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THE bloodthirsty ruler who inspired the Dracula legend was buried a thousand miles away from Romania, bombshell new research has claimed.
Vlad the Impaler, also known as Vlad Dracula, was a notorious medieval tyrant who ruled over Wallachia, a region in modern-day Romania.
The despot, who earned his nickname for impaling his enemies on stakes in the ground and leaving them to die, was the inspiration behind Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula.
Vlad Dracula not only lends his name to the character, but the pair were also rulers over Transylvania, a region in Romania, and are known for their acts of cruelty.
For centuries, it was believed the prince was buried in his homeland in the churches of Comana or Snagov near Bucharest after he was killed in battle at the end of December 1476.
But excavations there have failed to find his remains, fuelling speculation about his death and final resting place.
Now, historians claim Vlad was actually buried a thousand miles away, and not even in Romania.
The team of researchers identified a tomb in Italy they believe could belong to the ruler.
Historians have long speculated that he did not die in battle as was widely believed but fled to Naples with his daughter.
After 10 years of research, the experts believe his tomb is at the Church of Santa Maria La Nova, in the Turbolo Chapel, in Naples.
Professor Giuseppe Reale, the director of Santa Maria La Nova, told The Sun how the tomb features symbols related to Vlad and his ancestry – and they have finally translated mystery inscriptions.
The inscription includes two key words – “Blad” – interpreted as a variant of the name “Vlad” – and “Balcani,” the region where Vlad ruled in the 15th century.
The letters B and V had the same sound in the Neopolitan dialect and were often interchangeable.
The marble tomb is decorated with a knight’s helmet crowned with a dragon’s head – a symbol of the Order of the Dragon, a medieval society of which Vlad was a member, according to historians.
Professor Reale said the text and symbols appears to be a “funeral eulogy” – and it mentions a possible date of death in November 20, 1480.
The exact circumstances of Vlad’s death have never been clear but it was previously thought he died in around 1477.
Two sphinx-like statues also sit around the tomb – which researchers believe allude to the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes and Vlad’s Romanian epithet – Țepeș.
Bram Stoker himself – the author of Dracula – also lived in Naples in 1875 with his father.
Born in 1431 in Transylvania, a mountainous region in modern-day Romania, Vlad the Impaler was ruler of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death in 1476.
He is considered one of the most important rulers – and a national hero of Romania.
In a bloody battle in 1462, Vlad is said to have left a field filled with 23,844 impaled victims in a bid to stop enemies pursuing the Ottoman forces.
It comes as Vlad the Impaler’s home is set to open to the public.
Until five years ago, Poienari Castle in Curtea de Arge, Romania, had been left untouched for decades.
Cornel Popescu, manager of Arges County Museum, said Poienari is the “true” castle of ruthless Vlad.
The “impenetrable” fortress – perched on an 800m cliff – was home to the notorious ruler.
Many believe Bran Castle – a national monument in Transylvania – is the castle that inspired the fictional bloodsucker.
But Popescu said it has “no connection” to Vlad – a warlord with a taste for blood.
He told The Sun: “Vlad the Impaler-Dracula reigned three times.
“During the second reign, he built up only three monuments – the Comana and Snagov monasteries and Poienari castle.
“Bran castle has no connection with Vlad the Impaler. He did not build that castle – it is only marketing for tourism.
“The true castle of Vlad the Impaler is Poienari castle.”
Only accessible via 1,500 steps, Popescu said the Gothic fortress was never conquered by Vlad’s enemies – despite several attempts.
The fortress was rebuilt in 1459 when Vlad the Impaler used slaves to make bricks, cut stones and finish the construction in just a week.
Surprisingly, the eerie landscapes of Transylvania became popular with King Charles in the nineties and he now visits every year and even has a holiday home there.
Who was Vlad the Impaler?
VLAD Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, is one of history’s most murderous figures — and the inspiration for Count Dracula.
The Romanian prince was behind countless acts of unspeakable barbarity and ruthlessness.
His favourite method of murder was impalement — in which victims were lowered on to sharpened stakes, suffering an agonising death as their weight pulled them down.
Vlad was born in late 1431. His father, also Vlad, was military governor of Transylvania and belonged to the Order of the Dragon, a band of knights whose duties included crusading against Turks.
Vlad senior was given the surname Dracul because it means dragon in Romanian. Dracula is a diminutive form.
At 11 the young Vlad was seized by Turks and spent six years in captivity in Turkey, during which time he grew into a monster without compassion.
While he was away his father was overthrown as prince of the Romanian province of Wallachia and murdered, along with Vlad’s older brother.
At 25, Vlad killed his father’s murderer Vladislav II and seized power. Thus began a six-year reign of terror.
Vlad took revenge on those who helped topple his father by impaling the older ones and forcing the younger ones to march 50 miles to another town.
There they were made to build him a fortress — and many died in the process.
Vlad was a law and order fanatic. Petty criminals were impaled. Merchants who flouted trade laws were impaled.
Pretty much anybody Vlad disliked was impaled.
He considered all poor people thieves.
Once, he invited a crowd of them to a feast at his court in Tirgoviste. When they had finished he had the hall locked and burned to the ground with them inside, saying they were scroungers.
On another occasion he is said to have rounded up peasants and driven them off a cliff, beneath which he had placed row upon row of sharpened stakes.
Once, two Turkish ambassadors came to his court. Asked to remove their turbans, they refused on religious grounds — so Vlad got his guards to nail them to the screaming Turks’ skulls.
Vlad had a particular hatred for Germans, and many of his worst atrocities are depicted in German propaganda printed on the newly invented press.
One shows Vlad’s most appalling act of savagery, which came in 1462 as his heavily-outnumbered army fled through Romania from Turkish invaders.
Along the way Vlad torched his own villages and poisoned wells so the chasing Turks had nothing to eat or drink.
At Tirgoviste, he impaled 20,000 Turkish prisoners and ate as he watched them die.
The Turkish soldiers who found the “Forest of the Impaled” were so distraught they gave up the chase and went home.
Vlad is believed to have been assassinated in 1476 — but 400 years on his bloodthirsty deeds provided the inspiration for Dracula, a fictional character literally thirsty for blood.
The ghoul first appeared in the 1897 novel Dracula by Irish writer Bram Stoker and has made dozens of movie appearances since.
