Dracula. Prince of Darkness - part 3

<< first part of "Dracula. Prince of Darkness" and the second one.
Part IV >>

Vlad Dracula. Origins of the Legend

Romania Countryside. Fear of the undead is still very powerful. For example the horses have a red tassel to protect them from deochi (the evil eye).
Romanians folk myths (very powerful among villagers) are presented. If you walk by night you have to take care not to meet the devil. We know that Bram Stoker has studied this myths.

Let's see in this documentary if Romania's death-related traditions might have represented the spring of inspiration for Stoker's novel, "Dracula". We see how people deals with the present of the undead (strigoi).

Vlad Dracula was definitely not a strigoi. He was seen like a hero, not as a vampire, as Stoker's novel presents him.

Impalement Techniques

Here is a short movie of Massimo Polidoro, presenting the medieval armor in Wallachia and Vlad Dracula's impalement techniques and the psychological effect of the view of impaled people. This is a short sequence from a documentary he co-hosted for Dicovery Channel.
To make a distinction between the real and the fictional Dracula Polidoro uses Vlad Țepeș to refer to Vlad III and Dracula to refer to Bram Stoker's character.
Seems really good documented, I would like to see the full documentary:

Prince of Darkness - part II

Here is the second part from the 1966 movie "Dracula. Prince of Darkness":



Here is the first part of the 1966 movie

Other Dracula movies.

Dracula - Prince of Darkness

Yet another Dracula Movie !
"Dracula. Prince of Darkness", from Hammer Studios, starring Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley and Andrew Keir.
The movie is rated 6.5 out of 10 on imdb and the rating also reflect my opinion about it.



Watch the second part of Dracula Prince of Darkness here

Târgovişte, Dracula's princely court

We get a better view of Dracula's princely court from Chindia Tower (the Sunset Tower). Thanks to this guys that took a small movie and posted it online. If we ignore the quality of the movie, we still get a snapshot of how it looked and how it looks today

Târgovişte, Dracula

I realized there is not too much information about Târgovişte, where Vlad Dracula had his princely court. So here is a video presentation of the ruins of the princely court

Vlad Dracula in images

Here is a slide-show of images briefly presenting in less than two minutes the life of Vlad Ţepeş (1431 - 1476).

Dracula - Bram Stoker

Dracula di Bram Stoker.
Sequence from the Italian version on Dracula, by Bram Stocker.
Bram stocker - Dracula in Italiano (il principe dei vampiri):

Dracula Related Images and Objects

I just found this slideshow presenting some interesting old maps, three portraits of Vlad Dracula (of which the first is the copy on the only one preserved since it's XV-th century, the ancient badge and cross of the Order of the Dragon, The Night Attack a painting by Theodor Aman, one of Romania's most famous painters.
We also get presented images from Chindia Tower, at 00:31
Very interesting is:
- Vlad Dracula's coat of arms, at 00:36 - 00:40
- a map of Europe in the XV-th century - is clearly how Wallachia and Moldova were under pressure from the big empires: the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman one,
- a detailed map of Wallachia;
- one image from a cemetery, I'm quite sure is from the cemetery in Sighişoara.



Well, a good slideshow, congratulations to the author!

Vlad Dracula Documentary

Here is a known documentary that I have to link to again. It contains some inexact or misleading data, like presenting Vlad's first home in Wallachia, after his birth...well we know that Vlad was born in Sighişoara, in the middle of Transylvania.

from the series, The Most Evil Men in History, Vlad The Impaler:

In Search of Dracula III

this is the third part of the documentary "In Search of Dracula"




You can watch the second part here

In Search of Dracula

Second part of the documentary "In Search of Dracula" presents Snagov, where many thought Dracula was buried, as well as Transylvania (mainly Sighişoara, where Vlad was born in 1431). It says that Vlad Dracula thought salvation can be obtained by punishing people. However, as it seems the documentary presents some painted monasteries from Moldova, presenting biblical scenes about good and evil, heaven and hell. From Vlad's young-hood dates also the first painted monasteries in Bucovina, Moldova.
And we know Vlad went to Suceava, by that time capital of Moldova, where his mother was from , after he was put away from the throne in 1448. We get presented the ruins and the history of Suceava, then Braşov, where Vlad manifested one of his most cruel atrocities, as well as images from the Court of Târgovişte.
Also few images from the Old court of Bucharest are completing the overview of Vlad Dracula's life



Here is part 3 of the documentary about Dracula

Vlad Dracula Documentary

Celebrating post nb. 200

Started almost two years ago, the project "Vlad Dracula - The Truth" reached it's post nb. 200. With this occasion, I found a good documentary presenting Vlad Dracula, the real one, as well as his connections with Bram Stocker's Vampire. The documentary, In Search of ...Dracula presents Bran Castle, few images from Transylvania and every time connection is done with the fictional character of Dracula.




Part 2 of the documentary