A team of archaeologists have found indisputable proof that the film Dracula Untold has been touched by the good fortune of a well timed coincidence. They also seem to have found a dungeon that is of great significance to the lore of Vlad the Impaler, Dracula’s real life inspiration.
Archaeologists in Turkey say they have found the Turkish dungeon where Vlad and his brother were first locked up. Excavations at the ruins of Tokat Castle in northern Turkey revealed secret tunnels and two dungeons, Turkey’s Hurriet Daily News reports. As Ibrahim Çetin, one of the archeologists behind the discovery, told Hurriet: “The castle is completely surrounded by secret tunnels. It is very mysterious.”
While secret tunnels in a mountain lair sound like any adventurous boy’s dream, Vlad’s time in the dungeon as a teenager was likely less than pleasurable, especially since there are theories that he picked up his taste for violence while on the inside. Though I haven’t seen it mentioned, I wonder if this discovery will be able to somehow lend credence to those theories.
Once free, Vlad went after the Ottomans, reportedly impaling as many as 20,000 of them on spikes. His dinner parties were also as bloody as a George R. R. Martin planned wedding and it’s said that he used to dip his bread in the blood of those poor vanquished souls that had stopped by for a nosh. Me, I like to dip my bread in olive oil. We’re just two different people, Vlad and I.
As you surely know, Bram Stoker picked up on Vlad’s story and based Dracula, his vampiric character, on the 14th century madman. The same thing goes goes for Count Duckula’s origin, I assume.
Source: Smithsonian