360 degrees view from Poienari Castle, Dracula's Real Castle :
Here you can find more details about Poienari Castle, it's history and the way is was built. Find out how it made it over the centuries in a rich seismic area ?
Here is another presentation of Poienari Castle, that I and many others consider to be Vlad Dracula's Real Castle:
Unlike many "presentations" done from the comfort of a sofa and an Internet connection, seems like Teresa and Carolyn took the plane to Romania, hired a guide and have done some intensive research on the spot. Congratulations, girls !
Just a remark, Teresa: Vlad was not "a king of Romania". He was a ruler, called "voievod" in Romanian (voyvod) and he ruled Wallachia, laying in the south of the modern-days Romania.
Well, The Real Count Dracula did not exist !! Shocking ? read more...
I was disappointed today to find a video on youtube (I won't link to it but a search on google for The Real Count Dracula would reveal it) with a nice presentation and images from Romania (Braşov , Sighişoara and Poienari Castle ) but a very ...undocumented description by the guys who posted the video. C'mon guys, how can you say that Vlad Dracula "was a minor count in some parts of Transylvania" ?? Are you joking ? First of all Vlad III was NOT a count !
Second, Vlad III Dracula ruled Wallachia, not Transylvania, neither was he a count in Transylvania.
And third, it was not minor at all, he was one of the most important rulers in the XV-th century.
Anyway, the video also presents the commercialism around the myth of Dracula, like the Dracula Hotel, presented as Dracula Castle. Anyway, I would also suggest reading the comments
Here is a short presentation of Dracula related places. We have the well-known image of Vlad's unique portrait, a statue of Vlad, the walls of Poienari Castle, the image of impaled people and a coat of arms of the Dragons (second 59 - 61), images from Snagov Monastery:
Here is a nice vide-clip about Snagov Monastery, where Dracula is said to be burried.
Snagov Monastery is placed on an isle on Snagov Lake, 40 km North to Bucharest.
Inside the monatery we can find the largest assembly of medieval frescoes from Wallachia, dating from the XVIth century.
Vlad the Impaler is supposed to be burried here, after being killed in the nearby forest. In the middle of the church a thumb has been discovered, with bones of a man in precious clothes. As the priest explained to me five years ago, his thumb is placed right in front of the altar, so that he obtain forgivness when the priest goes to the altar passin on his thumb.
Then we can see other buildings of Vlad Dracula: Targoviste - his firs royal court, Poienari Castle and the old court in Bucharest (I remind Vlad was the first ruler that moved the royal court to Bucharest)
Comana Monastery, south to Bucharest, has been build by Vlad Tepes in the XV-th century and rebuilt at the end of the XVI-th century.
Vlad’s psychological war against the Turks take every possible form and reach its apex with the scene of Târgovişte where Mehmet, a man used to the horrors of an war sees a scene that terrifies him: a field of 20.000 impaled men in front of Vlad's Palace. This gives rise to Vlad’s Turkish nickname: Kaziklu Bey – The Impaler Warlord.
Vlad has retreated into the mountains, in Poienari Castle, from where he runs in Transylvania. He will return on the Wallachian throne for a short period. In 1476 Dracula dies in a battle against the Turks, around Bucharest, but the cause of his death are still unknown.
Three are the most probable causes of Vlad Dracula’s death:
· he gets killed by a paid man or
· he really dies fighting an enemy or
· he climbs a small hill to see his army throwing away the Turkish army, as he has the habitude to change clothes , wearing enemy’s clothes. Some of his men did not recognize him and killed him by mistake.
Anyway, while his “official” thumb is in Snagov Monastery, a monastery in the middle of a lake, there is no body there. Now there is a mystery to clear out: as mentioned by Matei Cazacu in his book in 1933 a thumb is found with a body that was wearing the purple coat, with golden needlecrafts. The archaeologists (Dinu Rosetti e George Florescu) could easily notice they were facing the thumb of a man wearing a purple or green coat, and they were sure they have seen the true thumb of Vlad Dracula – the Impaler. However, the so documented History Channel didn't mention this and I'm seriously asking myself: "why ?". However we know from historical sources that Dracula has been decapitated and his head sent to the Sultan as a proof of his death. But the Turks were only cutting the skin, therefore letting the skull (cranium).
Here is the very good documentary:
Third part of the documentary made by History Channel about Vlad the Impaler (Dracula).
Well, here today I have a pretty bad Internet connection, therefore I started posting after seeing just a part of the documentary. I thought it starts with what could be considered a mistake, made by many, probably due to the images presented in the German brochures that made Dracula famous in the XV-th century. I'm talking about the shape of the stakes: many historians (like Matei Cazacu, for example, consider the stakes where not sharpen at the top, as presented here and in every image one could see. The technique of impaling was perfected by Vlad and others, therefore the stakes were having a rounded top, so the impaled did not have the internal organs destroyed (that would have lead to a faster death). However, the next seconds give my confidence in History Channel’s documentaries back. Here you can read more about impaling.
The story of building Poienari Castle - the real castle Dracula is presented, with unforeseen images of how the castle looked before. The castle is built on the strategic place, from where the valley going to Vlad's Capital, Târgovişte, can be surveyed, but also the Valley descending from Făgăraş Mountains, that's from the neighbor Transylvania., where the merchants are threatening Vlad Dracula’s grip on power.
Since Vlad need to build to castle swiftly he relies on unconventional techniques and slave labor.
The Castle of Poienari seems to have started during Vlad's father, Vlad Dracul, but Dracula is the one that fortifies it. The Castle not only occupies to whole summit of the Poienari hill, but enlarges it. The walls surrounding the castle, still visible today, give it the strange appearance. The unusual building structure is made up of red brick, sitting on top of gray stone base. The walls are 9 feet thick, just imagine !! This was achieved by using a byzantine construction method: first of all the two external walls were built in brick, then infill the walls with stones. This combination was resulting in an absolutely powerful structure. What tights the walls together, so they made it thru the centuries was the lime mortar –the secret of Poienari castle’s survival in an area that is very close to an earthquake zone – the earthquakes took place in another area in Carpathians, Vrancea, in the Carpathian’s arch, only 200 km away from Poienari. It has the property that it does not completely set, but allows the walls to move, that is very useful in this earthquake situation. Therefore they don’t suffer severe cracks and damages as it would if it were cement. The construction methods used show that master builders must have been involved, as the techniques used are really advanced.
Everything needed to build Poienari Castle was available in the river valley below: sand for mortar, gravel and small rocks for the byzantine wall filler, steady river-stones that formed the castle’s base. When finished , the castle offer an almost perfect security and the control over a key strategic pass in the mountains, between Transylvania and Wallachia.
Here is a documentary made by Sky News about Vlad Dracula (Vlad Tepes).
It starts with the presentation of Bran Castle, as well as the surrounding area. The very first image (second 8) is a view from Bran Castle over the hills around, the road going to Bran and Moieciu villages. They don's say this in the documentary but looking attentively one could notice a small stone building on the right side of the road, just between the road and the forest. There is a chapel where the heart of Queen Mary (that owned Bran castle) is burried, for a while (there is a similar chapel in Balcic, Bulgaria, where the queen lived).
The documentary explains that the castle is not what one could expect: vampires, ghosts, etc. It is just a normal XIII-th century castle. Interview with villagers from the area are interesting. They consider it a great ruler, and it is still known in Romania as a courageous and intelligent principle.
Also images from Poienari Castle are presented, as well as how Vlad escaped Turks, but his wife threw herself off the top (I found no proofs to sustain this).
Here is the real Dracula's Castle, Poienari, on the way to Fagaras Mountains
Here is a short anmatorial movie presenting a visit by night to Poienari Castle, the real Dracula's Castle:
According to the legend, Poienari Castle, made up of bricks and stone, has been built by the betraying boyars. During his second reign, after the corronation Vlad called them all and after a party accused them of ruining the country for them own interests and send them to Poienari, to build the defending castle. Copy of images representing this are kept in Chindia Tower, in Târgovişte.
A tour in the area can be offered by a romanian travel agency
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