1 00:00:00,623 --> 00:00:04,620 Near Innsbruck stands a monument to perversity. 2 00:00:05,620 --> 00:00:10,616 Castle Ambrose, occupied during the 16th century by Archduke Ferdinand, 3 00:00:10,616 --> 00:00:16,612 harbors one of the most terrifying portrait galleries in the civilized world. 4 00:00:21,609 --> 00:00:27,605 Painted from life, these grotesqueries reflect the offbeat tastes of the collector. 5 00:00:30,603 --> 00:00:37,599 In this gallery of the Bazaar are images of those maimed in battle or deformed by nature. 6 00:00:42,595 --> 00:00:45,593 One portrait seems curiously out of place. 7 00:00:45,593 --> 00:00:52,589 It's that of a king who ruled not in Austria, but in a land to the east, now called Romania. 8 00:00:52,589 --> 00:00:57,585 His brutality earned him the nickname Vlad the Impaler. 9 00:00:57,585 --> 00:01:01,583 His real name was Vlad Dracula. 10 00:01:03,581 --> 00:01:09,577 Centuries later, Dracula's name and the land he lived in would be used to create a character 11 00:01:09,577 --> 00:01:17,572 so unredeemed by human qualities that we still recoil in fascination at his fiendish exploits. 12 00:01:27,565 --> 00:01:40,557 Horror has a special fascination for many, and filmmakers have done their best to exploit that fascination. 13 00:01:40,557 --> 00:01:45,554 Audiences have come to know Dracula well. 14 00:01:45,554 --> 00:01:49,551 They've seen him portrayed on the screen for more than 50 years. 15 00:01:50,550 --> 00:02:00,544 There's the black cape, the jutting canine teeth, the demonic eyes and nocturnal lust for blood. 16 00:02:00,544 --> 00:02:04,541 But what of the truth behind the legend? 17 00:02:08,538 --> 00:02:12,536 Romania is a land rich in romantic folklore and legends. 18 00:02:12,536 --> 00:02:17,532 The tale of the evil Count Dracula is not one of them. 19 00:02:17,532 --> 00:02:22,529 The rugged mountains and hidden valleys breed their own mythology. 20 00:02:22,529 --> 00:02:30,524 Called Romania's Olympus, Mount Ceflau rises nearly 6,000 feet in the Carpathian Mountains. 21 00:02:30,524 --> 00:02:36,520 In pre-Christian times, it was believed to be the home of the gods. 22 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:43,515 Each year, even now, on the first Sunday of August, a pagan ritual is reenacted. 23 00:02:43,515 --> 00:02:53,509 Thousands gather by torchlight on Ceflau's shadowy summit to celebrate friendship and love and the renewal of life. 24 00:02:53,509 --> 00:02:59,505 During the rest of the year, Ceflau yields its mysteries to few men. 25 00:02:59,505 --> 00:03:06,500 Dr. George Yacome is a surgeon who climbs mainly for adventure. 26 00:03:06,500 --> 00:03:12,496 The other, a shepherd, who has spent a lifetime in these alpine meadows. 27 00:03:12,496 --> 00:03:16,493 Both know the mountain and its hidden places. 28 00:03:16,493 --> 00:03:21,490 Both respect its awesome symbolic power. 29 00:03:21,490 --> 00:03:26,487 Though one is a simple peasant, the other is a man. 30 00:03:26,487 --> 00:03:31,483 The mountain has given them a strong bond of friendship. 31 00:03:31,483 --> 00:03:38,479 They exchange stories of ancient superstitions of dark, frightening corners, where no one has yet ventured. 32 00:03:38,479 --> 00:03:46,474 The music seems to recall a distant time in these mountains when ghosts inhabit the mountains. 33 00:03:46,474 --> 00:03:53,469 Legends tell of a 15th century nobleman named Boudou who loved the king's daughter, Anna. 34 00:03:53,469 --> 00:04:00,464 When he was killed in battle, the grief-stricken Anna asked the powerful witch to bring her lover back from the dead. 35 00:04:00,464 --> 00:04:07,460 The witch raised Boudou from his grave and the king's daughter, Anna, was killed. 36 00:04:07,460 --> 00:04:14,455 While passing over Ceflau, Boudou's ghost was struck by the rising sun, turning him into rock. 37 00:04:14,455 --> 00:04:24,448 Till this day, on Ceflau's brooding summit, there is a stone megalith known as Boudou's Tower. 38 00:04:24,448 --> 00:04:34,442 In the nightmare world of super-cars, the king's daughter, Anna, is a man who has been killed in battle. 39 00:04:35,441 --> 00:04:42,437 In the nightmare world of superstition and fear, it often becomes difficult to separate fact from fiction. 40 00:04:42,437 --> 00:04:46,434 The familiar story of Dracula is a case in point. 41 00:04:46,434 --> 00:04:56,427 Since its publication in 1897, Bram Stoker's classic novel of Gothic horror has been read or performed almost continuously. 42 00:04:56,427 --> 00:05:09,419 Yet few are aware that the character was based on a real prince of darkness, whose deeds are perhaps more shocking and more terrifying than those of the fictional vampire. 43 00:05:11,417 --> 00:05:24,409 Transylvania, stronghold of legend, a place dimly recalled from horror movies as a dark, forbidding region cloaked in superstition and terror. 44 00:05:26,407 --> 00:05:34,402 Here, according to popular myth, live the undead, the dreaded vampires who thrive on human blood. 45 00:05:35,401 --> 00:05:42,397 Dracula, written by Bram Stoker, perpetuated one myth that has endured for nearly a century. 46 00:05:49,392 --> 00:05:53,390 Along Transylvania's southern perimeter stands Castle Braun. 47 00:05:54,389 --> 00:06:01,384 In appearance, it corresponds to the castle described in the novel as the home of the bloodthirsty count. 48 00:06:03,383 --> 00:06:16,374 Haunted by his own childhood visions of threatening forests and spooky castles, Bram Stoker created an eerie world that became more than just a horrifying journey into the supernatural. 49 00:06:16,374 --> 00:06:19,372 It was also a parable of Victorian repression. 50 00:06:20,372 --> 00:06:31,364 Locked inside Castle Dracula's dark walls were hidden passions and secret longings which erupted into violence and terror. 51 00:06:31,364 --> 00:06:53,350 The German film classic Nosferatu comes closer to capturing the mood of the original novel than the later interpretation of Belalugosi. 52 00:06:54,349 --> 00:07:00,345 In the book, the hero Jonathan Harker describes his first encounter with Dracula. 53 00:07:01,345 --> 00:07:12,337 Holding out his hand, he grasped mine with a strength which made me wince, an effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed as cold as ice. 54 00:07:13,337 --> 00:07:24,329 Taking Transylvania, a remote place he'd heard of but never seen as his setting, Stoker evoked chilling images of the living dead. 55 00:07:25,329 --> 00:07:40,319 Under the shroud of darkness, the fiendish apparition risen from its coffin begins to stalk its human prey. 56 00:07:40,319 --> 00:07:49,313 The nightmare becomes reality. The unknown clutches at our throats. 57 00:07:55,309 --> 00:08:08,300 The shrieking of a vampire bat evokes the horror of Dracula. 58 00:08:13,297 --> 00:08:17,294 Night flying hunters, they prey mainly on cattle. 59 00:08:18,294 --> 00:08:26,288 But one strange fact stands out. The vampire bat is found only in Mexico and South America. 60 00:08:29,286 --> 00:08:35,282 Modern Romanians stubbornly deny the existence of vampire legends in Transylvanian peasant lore. 61 00:08:36,282 --> 00:08:44,276 To them, Dracula is the name of a 15th century tyrant whose story too was written in blood. 62 00:08:47,274 --> 00:08:51,272 Nicolai Paduraro is an official of the Ministry of Tourism. 63 00:08:52,271 --> 00:09:02,265 His search for the historical truths behind the Dracula legends brings him repeatedly to a small island on Lake Snagov near the capital city of Bucharest. 64 00:09:03,264 --> 00:09:09,260 It is on this island that the body of the real Dracula is supposedly buried. 65 00:09:14,257 --> 00:09:19,253 Nicolai knows the island's history and its few inhabitants intimately. 66 00:09:19,253 --> 00:09:26,249 A product of Romania's socialist present, he is fascinated by his nation's turbulent past. 67 00:09:33,244 --> 00:09:35,243 Parinte! 68 00:09:38,241 --> 00:09:45,236 Nicolai is greeted by the abbot who shares his interest in the story of the bloody king who bore the name Dracula. 69 00:09:46,235 --> 00:09:52,232 For the two men, the old church has become more than a religious shrine and national monument. 70 00:09:52,232 --> 00:10:00,226 Its ancient doors are the gateway to a mystery that for centuries has baffled scholars and historians. 71 00:10:03,224 --> 00:10:13,218 Superstitious romantics have speculated that any robber entering the church would be met by Dracula's ghost rising in vengeance from its grave. 72 00:10:13,218 --> 00:10:18,214 And this, they say, is why he lies buried just inside the door. 73 00:10:18,214 --> 00:10:27,208 A more logical explanation was forwarded by archaeologist Dino Rosetti who uncovered the burial site in the early 30s. 74 00:10:28,208 --> 00:10:34,204 The decapitated body was placed in an unmarked grave to prevent vandalism. 75 00:10:36,202 --> 00:10:41,199 Saints and kings have begun to fade silently from Snagov's walls. 76 00:10:42,198 --> 00:10:47,195 The monastery enjoyed the protection of Vlad Dracula during the 15th century. 77 00:10:47,195 --> 00:10:55,190 But when one of the priests dared challenge the king's decisions, he was put to death slowly and painfully. 78 00:10:56,189 --> 00:11:04,184 The torturous method of execution favored by the king was so barbarous, his own countrymen branded him Vlad the Impaler. 79 00:11:04,184 --> 00:11:07,182 In Romanian, Vlad Sepes. 80 00:11:07,182 --> 00:11:14,177 Both men realize that the truth about a man's life is often buried alongside his corpse. 81 00:11:14,177 --> 00:11:24,171 But the infamous monarch whose name symbolizes evil incarnate might himself have been the victim of propaganda spread by his enemies throughout Europe. 82 00:11:25,170 --> 00:11:31,166 Seeking the truth can become an exciting adventure, and so a search begins. 83 00:11:31,166 --> 00:11:38,161 It will unravel some of the mysteries which surround the life of a king they called Dracula. 84 00:11:38,161 --> 00:11:43,158 Son of the King of the West, Vlad the Impaler. 85 00:11:43,158 --> 00:11:47,155 Transylvania, the heart of Dracula country. 86 00:11:47,155 --> 00:11:54,151 Transylvania spreads across northwestern Romania in an unbroken chain of fertile hills and sunlit valleys. 87 00:11:54,151 --> 00:12:01,146 The city of Transylvania is the capital of the city of Transylvania. 88 00:12:01,146 --> 00:12:06,143 Transylvania is the capital of the city of Transylvania. 89 00:12:06,143 --> 00:12:14,138 Transylvania spreads across northwestern Romania in an unbroken chain of fertile hills and sunlit valleys. 90 00:12:14,138 --> 00:12:27,129 Here the princes of Valachia sought refuge from fierce Muslim warriors who burned their villages, raped their land, and punished captives by mercilessly driving stakes through their bodies. 91 00:12:27,129 --> 00:12:34,124 In the works, a young Valachian prince named Dracula would learn all about impalement. 92 00:12:34,124 --> 00:12:41,120 Like an image from an old fairy tale, the town of Sigashura slumbers peacefully along the gentle slopes of the Transylvanian Highlands. 93 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:48,115 Unchanged since the Middle Ages, Sigashura was once the capital of the city of Transylvania. 94 00:12:48,115 --> 00:12:54,111 The city of Transylvania is the capital of the city of Transylvania. 95 00:12:54,111 --> 00:13:01,107 Sigashura slumbers peacefully along the gentle slopes of the Transylvanian Highlands. 96 00:13:01,107 --> 00:13:10,101 Unchanged since the Middle Ages, Sigashura was once a bastion of Germanic military might and commercial enterprise. 97 00:13:10,101 --> 00:13:19,095 In this house in 1431, a son was born to the fearsome prince Vlad Drakuil, the dragon. 98 00:13:19,095 --> 00:13:24,091 He was called Dracula, son of the dragon. 99 00:13:24,091 --> 00:13:31,087 A coin bearing the family emblem is one of the few remaining artifacts from Dracula's reign. 100 00:13:31,087 --> 00:13:37,083 The symbol of the dragon reinforced Vlad's image as a fearless Christian crusader. 101 00:13:37,083 --> 00:13:43,079 As his notoriety grew, the name Dracula took on new meaning. 102 00:13:43,079 --> 00:13:48,075 The dragon would be increasingly interpreted as devil. 103 00:13:48,075 --> 00:13:52,073 Vlad belonged to an age of brutality. 104 00:13:52,073 --> 00:14:01,067 The Renaissance, which saw the rebirth of art and learning, also bred new tyrannies, unspeakable torture and oppression. 105 00:14:01,067 --> 00:14:08,062 To understand Vlad's cruelty, we must also understand his world. 106 00:14:08,062 --> 00:14:18,056 The nunnery at Tsuchevica was originally a fortified monastery, protected by walls 20 feet high and 10 feet thick. 107 00:14:18,056 --> 00:14:33,046 The traditional wood block, summoning nuns and monks to prayer, may at one time have also been a summons to battle. 108 00:14:33,046 --> 00:14:38,042 For the monasteries of Romania were more than strongholds of the Christian faith. 109 00:14:38,042 --> 00:14:43,039 They were part of a formidable defense perimeter to ward off invaders. 110 00:14:43,039 --> 00:14:58,029 It's likely that the young Dracula looked out from the battlements of such a monastery, watching men die in the brutal spectacle of war. 111 00:14:58,029 --> 00:15:11,021 Steeped in the teachings of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Vlad Dracula surely must have developed strong, simple notions of good and evil, of reward and retribution. 112 00:15:11,021 --> 00:15:21,014 The latter of virtues, the work of an unknown artist, shows that in the climb toward heaven, few are virtuous enough to reach it. 113 00:15:21,014 --> 00:15:27,010 Most topple along the way, headed toward eternal damnation. 114 00:15:27,010 --> 00:15:34,005 To a young prince, impressionable and bristling for power, such messages were clear. 115 00:15:34,005 --> 00:15:41,001 By punishing evil, salvation could be had. 116 00:15:41,001 --> 00:15:46,997 Until the 16th century, Tsuchevica was the capital of the province of Moldavia. 117 00:15:46,997 --> 00:15:54,991 Here, Vlad Dracula fled, deposed after briefly assuming the throne of Alacia at the age of 17. 118 00:15:54,991 --> 00:15:58,989 This was the beginning of his second exile. 119 00:15:58,989 --> 00:16:07,983 The first time, he'd been sent as a hostage to the Turkish court by his father, a guarantee against war with the Sultan. 120 00:16:07,983 --> 00:16:18,976 As Vlad waited in Tsuchevica to take power, he vowed to free Alacia from Turkish domination and break the power of the nobles and church. 121 00:16:18,976 --> 00:16:24,972 In 1456, the second reign of Vlad Dracula began. 122 00:16:24,972 --> 00:16:29,968 The greatest threat to his power centered in the German towns of southern Transylvania. 123 00:16:29,968 --> 00:16:34,965 Of these, Brasov was the largest. 124 00:16:34,965 --> 00:16:42,960 Convinced that her powerful merchants were conspiring with his enemies, furious at their defiance of his trade restrictions, 125 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:51,954 Vlad launched a series of punitive raids against Brasov and neighboring towns, taking a terrible toll of their citizens. 126 00:16:51,954 --> 00:16:55,951 How many perished by his command, no one can say. 127 00:16:55,951 --> 00:17:03,946 That slow, torturous death by impalement was excessively barbaric, no one can deny. 128 00:17:03,946 --> 00:17:11,941 Yet since the only written accounts from that time come from Germany, it's conceivable the atrocity reports were exaggerated. 129 00:17:11,941 --> 00:17:16,937 Not so the massacre at Turgavisti, Vlad's capital. 130 00:17:16,937 --> 00:17:25,931 During his successful campaign against the Turks, he impaled thousands of enemy soldiers outside the city gates to frighten the invaders. 131 00:17:25,931 --> 00:17:30,928 He would be known now for all time as Vlad the Impaler. 132 00:17:30,928 --> 00:17:37,923 Viewed for the filter of time, another side to Vlad's character emerges. 133 00:17:37,923 --> 00:17:45,918 His bold strategies won the admiration of his Turkish opponents, who also regarded him as just and honest. 134 00:17:45,918 --> 00:17:54,912 On the threshold of victory, he was betrayed by his younger brother Radu and forced into political captivity in Hungary. 135 00:17:54,912 --> 00:18:01,907 After 12 years, Vlad was restored to the throne by his cousin, Stephen the Great. 136 00:18:01,907 --> 00:18:04,905 Faces from the present. 137 00:18:04,905 --> 00:18:10,902 A few among the million and a half who live in Bucharest, Romania's bustling capital. 138 00:18:10,902 --> 00:18:15,898 In their city, Vlad the Impaler made his last stand. 139 00:18:15,898 --> 00:18:23,893 Not far from the center of Bucharest, with its huge outdoor markets, are archaeological remnants of its past. 140 00:18:23,893 --> 00:18:33,886 Layers of history stripped away reveal fortifications dating back to the 13th century. 141 00:18:34,886 --> 00:18:43,880 Below ground level, there has been unearthed a portion of the original castle built by Vlad Dracula. 142 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:49,876 It was in these haunted surroundings that Dracula planned his last campaign against the Turks. 143 00:18:49,876 --> 00:18:54,872 His third and final reign would last only two months. 144 00:18:54,872 --> 00:19:01,868 On December 14, 1476, he was killed in battle near Bucharest. 145 00:19:01,868 --> 00:19:08,863 And according to eyewitnesses, beheaded, perhaps mistakenly by one of his own troops. 146 00:19:08,863 --> 00:19:13,860 Vlad's remains were secretly buried at Snagov. 147 00:19:13,860 --> 00:19:19,856 In death's darkness, the prince may finally have found peace. 148 00:19:25,852 --> 00:19:29,849 If some light has been shared on the truth during this search for Dracula, 149 00:19:29,849 --> 00:19:33,847 it doesn't mean that belief in vampires will be dispelled. 150 00:19:33,847 --> 00:19:44,839 Bram Stoker's Dracula will always persist in our minds because in him, we have found the perfect symbol for unrepentant evil. 151 00:19:50,835 --> 00:19:56,831 In Nosferatu, Dracula is destroyed by the daylight, dissolving in a puff of smoke. 152 00:19:56,831 --> 00:20:04,826 But many would prefer to feel he can still be found lurking somewhere in the mist-shrouded mountains of Transylvania. 153 00:20:07,824 --> 00:20:15,819 Beneath storybook towers, the old Transylvanian city of Sigashura seems untouched by time. 154 00:20:15,819 --> 00:20:24,813 For people still bear traces of their medieval ancestry, clinging tenaciously to old traditions and religious faith. 155 00:20:25,812 --> 00:20:32,808 They are steeped in Sigashura's history, remembering that it once was a stronghold of wealth and power. 156 00:20:32,808 --> 00:20:37,804 The home of princes, the birthplace of a king. 157 00:20:37,804 --> 00:20:44,800 Vlad Dracula belongs to their heritage, Stoker's vampire, to our imaginations. 158 00:20:45,799 --> 00:20:47,798 Legends die slowly. 159 00:20:47,798 --> 00:20:54,793 The myth of the human being who takes the form of a bat and drinks blood will survive because people choose to believe. 160 00:20:54,793 --> 00:20:58,790 Vampires, like werewolves and monsters, serve a purpose. 161 00:20:58,790 --> 00:21:01,788 They are representations of our hidden fears. 162 00:21:01,788 --> 00:21:10,782 By conquering these nightmare creatures, we purge ourselves of our darkest thoughts, and in so doing, reclaim the human spirit.