Transylvanian Society of Dracula

The Ministry of Tourism has recently announced that it gathered 3.3 million US$ which is 69% of the stocks offered for sale. The works for the Dracula-park near mediaeval Sighisoara, Transylvania, Romania, will start in cca 6 weeks. Right now, archaeological research scans the area targeted for the first constructions. (It is already known that a Romanian castrum and two Dacian-Roman settlements are at the foot of the Breite tableland – site of the park, along two cemeteries, of 100 and 200 graves, post-Roman, to one side of the tableland – away from the area covered by the park).

Two new voices joined the contesters of the utility of a Dracula-park in Romania: Prof. Corneliu Bucur, reputed folklorist, director of the ethnographic museum of Sibiu, who said “the tourism policy of Romania should not be governed by the Dracula park, but by the Romanian landscape and culture”; the second voice belongs to His High Holiness Bartolomeu Anania, archbishop of Vad, Feleac and Cluj: “The Dracula park has no cultural motivation. Our mythology and folklore do not know of vampires, we have other supernatural categories. Dracula is an import and I see no reason to adopt him and turn him into a national heraldry. Not everything should come to money, and I hope this Dracula park project will never take wings” (from “Romania Libera”, April 4).

The architect of the Park, Dan Covali, believes that much of the opposition to the project, coming from the direction of the British press, has to do with last year’s announcements about a Scottish Dracula-land, under elaboration.

This is the title under which the daily "Ziua" of April 4 reminds the Romanians of the existence of Ottomar Rodolphe Vlad Dracula Prinz Kretzulesco, 62, living in the village of Schenkendorf (Brandenburg).

Calling himself a descendant of Vlad Tepes-Dracula ‘via the Kretzulesco princely family, ORVDPK created a "principality" around the village, with its own passports, license-plates, flag, anthem. The Brandenbourg authorities called it "an amusing event" and did not object to the idea.

Ottomar Berbig had a second-hand book-shop in Berlin. One day, an 80-year old princess Kretzulesco stepped inside to look for rare books, and ever since the two because inseparable. On her deathbed, the princess rewarded Ottomar Berbig’s various services with a title: Ottomar - Prince Kretzulesco.

The "Kretzulesco Foundation" in Bucuresti was invited by the TSD to comment on Ottomar’s title, obtained in obscure ways: TSD received a strong denial (plus a long stream of curses) that Ottomar owns such a title.

Then TSD asked Dr. Constantin Rezachevici, chief researcher with the Institute of History "Nicolae Iorga", to run a check of the alleged affiliation between the Kretzulesco and the Dracula families - with the Institute of Genealogy of the Romanian Academy (of which Dr. Rezachevici is a member): negative. There was no connections between the two families.

In the meantime, the village of Schenkendorf enjoys prosperity as a result of the presence of a "Dracula Schloss" and of its owner’s ideas: "Everything we can imagine does exist" (Plato).

10.30 - "The Triumph of the Beyond: Vampires and Magic in Comics from Dracula to Harry Potter"

14.30 - "Vampires from Outer Space: an Exploration of Common Ground shared by Vampires and Extraterrestrials concerning Death and Immortality"

16.00 - "The Effects of Sociopolitical Culture on the Literary Vampire, 1950 - Present"

9.00 - "Bridges to Beyond: the Works of Mircea Eliade and Ioan Petru Culianu"

17.00 - "Returning from the Beyond in the English Renaissance: Transformations of Ghost Belief in the Late Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Britain, some Conclusions and Hypotheses"

19.30 - "Intimations of Immortality: Vlad Tepes, Vampires and Count Dracula"

11.00-12.00 - "Britain’s first Ghost Hunters: Shamanism in Ancient British cultures"

13.30-15.30 - visit "George Enescu" Memorial House and Museum in Sinaia (optional)

16.30 - "The Curse has not passed away: the fear of women and desire in ‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker"

Letter from Castle Dracula

The newsbullettin of The Transylvanian Society of Dracula

The Dracula-park project
(merchants versus intelectuals)

"The Principality of Dracula"

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