Count Dracula, the most well-known and perhaps most sinister of all vampires, may lurk in a work of fiction, but author Bram Stoker named the ultimate creature of the night after a real-life man of terror: Vlad the Impaler. Known officially as Vlad III Dracula (the surname translating to "Son of the Dragon"), the on-again, off-again Prince of Wallachia in the mid-1400's was feared across Europe for his sadistic practice of impaling his enemies on stakes. Now the tomb of this long-dead man of malice may have been discovered.
Vlad's rule ended in 1476 when defeat came at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Though Vlad's ultimate fate has never been determined, one popular belief was that the prince had been beheaded, with his head delivered to Constantinople and the rest of his body sent to a monastery in Romania, a land where some viewed Vlad as a hero for the protection of the Romanian people during his reign. But now, centuries after Vlad's death, his true final resting place may have been uncovered by a University of Tallinn graduate student working on her PhD.
While researching the church of Santa Maria La Nova in Naples, Italy, Estonian researcher Erika Stella ran across a tomb with carved symbols suggesting that Vlad's body could be resting inside. Here's what Erika's colleague, Raffaello Glinni, had to say about the symbols:
“When you look at the bas-relief sculptures, the symbolism is obvious. The dragon means Dracula and the two opposing sphinxes represent the city of Thebes, also known as Tepes. In these symbols, the very name of the count Dracula Tepes is written.”
If Vlad does indeed lie inside the tomb, then the previous popular theory regarding how his final days went down could be replaced with a new, more peaceful one: being bailed out of captivity by his daughter and living out the rest of his life with her in Naples before passing away. Erika and Raffaello have submitted an application to have the tomb opened in order to find more concrete evidence to support their new hypothesis. We'll keep Daily Dead readers updated on this story as it develops.
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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