provides spiritual guidance.

Since 2011, witches, palmists and fortune tellers have even been made liable for income tax – a controversial decision that proved so unpopular that local MPs felt the need to start wearing the lucky colour of purple in the hope of warding off the witches’ hex. Nany Etelka has spent her entire life in the little village of Băţanii Mici, 20 miles from Miklósvár, and now runs the village mill with the help of her two adult sons, Domi and Laecsi. ‘I can still remember the stories I told to my boys when they were small,’ she recalls. ‘Many of them I learned from my mother, who learned them from her mother, and so on. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them are hundreds of years old!’ she laughs, raising her voice to be heard above the creak and clatter of the mill’s iron machinery. She bustles into the kitchen, where a forest of pots and pans dangles from the rafters, and a battered coffee pot bubbles away on the stove. ‘During Communism, we were not encouraged to celebrate our culture,’ she explains.

‘But telling stories was one of the best ways we had of keeping our past alive.’ As she hands out mugs of treacly coffee and slabs of homemade kolach, a type of sweet corn bread, she explains that Băţanii Mici also happens to be the birthplace of Transylvania’s most famous storyteller: Benedek Elek, a journalist and folklorist who devoted much of his life to setting down the region’s fairytales. His stories of cruel kings, enchanted animals and paupers-turned-princes are still a staple bedtime read for most Romanian and Hungarian children, and a bronze statue of the author now stands in the village’s main square – a sign of the fondness with which the author is remembered, not just in Transylvania, but across much of Eastern Europe. It’s not hard to see why Transylvania’s landscape has sparked the imagination of so many storytellers. Hemmed in by mountains, pockmarked by valleys and swathed in old-growth forests, it’s a land of strange and often supernatural beauty. Beyond the towns and villages, much of the country still feels fantastically wild.

Lynx, deer and wild boars populate its woodlands, and golden eagles can often be spotted wheeling amongst the mountain peaks. In the more isolated corners, brown bears and packs of wolves still roam free. ‘For me, this is such a special place,’ says Gabor Tomas, as he treks through the snowy woods around Zalanpatak, another tiny hamlet on the Kálnoky estate, about 15 miles southeast of Miklósvár. He’s been exploring Transylvania’s backcountry since he was a child and now works as a conservationist and nature guide. ‘There are very few places in Europe where you feel so far from civilisation. If you want to, you can still really taste the wild here.’ As if to illustrate his point, a winged shadow swoops low across the valley, fluttering to rest on a branch of a skeletal oak tree. ‘Look,’ he whispers. ‘A Ural owl. People believed they were an evil omen and signified death.’ We watch the owl loop and hover above the land, as the sun silhouettes spindly trees along the horizon and snowflakes tumble from the winter sky.

‘I wish people took the time to discover this side of my country,’ Gabor says. ‘Nature is our greatest asset. But as soon as you mention Transylvania, it means just one thing to people: Dracula. No matter what we do, that won’t change.’ It’s more than a century since Bram Stoker dreamt up his vampiric count, but Dracula is still big business in Transylvania. He’s everywhere: on T-shirts and keyrings, on leaflets and billboards, on coffee jars and toothpaste tubes. Every town claims a tenuous link with the count, or more accurately with his real-life counterpart Vlad Țepeș, known as Dracula, the bloodthirsty warlord who ruled the kingdom of Wallachia intermittently between 1448 and 1476, and who had a predilection for impaling his enemies on stakes, allegedly thousands at a time. Few places sell their Dracula connections harder than Bran Castle in the Carpathian foothills, about 20 miles south of the well-preserved medieval town of Brașov.

This sturdy fortress was originally built during the 13th century to guard the Rucăr-Bran Pass, a key strategic route into Wallachia. It’s now better known as the legendary location of Dracula’s castle. It certainly looks the part: ringed by ramparts and riddled with echoing halls and secret passageways, it seems the ideal place for a thousand-year old strigoi to have made his mountain lair. Unfortunately, as so often with the Dracula legend, there’s no evidence that Vlad ever visited Bran, let alone lived there; his actual castle, now a ruin, was at Poienari, 150 miles north of Brașov. ‘When it comes to Dracula, untangling fact from fiction is the biggest problem,’ says local history professor Dr Nicolae Teșculă, as he surveys the red-tiled rooftops of Sighișoara, the hilltop town that’s now famous as Vlad Dracula’s birthplace. The winter sun is casting long shadows as we walk through Sighișoara’s alleyways, past merchants’ mansions, cobbled courtyards and fortified gateways.

Ravens strut and croak on the medieval ramparts, and a faint peal of bells echoes from the church. ‘There’s no doubt that Dracula was a brutal warrior,’ Teșculă continues. ‘But many of the myths surrounding him are propaganda disseminated by his enemies. In fact, he’s regarded by most as a hero. He protected Transylvania against the threat of Ottoman invasion and ensured the survival of our own indigenous culture.’ He crunches on through the town’s icy streets and sets about debunking the Dracula myth with an academic eye. The name Dracula actually derives from a chivalric order called the Order of the Dragon, he explains. Vlad Țepeș’ father was a member of this order, and took the epithet Dracul – the dragon. Dracula simply means ‘son of Dracul’. Vlad’s reputation as an impaler was exaggerated by his enemies, to portray him as a bloodthirsty tyrant. The fact that Vlad’s body was found buried with no head is no surprise: his killers would simply have wanted proof of his death in order to collect a bounty.

‘But it doesn’t matter what I say,’ he laughs, watching tourists shopping for plastic crucifixes and vampire mugs at a souvenir stall. ‘I think that Count Dracula’s legend will outlast us all. Perhaps he really is immortal!’ He leads the way to Sighișoara’s clocktower, and we watch as darkness slowly falls across the snow-covered hills, and clouds of birds swirl home to roost over the town’s jumbled rooftops. ‘That’s the thing about all the best stories,’ the doctor muses. ‘They have a way of taking on a life of their own.’ The article 'Mystical tales from Transylvania' was published in partnership with Lonely Planet Traveller .

Question: Transylvania is a part of which country?
Answer: Romania