Original subtitles

[music playing]

NARRATOR: In a country torn by bloody Civil War,

a young man seizes power.

In his native tongue, he is called Dracula.

This is not the vampire, Count Dracula

but a real historical figure, a Romanian Prince.

He was celebrated throughout Christendom

for his achievements against the Turks.

NARRATOR: Dracula was a warlord who

became known all across Europe for both

his breathtaking courage and his terrifying cruelty.

ARYEH NUSBACHER: What drove him again and again was

a need for survival, a need for affirmation and a driving

need to torture.

NARRATOR: Known as the Impaler after his favorite means

of execution, Dracula is said to have burned, boiled,

disemboweled, and tortured his way into the history books.

But he also left an enduring legacy not just in blood,

in brick, mortar and stone.

He constructed palaces, he founded the city

that was to become his country's capital.

He also built one of Eastern Europe's most

breathtaking mountaintop castles.

Now, with state of the art computer animation,

the lost world of Dracula will be brought back to life.

[music playing]

Transylvania, a land on the outermost fringes of Europe.

It is dominated by sweeping mountains shrouded in mystery

and legend.

MEI TROE: The romantic version of the country,

the ruined castles the whole vampire legend.

In a way we've had to invent all this

because we don't know enough about the real thing.

NARRATOR: Today, Transylvania is a region

within the Eastern European country of Romania.

In the 19th century, the novelist,

Bram Stoker made it the home of Count Dracula, the world's most

famous vampire.

But until the 1970s, few readers suspected

that he had taken the name from a real life warlord.

Forget Hollywood, forget vampire stories.

This man really existed, and he really

was a vicious extraordinarily cruel but extremely successful

leader.

NARRATOR: The world of the real Dracula

was bloodthirsty and treacherous.

But even by the horrific standards of his own time,

he earned a reputation for barbarity.

There are stories that he disemboweled

his own pregnant mistress, that he collected 24,000 noses

from the corpses of vanquished enemies.

Even amongst the sick twisted sadistic rulers,

Vlad still stands out as a psychotic madman.

NARRATOR: Vlad Dracula remains an enigma, a figure whose deeds

are still controversial today.

Madman or single minded warrior?

I would say that he was very much a man of his times

who did what he had to do in order to survive.

NARRATOR: Now, our team of experts

will search to uncover a world that has been almost entirely

lost.

The written record is very sparse.

The archaeology by comparison with great civilisations

of the ancient world is sparse as well.

We don't know what actually is out there.

NARRATOR: Using clues on the ground

and cutting edge animation, the experts

will reconstruct Dracula's mighty palaces,

castles, and fortifications.

They will be seen again as they were in the time

of the infamous Impaler.

ED MCCANN: The modern technologies

we have enable us to understand what's left behind a lot better

than we were able to do in the past.

So we can explore inside the walls

and draw conclusions about the construction

without having to take them to pieces first.

Makes it a lot quicker and a lot easier to do.

NARRATOR: The trail begins at Vlad's birthplace.

It is a picturesque fortified town called Sighisoara

in the heart of Transylvania.

The investigators start by uncovering clues from one

of Sighisoara's oldest houses.

This is the house in which in 1431, Prince Vlad the Impaler

Dracula was born.

NARRATOR: But much has changed since the 15th century.

It was probably a single story building at that stage.

What we see behind us is a 17th century addition

to the building.

It's not as it would have been in Vlad's day.

NARRATOR: We can now reveal Dracula's birthplace

as it looked when he was born.

A one story building in the heart of the citadel,

it lacked sewers, plumbing, the most basic amenities.

Yet, the thick river stone it was

built from, provided its most important feature, security.

Vlad's hometown was one of the safest in all Transylvania.

The walls yield the first clue to

the spectacular fortifications that existed here

when Vlad Dracula was born.

This effectively was the town wall.

And it's punctuated with defensive towers.

And behind us, we have one of the most elaborate.

NARRATOR: The walls and defensive towers

called bastions were up to 10 feet thick.

They were there simply to prevent any enemy from sacking

the city.

If you look at the lower area, we

have the crenels where they poured the boiling oil

and hot water on people who were attacking the fortress.

And in the upper part, we have a narrow slit.

NARRATOR: Sighisoara was heavily fortified

because it was one of Transylvania's richest towns.

But the people who lived within its walls were not Romanians,

they were Saxons, men and women of German descent.

Pioneering Saxons had migrated to Transylvania

in the 12th century to become merchants and craftsmen.

In return, they were granted special trading privileges.

MEI TROE: They were very much a race apart.

The Saxons were very much associated with greed,

typifying the middle classes in any era.

They made money at the expense of the native Wallachians.

NARRATOR: Vlad Dracula's father, a Romanian Prince

struck a special trading deal with the Saxons of Sighisoara.

In return, he and his family were permitted

to live within the city walls in the apparent safety

of the citadel.

But in 1447, Dracula's father was assassinated

by a rival clan who seized the throne of Wallachia, Romania's

southern province.

Vlad fled North.

He vowed to return.

One of the places he stayed was the spectacular Bran Castle.

Today, tourists flock to Bran Castle in the belief

that it was the home of Count Dracula, the villain depicted

in Bram Stoker's novel.

The fictional vampire dwelt here amongst the undead

until he was killed with a stake through the heart.

This place was painted as the home of evil.

The real Dracula did come here in the 1450s.

And beneath the Gothic splendor, the experts

uncover what the castle really looked like in his time.

Modernized by Romanian Royalty at the beginning

of the 20th century, the castle's interior

is very different from what it was.

But by using rarely seen floor plans of the castle,

the experts piece together how it

must have looked 500 years ago.

The tower that you were telling me about, this one.

This is actually this one behind us?

Exactly, the round top.

But the strategic use of this tower, this

was the gunpowder tower, yes?

- The gun powder tower, yeah. - Yeah.

Yeah.

So if we orientate this way, we have the--

Tower behind us.

The tower here.

Yeah.

And the original entrance to the castle was further--

NARRATOR: Using Bran's medieval floor plans

and cutting edge animation techniques,

it's possible to open a window onto the castle

in the 15th century.

Not a fairy tale Gothic castle but the most

secure and imposing fortress on the Transylvanian border.

It was a major feat of construction.

The territory around here isn't

conducive to significant road based travel.

So just getting the stuff there is a huge, huge undertaking.

And then when you're there, to get up

this high without the sort of lifting

technology we have today, they would have built up scaffolding

systems using timber.

They would have built off the structure as they go along.

They were all very, very big challenges.

NARRATOR: For Vlad Dracula, Bran Castle

was the ideal springboard from which he'd

launch his bid for power.

The bloody reign of Dracula was about to begin.

To consolidate his rule, he would

embark on one of the biggest building programs

in the history of his country.

In 1456, the throne of the Romanian Princeton of Wallachia

was seized by Vlad Dracula, the man who

gave his name to the world's most famous vampire.

Uncovering this lost world is a team of investigators.

They want to expose the extensive building projects

he began at the start of his reign.

He was trying to impose order on an unruly land.

Vlad Dracula has a name to live up to.

He inherited it from his father, Vlad Dracul,

the former ruler of Wallachia and a night

of the order of the dragon.

The dragon became part of the family crest.

JOHN FLORESCU: Draculea.

He was the son of Vlad Dracul.

And also there's the connection with Dracul itself,

which means the devil.

NARRATOR: Following tradition, Dracula, son of the devil

takes Targoviste as his capital city.

It is a place of legendary terror.

Some of Dracula's worst atrocities take place here.

But when he arrives, it is his life

that is in imminent danger.

This is not only the capital of his realm

but it's also the capital of political assassinations,

it's also the capital of intrigue.

NARRATOR: He expects to be murdered.

He fears poisoning.

Everything he eats is tasted first by a trusted servant.

Rival princes called boyars traditionally

dominate politics in Wallachia.

The knowledge that they will do anything to get rid of him

forces Vlad's hand.

It is kill or be killed.

ARYEH NUSBACHER: For generations, the Wallachian

landowners had changed their loyalty back and forth

and back and forth.

And in order to retain power, Vlad

has got to get rid of the boyar.

NARRATOR: Vlad's antipathy toward the boyar

is also deeply personal.

His father has been murdered by the boyars.

And so here is a man I think bent on vengeance.

He's got a score of settle and he does.

NARRATOR: But before Dracula can be rid of his boyar enemies,

he needs protection.

And in the present day ruins lie clues to a massive building

project that took place here more than 500 years ago.

It's all part of his cunning plan to build this image if you

like, this image of power, this image that he's in control.

The impression that he is the great leader,

the mighty Voivode of Wallachia.

NARRATOR: The palace complex at Targoviste

was begun by Dracula's grandfather.

In his father's time, a 60 foot wide defensive moat was added.

But Dracula himself was to build a palace complex that surpassed

all that had gone before.

The Great Hall was rebuilt to encompass a vast area of more

than 3,000 square feet.

And an imposing watchtower gave Dracula a panoramic view

of his territory.

The whole palace complex was encased in walls that

were as much as 5 feet thick.

The vast cellars beneath the Great Hall

reveal the sheer scale of Vlad's ambition.

What we have here is a huge volume of space.

And that volume was created through the construction

of barrel vaulted cellars.

NARRATOR: The arches are typical of what's

called the Byzantine style of building.

They were constructed using a timber framework called

a former.

The bricks were built around it.

It was a feat that had to be supervised by a master mason.

His very life depended on getting it right.

Traditionally, when you remove the formwork from a fresh arch,

the master mason has to stand underneath and be the first one

there when the formwork's removed.

So if it's ever going to fall on anyone, it'll fall on him.

NARRATOR: Although few clues remain,

some still believe the cellers house not just palace supplies

but far darker secrets like Vlad's

own private torture chambers.

Restored in the 19th century, this tower

was perhaps the most striking feature that Vlad Dracula added

to Targoviste.

Built of a river stone base with upper stories of brick,

it soared more than 60 feet into the air

and provided a commanding view.

Once finished, Vlad's palace was a highly defensible series

of barriers.

As a defensive position, this structure

appears to be well set.

You can defend progressively backward.

So you have a succession of hurdles to overcome.

Once you've got over that one, you're in the moat

and people are still lobbing stuff at you.

Once you've got over that one, everyone runs back inside there

and they're firing at you from the tower and from the roof

and from everywhere else.

You can imagine the life toll will

be fairly severe for the people attacking it.

NARRATOR: With Targoviste transformed

into a high security headquarters,

Dracula began exterminating his boyar enemies.

He showed ruthlessness that has become legendary.

There is no doubt that the only way Vlad could get rid

of the boyar and cement himself in power was to kill them all.

NARRATOR: On Easter Sunday 1457, Dracula

committed one of his most infamous atrocities.

He set his trap by inviting the boyars to a meal in the Great

Hall.

Vlad asked them rather pointedly how many Lords they

had had over a 50 year period.

And most of them couldn't answer him because they'd had so many.

And the reason they had so many is that they had been removed

by force by those very boyars, which was exactly

the answer that Vlad wanted.

They were condemning themselves out of their own mouths.

And so according to legend anyway,

he had them impaled, 500 of them.

[suspenseful music]

NARRATOR: Impalement was a terrifying method of execution.

Now, the common way would be to put your enemy on the end,

the sharpened end of the stake, pierce them through the navel

or through the heart and hoist them up and leave them to die,

a relatively quick death.

That was for the more fortunate.

Because he really wanted to make an example of you,

he'd take this rounded end and he'd grease it

and then he'd pull your legs apart and insert it

into your rectum.

So through your bottom and gradually the steak

would work its way through your body.

This might take a couple of days, OK?

So you'd be literally dying for hours.

NARRATOR: Targoviste was littered

with the impaled bodies of the dead and dying.

But Dracula didn't kill everyone immediately.

For some, he intended a longer more productive death.

And here on this high inaccessible mountaintop

on the border of Transylvania, they

were forced to build a fortress that is the real Castle

Dracula.

It is a place that would serve as Vlad's sanctuary

in a coming campaign of terror.

1,500 feet above the river Arges on a perilously steep mountain

lie the ruins of an ancient fortress called Castle Poenari.

This is the real Castle Dracula.

The castle site was key.

On the edge of Vlad Dracula's own realm of Wallachia,

the castle also bordered the mountainous territory

of Transylvania.

Even today, it remains a remote and forbidding place.

And the investigators need to climb 1,480 steps just

to get to it.

Within these ruins lie remarkable

archaeological clues, which will help the investigators bring

the castle back to life.

For a prince bent on achieving absolute power,

this was a prime strategic location.

And you see here to the South, we have Vlad's lands,

his Wallachia.

And of course 50 miles beyond those mountains

you have Targoviste, his very own capital city.

But of equal importance and over here to the North,

you have Transylvania.

Transylvania, which of course included a couple

of Vlad's strongholds.

And equally importantly, this was the prime position

from which he could deal with those pesky Transylvanian

Saxons.

NARRATOR: Transylvania is home to the rich Saxon merchants

whose wheeling and dealing threatens Vlad Dracula's grip

on power.

Since he needs to act swiftly in building the castle,

he resorts to unconventional techniques and slave labor.

Construction begins around a watchtower dating back

to the time of his grandfather.

But Vlad envisages something far greater.

A fortress that will not just occupy the whole summit

of Poenari but enlarge it.

Clues to how he did it are encoded in the ruined walls

that still surround the castle.

They give it its strange two tone appearance,

with red brick sitting on top of a gray stone base.

DAVID BAXTER: It is a very, very unusual structure because

of the combination of the stone and the brick.

I would have expected here to have seen the whole thing

constructed in stone.

Perhaps it was actually easier to build in brick.

It certainly would have been an awful lot quicker.

NARRATOR: Though they stand on a narrow mountain summit,

these walls are a staggering 9 feet thick.

This was achieved by using the Byzantine construction method.

The Byzantine style was first of all

to build a two external walls in brick

and then to infill those walls with rubble.

The combination of the outer wall,

the inner core and the inner wall

together, make this an absolutely solid structure.

NARRATOR: What held the walls together was also

the secret of the castle's survival in an area that was

actually an earthquake zone.

They used lime mortar.

This is what lime in its putty form actually looks like.

It's like a very rich whipped cream effectively.

But because it's lime, it won't completely

set in this sort of situation, and therefore it

allows flexibility.

It allows the walls to move, which of course, is going

to be very useful in an earthquake situation.

We won't suffer severe cracks and damage in the same way

that you would if you were to use cement.

NARRATOR: Though they have been struck

by numerous violent earthquakes, many of Castle Dracula's walls

still stand today.

They were constructed by slave labor, the nobles that had been

spared from impalement during the Easter massacre

at Targoviste.

Forced march to Poenari, they were now

to suffer a far longer lingering death.

Wallachian chronicles report that these men and women worked

so hard.

They worked until their clothes fell off.

They were naked quite literally.

NARRATOR: But the castle wasn't built just by slaves.

One ingenious piece of engineering

proves that master craftsmen must have been involved.

The castles roofs gather rainfall into the cistern.

It's constructed in stone, which is--

it's called riveting.

And basically, it's cut in the angles of the stone

so that the next stone sits in exactly against this one.

But what this actually shows is that when this was constructed,

whoever was involved in the engineering side of things

really understood the whole process of stone construction,

of what was needed to hold water for a castle of this size

and quality.

NARRATOR: Everything needed to build Castle Dracula was

available in the river valley below.

There was sand for mortar, gravel and small rocks

for the Byzantine wall filler.

There were also sturdy river stones

that formed the castle's base.

Even the bricks were fired and made locally.

This was the spectacular result. When it was finished,

the castle filled the entire summit,

approximately 32 feet wide by 180 feet long.

An eagle's nest, Dracula's castle

offered excellent security and the control

of a key strategic pass between the mountains.

But just over the border in Transylvania,

the troublesome Saxon merchants were hatching a conspiracy

against him.

To protect their profits, they were supporting

a rival claimant to Vlad's thrown.

You could argue that this cost provided Vlad

with the essential springboard via which he could go and deal

with the Transylvanian Saxons.

He made them realize that if they were going to have

their commercial ways, they were first and foremost going

to do what he said.

NARRATOR: A major confrontation lay ahead.

Vlad Dracula would need all his cunning

to overcome the defenses of one of the best fortified towns

in all Europe.

He would exact a terrible revenge.

German chronicles report that in 1459, Vlad Dracula,

the real-life Romanian Prince embarked

on a campaign of terror.

It was so savage that the name of Dracula

would never be forgotten.

Rallying his troops at Bran Castle,

he marched into Transylvania.

Saxon merchants were plotting to overthrow him,

he intended to punish them.

Their base was in Brasov.

Concealed within the modern day city

are the fortifications of what was

medieval Transylvania's richest and most well defended town.

MEI TROE: The Saxons had been siding with Vlad's enemies.

They were untrustworthy, and they were foreign anyway.

So in Vlad's book that's fair deal.

NARRATOR: Today, the picturesque town gives few clues

to the bloody events that unfolded here

5 and 1/2 centuries ago.

Vlad's attack on Brasov was not easy.

The city's military defenses were formidable.

A huge wall nearly 14 feet thick in some places

ran around the entire Saxon city.

There were bastions at regular intervals.

This bastion was run by the weavers guild.

DAVID BAXTER: This is one of the most important fortifications

that has survived, fairly intact.

And in terms of its architecture and form,

it's extremely important in understanding

the defensive systems of the early 15th century.

NARRATOR: A multileveled wooden gallery

was built onto the inside of the wall.

DAVID BAXTER: What we see here is very, very high

quality work in oak.

And we have the roofs at the moment are covered in snow

but underneath that snow is timber roofing.

NARRATOR: Cut into the outside walls

are arrows slits and loopholes.

They would later be used for cannon and muskets.

The Saxons believe that they are safe behind their mighty

fortifications but they underestimate

Dracula's cunning.

Dracula grew up in a Saxon town.

He knows their way of fighting.

He knows a frontal assault is doomed to failure.

So he takes Brasov by surprise, attacking by night

and ransacking its suburbs before people can retreat

to safety behind the walls.

Everyone he catches is impaled on the surrounding hills.

According to later Saxon accounts, thousands die.

The execution took place on the hanging hill

which is behind this mountain.

NARRATOR: The attack on Brasov inspires the most infamous

of all the images of Vlad, the Forest Of The Impaled.

It depicts the prince eating his dinner amid corpses.

Some suggest this picture is the first to make

a link between Vlad Dracula and vampirism.

MEI TROE: Impalement is a slow process.

It can't be done quickly, especially with large numbers.

Then he would have been having a meal while he was watching it .

But he's not actually drinking their blood

and he's not eating their flesh.

There is nothing cannibalistic I don't think about Vlad.

NARRATOR: Created by Saxon storytellers,

the purpose of these pictures is clear, to forever associate

the name of Dracula with evil.

MEI TROE: The woodcuts themselves of course

are propaganda.

They are the early version of video nasties,

and people wanting to look at them and gorp.

And they're paid good money to do it.

NARRATOR: With Brasov subdued, Vlad turns his attention

to the Ottoman Empire, the Muslim superpower of his day.

Its vast borders reach Vlad's own territory.

The Ottoman Turkish empire were continuing

to look westward, look towards Europe as the next place they

were going to conquer.

And aside from a few hill tribes like the Wallachians,

there was nothing to stop them.

NARRATOR: But Vlad Dracula is determined to resist.

He begins to concentrate his building efforts

in the South of his realm.

Here, he erects a stunning new palace of brick and stone.

For 5 centuries it has been lost to time until now.

Hidden beneath Bucharest streets is the secret world

of this once great residence.

These ancient walls conceal evidence of past glories

few even know existed.

We're always thinking of Vlad is defending and fighting

but don't forget he was a man with a great deal

of commercial nose.

And this was an extremely important economic route.

NARRATOR: Vlad knew the Turks could threaten these trade

routes and at any moment.

He built his palace in a hurry with the best specialists

available.

He called in Transylvanian stonemasons.

He also called in approximately 1,000 workers

to make sure that this was erected,

and this was erected quite quickly.

NARRATOR: Excavations in these tunnels

reveal a building of a compact design born out

of urgent necessity.

Altogether it was a functional fortress as opposed

to a sort of exotic palace.

NARRATOR: Later rulers would rebuild and extend it.

But hidden in the building's foundations

are clues to its history.

[suspenseful music]

Take this piece of wall here, you

have in the middle brick work that dates back to Vlad's time.

Now, on either side of that you see brick work that's

been added on later dates.

And I think that's what's the most fascinating part if you

like because you have archaeological evidence

from the 14th century also the 15th century, the 16th century,

the 17th century, the 18th century and the 19th century.

NARRATOR: Now with animation based

on this archaeological detective work,

Dracula's original palace can be seen once more.

It is a commanding fortress and it

would have served as an essential bulwark

to Vlad's southern frontier.

Dracula now has his domain of Wallachia in an iron grip

but his greatest enemy, the conquering Ottoman empire

is waiting at the border.

The bloodthirsty tyrant Dracula now

needs to transform himself into the heroic defender

of Christian Europe.

And the fortifications he's built

will now be tested to their limits.

With his country secured by a series of fortified palaces,

Vlad Dracula, Prince of Wallachia

begins planning for war.

Amid the massive 5 foot thick walls

of his palace at Targoviste, Vlad receives a delegation

from the Ottoman Turks.

The Turks all conquering armies have reached his borders

and they now threaten Christian Europe.

According to legend, the envoy demands Vlad pay a tribute

but he refuses claiming the envoy had insulted him.

They don't remove their turbans.

And Vlad asked them why they were being so insulting

and they said it's not our custom.

We never remove our turbans.

So he ordered then that they could never

remove their turbans because they

would be nailed to their heads.

NARRATOR: By the winter of 1461, Dracula and the Turks

are at war.

With an unexpected speed and boldness,

Dracula leads his soldiers on a brilliant campaign

into enemy territory.

Everyone who gets in his way is put to the sword.

ARYEH NUSBACHER: A nobleman like Vlad

could not hang back in battle.

He had to be physically courageous.

Otherwise, he was nobody.

NARRATOR: Vlad returns to the safety

of Targoviste's fortifications.

In 1462, he writes to neighboring kingdoms demanding

help from his fellow Christians.

With one dispatch, he sends a demonstration

of his military prowess, 23,884 severed noses cut

from the faces of his fallen enemies.

The Turkish sultan Mehmed, himself a ferocious general

sets out to meet him in battle.

He brings an army that dwarfs Vlad's by 3 to 1.

Though Targoviste has formidable defenses,

Vlad knows the palace cannot withstand a protracted siege.

The way you broke down defensive positions like this

was either intrigue where you paid someone

to let you in, open the door or you starve them out.

There are good answer if all you're worried about

is someone knocking on your door for a few weeks.

If you have to hide here for three years,

it's not quite so good.

NARRATOR: Vlad is forced to change his tactics

and go on the run.

ARYEH NUSBACHER: Mehmed was a master of psychological warfare

but what he encountered was an even more

powerful psychological warrior.

NARRATOR: Vlad uses savage guerrilla tactics.

He keeps to Romania's thick forests,

venturing out to strike quickly and brutally then vanishing.

For Vlad it's like being a big shark,

if you stand still, you die.

NARRATOR: As the Turks advance, Vlad

uses every conceivable tactic to break their morale.

He attacks by night, he poisons their wells,

he burns their crops.

He even pays diseased men to infiltrate the Turkish ranks

and pass on infections.

Vlad's campaign of psychological terror

reaches its climax outside the walls of Targoviste.

When he abandons his palace, he leaves

behind a sight that will haunt the sultan

for the rest of his life.

It gives rise to Vlad's Turkish nickname.

They call him, Kazikli Bei, the Impaler Lord.

Mehmed himself who was a frighteningly cruel man

turns away.

The site of 20,000 corpses with their bowels

spilled out down poles was enough to take

a seasoned young fit soldier like Mehmed II

and send him running.

NARRATOR: The traumatized sultan retreats

to his homeland leaving others to fight Dracula.

They drive him back.

He is forced to retreat to his sanctuary

at Poenari, Castle Dracula.

The castle's position and defenses make a frontal assault

impossible.

But for some of those trapped inside,

life becomes unbearable.

Panic stricken by the idea of being tortured to death

by the Turks, Dracula's wife throws herself

from the battlements.

Her body falls into the river far below.

To this day, it is called the Princess's river.

But Vlad does not give up.

He will get out and live to keep fighting.

[music playing]

In the village of Arefu only a few miles from the castle,

the experts uncover a piece of local folklore concerning

Dracula's daring escape.

[non-english].

TESSA DUNLOP: The villagers take great pride

in the way in which they've helped shape history, how they

helped trick the Turks.

And basically, they devised a plan

whereby they turned their horse shoes the wrong way around

and reattached them onto their horses.

And then they led Vlad away on these horses

in the dead of night.

[non-english].

So of course the Turks when they saw the footprints

thought he'd gone into the castle

but in fact he'd actually left the castle unbeknown to them.

[non-english].

[non-english].

[applause]

NARRATOR: Dracula flees into Transylvania and exile.

10 years later, he returns and reclaims his throne.

He comes back to his palace in Bucharest

and again begins preparing defenses

to repel a Turkish invasion.

But before work gets underway, Dracula's reign ends.

Vlad's death is shrouded in mystery.

He was almost certainly killed in battle.

Although whether that was in a fair fight in the heat

of the moment or whether it was murder, we don't know.

I personally subscribe to murder.

NARRATOR: Local folklore has it that he was buried here

in the beautiful island monastery of Snagov.

Once surrounded by heavily fortified stone walls,

the monastery was later used as a prison.

High ranking traders were held here,

and the island is said to be littered

with countless human bones.

Today, the monastery is a place of pilgrimage

for Dracula's fans.

It is said his body lies in a grave at the altar

but that his head was cut off and sent to the sultan

to prove he was finally dead.

Tradition and wishful thinking places Vlad in this tomb

at the monastery of Snagov but the tomb is empty.

There is nothing inside.

NARRATOR: Past excavations have found no proof that Vlad's body

was buried in Snagov.

His last resting place remains a mystery.

In Romania today, Vlad Dracula remains a national hero

despite his brutality.

Vlad is very much the guy on the white horse.

I think Romanians today see him as that.

He's a freedom fighter.

He is a nationalist, he's a man of the people.

NARRATOR: Dracula was the last great builder

of an independent Wallachia.

Soon after his death, the Turks brought the country firmly

under their control.

It was forbidden to build fortifications.

But Dracula's castles remain as a reminder

of a glorious and free past.

The royal palace of Targoviste that he completely redesigned,

the founding of Bucharest and its castle,

and the inaccessible sanctuary of Poenari, the real Castle

Dracula, each a symbol of the indelible mark Vlad Dracula

left on his country.

It is not just in the ruins of his once great palaces

but also in the memories of his people.

[music playing]