Transylvania: Not Just Dracula

If Transylvania is famous all over the world for the legend of Dracula made famous by Bram Stoker, until not long ago few knew how to place this region in Romania, so much so that in some films it was located geographically elsewhere. That's the case with "Young Frankenstein", where Transylvania was described as an area of Germany. In fact, though, there are some Germans here, because in the countryside it's not hard to find villages of Swabian or Saxon ethnicity, a legacy of who knows what ancient history. When Romania's borders opened after years of communism, however, many Germans preferred to abandon their villages to emigrate to Germany, where for their Teutonic origins citizenship was immediately granted. But Transylvania is a whole melting pot of races; entire areas in Harghita and Covasna are populated by Hungarians, who are in any case present in patches throughout the region.

And then there are the Roma, who here are not nomadic but settled, and the Szeklers, who are archaic Magyars with their own anthem and customs. With all this melting pot of races the Romanians have always managed to live together, also because in this borderland, in various historical periods, the present hosts were both rulers and oppressed. And Dracula? This mythical character is the product of Stoker's imagination, though he was inspired by a historical figure, a hero of Romanian resistance against the Ottoman invasion: Vlad Tepes. To repel his enemies the Voivode Vlad didn't mince his words; he often returned them to sender impaled, a questionable method but one that prevented the Islamic invasion of Europe. Traces of this character are found in various places.

At Sighisoara, a perfectly preserved medieval town on a hill, there is his house, a clock tower you can climb and a long covered staircase. In the surroundings, the village of Biertan is a plunge into the Middle Ages, a village of ancient houses with a large church. A few kilometres from here the town of Copcia Mica was once so polluted that it earned the cover of National Geographic as "Dark Town", and never was a name more apt, because owing to the local industry here everything really was black: plants, houses, men, children and animals! We are in the District of Sibiu, another historic city of medieval stamp. To find other traces of "Dracula" you reach, passing through the stone district of Simeria, the city of Hunedoara to admire the Fortress from whose prints Stoker is said to have taken inspiration for the vampire's Castle.

The Manor is truly ghostly, not only for its architecture but also because it sits right against a squalid industrial area whose chimneys are confused with medieval turrets and pinnacles. The interior is vast and empty; a sarcophagus is meant to represent the tomb of Iancu de Hunedoara, father of Matthias Corvinus, a Hungarian king also celebrated by the famous Matthias Church in Budapest. Stoker never went to Transylvania; he drew on the prints of this Castle and placed it in a completely different spot, much further north, at the Tihuta Pass, where there is now a modern "Hotel Dracula" offering "rare" dishes and a mortuary chamber with satanic and vampire paintings that you can certainly do without. More interesting is the nearby Bistrita, where according to Stoker the carriage that led to the Castle was taken.

The town has a square lined with old medieval houses and, at its centre, a mighty Gothic cathedral. In fact Vlad Tepes never lived here; his real castle is much further south, at Bran, on the border with Wallachia. This Castle, however, has nothing ghostly about it: it has soft colours, romantic interiors, a fine courtyard, and dominates the village of the same name from the top of a hill. We are a few steps from the city of Brasov with its large square dominated by the Gothic and mighty Black Church. We are also very close to the small fortified German village of Prejmer and to the elegant winter-sports resorts of Poiana Brasov and Predeal. But Transylvania is interesting not only for the memory of Dracula: it is an extremely green region, with hills, short intensely cultivated plains, mountains of Alpine appearance, characteristic villages and towns of Habsburg architecture.

In Cluj Napoca, the most important city, prestigious palaces recall its recent Austro-Hungarian past, and even the main church, St Michael's — Catholic in a predominantly Orthodox nation — is a symbol of its partly Magyar soul. After all, Matthias Corvinus, born here and commemorated by a bronze monument, was one of the most enlightened kings of Hungary. Nearby, of some interest are Lake Belis, which feeds a large dam, and the city of Turda with its deep, visitable mine. Further south, Alba Iulia has Roman origins, a historic centre surrounded by walls, beautiful churches and the Museum of National Unity, which originated here. Then there is Hungarian Transylvania, the one where the Magyars make up almost the whole population, as in the Szekler villages around Batani Marii and Biborteni or in the city of Tirgu Mures.

Majestic mountains mark the borders of Transylvania: we've already mentioned the area south of Brasov, but how can we not mention the wild Apuseni, where people live isolated in villages reached by improbable roads, or the Eastern Carpathians, where the road towards Moldavia first passes the small Red Lake, where in winter ice fishing is practised, and then the spectacular Bicaz Gorge. But in Transylvania it's also lovely to travel the roads from one destination to another, passing through the centre of characteristic villages whose houses, often wooden, reproduce architectural elements that differ from area to area. I couldn't but describe an itinerary in a region I know so deeply, a region you will like.