Romanian Legends, Count Dracula, Manole and Black Count

TOURS

Medieval Cities and Maramures

Grand Tour

Diamonds Necklace

Dracula

Dracula classical tour

Castles, Legends, Monasteries

3 days/2 nights
Route: Bucharest - Pitesti - Curtea de Arges - Sibiu - Sighisoara - Brasov -Campulung Muscel - Targoviste - Bucharest - 735 km

Hightlights: Legend of supreme creation - Manole, Curtea de Arges Monastery, Sibiu art gallery in Brukenthal Museum

Route:Bucharest- Pitesti- Curtea de Arges- Cozia- Sibiu- Sighisoara (370 km)

Departure from the hotel. First stop will be in Curtea de Arges. This picturesque city hosts a marvelous architectonic masterpiece - the Monastery Curtea de Arges - built by the ruler Neagoe Basarab (1512 - 1521).

LEGEND^1st SUPREME SACRIFICE

Curtea de Arges

Sibiu

Sighisoara Clock Tower

Sighisoara

Brasov Town Council

Bran Castle

Targoviste

The legend tells that the church was built by a team of ten workers supervised by the Master Manole who immured his living wife in the church's walls - the supreme sacrifice for creation.
Aside from the graves of the creator and of the ruler Radu de la Afumati, there are four gravestones under which Carol I (1866 - 1914) and Queen Elisabeta, King Ferdinand (1914 - 1927) and Queen Maria rest their souls.

Arrival in Sibiu. Lunch in the "Old Sibiu"/"King of Romans" restaurant. Visiting the art gallery in Bruckenthal Museum, particularly the German and Austrian art collection. The Museum was founded by the baron Samuel Brukenthal, also consigliore of queen Maria Teresa and governor of Transylvania (1777-1787).
Departure to Sighisoara. Arrival Sighisoara, the only inhabited mediaeval citadel of Europe. Accommodation in Sighisoara Hotel 3*.

Sighisoara, Schaessburg, Segesvar, "the pearl of Transylvania" in old times, is even today the most beautiful dwelt mediaeval fortress in Europe.
The historical center keeps the same mediaeval magic so that every guest of Sighisoara could still enjoy the unique atmosphere and its special old perfume. Placed in the heart of the city, Sighisoara Hotel, is part of the magic tale, surrounded by towers, old buildings and stone made roads. Each room has its own special design and furniture giving the opportunity of spending a night in a full-personalized space. The restaurant offers the finest food based on the most complex receipts and old noble wines wait to be tasted at the hotel's bar and winery.

After dinner, a walk in the best preserved fortified town in Transylvania, with a beautiful and authentic medieval architecture.
In the evening, after walk, optionally a wine testing. Overnight in Sighisoara.

Hightlights: Legend of Count Dracula and Sighisoara

Route: Sighisoara

Breakfast. Walking tour of Sighisoara Citadel. You will have lunch in the very house in which Prince Vlad Dracula was born in 1431. In the restaurant "Casa Vlad Dracul", a fresco of his father, Vlad Dracul, is revealed under many layers of whitewash.

LEGEND 2^nd COUNT DRACULA / PART 1
The Dracula was the 15^th century ruler Vlad Tepes (1431-1476), often called Vlad the Impaler, whom Stoker's count is loosely based. The real Dracula - the name is derived from the Romanian word for devil or dragon - gained notoriety for the way he impaled his enemies on sharp stakes. Despite this gruesome form of capital punishment, Vlad is widely revered by Romanians for standing up to the expanding Ottoman Empire.
The legend of Dracula, very popular all over the world, has been inspired from the life of a real character, Romanian prince Vlad Tepes (the Impaler), named by his enemies Dracula. He was born in 1431 in Sighisoara, and died in 1476 in a fight defending his country. He ruled in 1448, between 1456-62, and, for three months in 1476. He belonged to the regent family of Basarab, from the country of Walachia, which started with the founder of the state Basarab the First. One of the merits of Vlad was that during his rule there was relative political stability. He also started to organize the country on social, political and cultural levels.
But his biggest merit is that he succeeded in regaining the country's independence from the Turkish influence. He was regarded by the western powers as the leader of the anti-ottoman crusade. He was one who dare to stand against Mohammed II or Mohammed the Conqueror, maybe the biggest sultan in the history of the Ottoman Empire (Mohammed defeated the last parts of the Eastern Roman Empire, and occupied the Constantinople). In this light, for Romanians, Vlad Tepes was a good king and one of the prominent personages of the Romanian history.
But, how did the legend start?
The first fact, which generated the legend, was his cruelties. In his attempt to eradicate social problems, like corruption and steels, and for discourage his enemies, Vlad Tepes used strange methods of killing peoples, like the impaling.
Legend said that, in his time, like an effect of the method, all fountains on the roads had gold cups and nobody dared to steel them.
In the same time, the image of a field full of impaled bodies of the enemies was a strong psychological weapon against Turkish armies.
The second fact was his name.
The origin of it comes from his father. Both father and son had the given name "Vlad". The names "Dracul" and "Dracula" are really nicknames.
Both of these nicknames had two meanings. "Dracul" meant "devil", as it still does in Romanian today; in addition it meant "dragon". In 1431, the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund invested Vlad, the father with the Order of Dragon, a semi-monastic, semi-military organization dedicated to fighting the Turkish infields. 'Dracul' in the sense of 'dragon' stems from this. It also seems probable that when the simple people saw Vlad the father bearing the standard with the dragon symbol they interpreted it as a sign that he was now in league with the devil. As for the son, he had two nicknames: Vlad Tepes, which signifies Vlad the Impaler, and Dracula, a diminutive for "son of the dragon".
Because in many languages, there is an interchangeability of the words "devil" and "vampire", this might be one of the reasons of the association of Vlad Tepes with vampirism.
In the Middle Age, there was some legends about the Romanian prince which probably inspired the modern books about him.

Hightlights: Legend of Count Dracula and Sighisoara

Route: Sighisoara - Brasov - Bran - Targoviste - Bucharest (365 km)

Breakfast. Departure Sighisoara - Brasov (90 km). Sightseeing tour of the Brasov City,

This is a beautiful 800-year-old city at the foot of the Sub-Carpathian Mountains. Its main attraction is the14^th-century Black Church, the oldest and largest Gothic church in the country. It has a 4,000-pipe organ, an extensive Oriental rug collection and interesting pews and sepulchers. Nearby you can see two fascinating Orthodox churches, Sfanta Trieme and Church of St. Nicholas. The Schei District (the old Romanian section of town, while the rest had been inhabited by German Saxons) and the main plaza have countless intriguing old buildings - be sure to look for the old Council Hall on the plaza; it now houses a history museum. Other attractions include the White and Black Towers (part of the old wall), 16th-century Catherine's Gate and an art museum.

Departure Brasov - Bran - 40 km, visiting Bran Castle.

LEGEND 2^nd COUNT DRACULA / PART 2
It was built in 1370 as a fortress against the Turks on their way to conquer Transylvania. Perched deep in the Carpathian Mountains in the heart of rural Romania, the fortress, known as Dracula's Castle, attracts Bran Castle as many as 4,000 visitors from around the world. Plan to view its displays of feudal art, weapons, statuary, furniture and hunting trophies. Vlad the Impeller, the 15th century prince of Wallachia who was infamous for impaling his enemies on spikes, often stayed at the castle. He also is believed to have been imprisoned there for a short period. The prince's lust for blood and his cruelty inspired fear and enduring legends among the local Saxon settlers, who built the Bran fortress on a rocky hill top surrounded by thick woods and tall mountain gorges.

Lunch - Traditional Romanian food. Departure Bran - Campulung Muscel- Targoviste

LEGEND 3^rd NEGRU VODA

There is a historians� controversy with regards to the true identity of the Dark Prince,the first leader of Valahia, who built the Monastery in the town of Campulung. Folklore remembers him by the name of Black Prince. Due to the lack of written documents, the historians claim 2 versions of the story.

The first category believes that the Black Prince was Radu Negru ("Radu (Rudolf) the Black") also known as Radu Vodă (Radu the Leader), Radu Negru Voievod, and the first leader of Walachia. By Romanian traditions, Radu became the founder and ruler of Walachia in 1290. Most of his history is rather legendary. His name was first mentioned in 17th century Annals, which say that Radu Negru came with his people from the north-west and built large churches in Campulung and Curtea de Arges, sucessive capitals of Walachia of the timeThe second version says that the Dark Prince was Basarab I (1310�1352). He is considered the man who put the basis of the territory called Walachia, known as �ntemeietorul (The Founder). He was called Black prince due to the dark colour of his skin, which should prove the fact that he was not a local, but was originating from the far tatar lands of the east. Again, another controversy between some historinas, as some of them find it impossible to accept the fact that the first person to found a �romanian� country or principality was actually a foreigner! But even his name proves the fact that he was a foreigner of the east. In 1330 he severely defeated the Hungarians led by Carol Robert of Anjou at the Battle of Posada, thus gaining the independence of Wallachia from Hungarian sovereignty and made it a principality. He is actually the only one referred to in the chronicles as the founder of Valahia

WALACHIA (in Romanian: Ţara Rom�nească - literally "Romanian country"; also Vlahia or Valahia; Turkish: Iflak) formed a Romanian principality in eastern Europe from the late Middle Ages until the mid-19th century. The capital city changed over time, from Campulung and Curtea de Argeş to T�rgovişte and finally Bucharest. Its name is derived from the Vlachs, another name for Romanians.

Visit the Old Royal Court in Targoviste

In the days of Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), "Turnul Chindiei"("The Sunset Tower") was built, becoming the emblem of the town. Petru Cercel ordered the construction of the second Princely House and the Big Church of the Court. It was in Matei Basarab's days that the Princely Houses were repaired and the "Turkish bathing place" was built. In an extension of the main enclosure, the St. Friday's Church and Princess Balasa's Houses are to be found, near the ruins of Dionisie Lupu's House. A lot of buildings (genuine historical and architectural monuments) belonging to this Complex contain museums and exhibitions which offer, both the inhabitants of the town and the tourists visiting the old capital, monuments of glory as well as of intense creative activity of the town of Targoviste.

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