Fans of the Gothic horror probably know the address: Tin Street No. 5, the Romanian city of Sighisoara. In 1429, in this modest three-story mansion, Eupraxia of Moldavia and Vlad II gave birth to the second of four sons, who was also named Vlad. Vlad II was not an ordinary man: he claimed the Romanian throne and was in temporary exile in Sighisoara. His rank was so noble that in 1433 he was allowed to mint coins (only kings were allowed to do that). For the coins, Vlad chose the image of a dragon, so he soon became known as Vlad II Dracula. The son, without thinking twice, added “a” to the surname and began to be called Vlad Dracula (“son of the dragon”).

“The horror of the Ottomans,” “the bloody cannibal” … he received all these nicknames later. But back then, the barefooted boy, living next to the blacksmith’s tower, daily heard the sound of the blacksmith’s hammer and pair of bellows. The first 7 years of his life Vlad Dracula spent in house No. 5 on Tin Street. The address is authentic as the restoration revealed a lifetime mural depicting the Dracula family. In the fall of 1436, his father became King of Wallachia, and the family left Sighisoara.

Vlad III Dracula received an excellent education at that time, but his quiet life was disrupted by politics: his father was dethroned, he went to ask for help from the sworn enemies of the Turks, and they asked for a son as a pledge. Dracula was 14 years old at that time. It is not known for certain what happened in Turkey, but after 2 years the young man returned with a completely unsound mind. Then the Wallachian rebels killed his father and older brother. Dracula vowed vengeance against them. That became the beginning of the story of Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes), a smart, merciless, and very bloody military leader, and then the ruler of Wallachia. Dracula received a new lease of life in 1897 when the Irishman Bram Stoker wrote the novel about a vampire aristocrat, “Dracula”. The earthly Vlad Dracula is buried in the Monastery of Snagov. Or in the Comana Monastery according to another version. However, this is inexact, as Dracula’s body has never been found.