15 February 2009

Bran Castle - the myth of Dracula's Castle

I just found this short presentation of Bran Castle, together with it's history as well as (lack of) connections with Dracula or the Bram Stoker's novel. I don't agree at all with the introduction saying "this is one of the very few tourists attractions in Transylvania". No shit ! Transylvania has an unbelievably rich medieval history, with fortified citadels in almost each village (some of them being really well preserved, a gorgeous natural landscape (and I'm not thinking only about Făgăraş Mountains - also called "The Transylvanian Alps" but also to sub-Carpathian hills, to Apuseni (the western mountains and), to medieval towns like Sighişoara or Sibiu. Is true that Bran Castle is maybe the most famous of the attractions, but all are interesting attractions and tourists do go there every year.

I'll still present the movie 'cause some the information about the castle is useful:



Other posts about Dracula Castle

Later edit: two mistakes in only two seconds, that's a good candidate for a record: The sequence at 1:36 - 1:42 is shot in Bucegi Mountains.
If you look closely, the movie says "Transylvania, 1746", but they are riding the horses on the Bucegi Plateau, (at about 2000 m.a.s.l) towards south or south-east, probably somewhere above Valea Coştilei (Coştila Valley). So that's in Wallachia. (OK, close to Transylvania, but still Wallachia).
More than that, even more funny is that you can see the Caraiman Cross at 1:34 - 1:35. However the Cross was erected in 1926-1928 to honor and celebrate the memory of soldiers that died in WW 1.
So ..."only" 180 years later than "1746". And no Transylvania :)

4 comments:

Gabriel said...

Hello

Thanks for posting this clip. I went to Transylvania as well as Bran in Oct 2004 for a Dracula Tour. I am of course a huge fan of vampire literature and film, and I was wondering if you had an idea of that dracula/vampire film clip at 1:40-1:50 they used in this article was? I've seen alot of vampire films and I don't recognise that movie.

Regards

Gabriel.

Radu said...

Hi Gabriel,

and thank you for the comment!
I'm not sure what movie it is and I wouldn't like to say something stupid (I have a guess, but I have to check first, I'll let you know).
However, what I can tell is that the sequence at 1:36 - 1:42 is shot in Bucegi Mountains

Now that I looked at it closely I realize how funny it is. If you look closely, the movie says "Transylvania, 1746", but they are riding the horses on the Bucegi Plateau, (at about 2000 m.a.s.l) and the ridge you see is the eastern ridge of Bucegi. So that's in Wallachia. More than that, even more funny is that you can see the Caraiman Cross at 1:34 - 1:35. However the Cross was erected in 1926-1928 to honor and celebrate the memory of soldiers that died in WW 1.
So ...only 180 years later than "1746". And no Transylvania at all :)

Gabriel said...

Hello Radu,

SOME of the clip actually looks like they are from this film:

Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula

but that is mostly the horseriding parts, but not the Vampire-demon part. Multumesc!

La Revedere,

Gabriel.

Radu said...

Thanks again Gabriel.
Well, the horse-riding part looks like scenes from "Dark Prince" and the movie was shot in Bucharest (according to IMDB).
I have all parts of the movie here:
http://dracula-transylvania.blogspot.com/search?q=Dark+Prince
I didn't have time to review the movie, just some parts of it, however I don't think the horse-riding part is from "Dark Prince"...I would have remember that huge mistake.
I was thinking about Dracula 2000 for the next seconds, 1:43 - 1:50, but I'll still have to check.

All best,
Radu