Targoviste was the capital for Vlad III Tepes during one of his periods of rule over much of Wallachia. It is not far from Bucharest, and in the direction most tourists do not travel. See photo and comment at www.aboutromania.com/dracula4. There is a tall tower, full of exhibits and information. Wind your way up the large stairs and by the end, looking over the countryside from the top, you feel you perhaps have the beginning of an understanding. He was brutal, but is still revered for other things.
Most tourists head north, to Brasov, and Bran Castle (where Vlad either had been a guest a few times, or imprisoned there for a while, but no other connection we were told).
Targoviste has more than this small website suggests, but start here to get an overview: www.world66.com/europe/romania/targoviste.
The stories of Vlad III Tepes, the Impaler, vary. This one seemed reliable: www.royalty.nu/Europe/Balkan/Dracula. Note that Vlad III Tepes is different from the fictional Dracula in the Bram Stoker novel, "Dracula."
I read that Vlad's brutality could have resulted from his exposure to it as a youngster, inflicted on others where raised for a time among the Turks (no suggestion that he was brutalized), and he just got used to it. Others say that he was no worse than other medieval beings, and our own inquisition and carpet bombings and napalm are no winners, just farther removed from the sounds and visuals of what he was inflicting. This site examines what happened in a broader context: members.aol.com/johnfranc/drac05. Photo included. The address is there if you want to contact the Transylvanian Society of Dracula.
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