The first step the new owner of Bran Castle did, was rebranding it. Dominic de Habsbourg changed the name in “Chateau Bran“, although neither the place nor the royal family had anything in common with France.

Changing the name to “Chateau Bran“, it is probably connected with the 2 French wine collections that will be presented on 1st July, called Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, together with the reopening of the museum. A private tour of the chateau and a concert of old Romanian music will take place also, during the reopening day of the museum. Between 9.30 and 15.30 the children are invited to the Medieval School. There will be held workshops, heraldic paintings and iconography, handling swords, target shooting with the arc, painting eggs and pottery classes.

The name Dracula is very popular. Few are the areas that didn’t use it as a brand. From the very popular t-shirts or personalized mugs, to movies, restaurants, hotels, amusement parks, all want to satisfy the people need to discover the truth about Count Dracula.

A few years ago Dracula appeared online. A lot of news sites like cnn.com, online shopping sites amazon.com, online shopping gifts sites draculagifts.com, touristic sites Dracula-travel.ro, online encyclopedias Wikipedia.org or just sites dedicated to this character Dracula, Dracula-souvenirs.com that search and debate about the mystery of the legendary character, appeared .

From 1897, the year the book Dracula was first published, by Bram Stoker, the myth became known all wide world. Today when you search the word Dracula on Google.com you will find around 13.500.000 results. This really which shows its immortality.

Muzeul National de Arta, 49-53 Calea Victoriei, ph. 00402103133030

Romanian National History Museum

Muzeul National de Istorie a Romaniei, 12 Calea Victoriei, ph. 0040213158207

The Museum of Bucharest City – The Sutu Palace

Muzeul Municipal Bucuresti – Palatul Sutu, 2 IC Bratianu Blvd., ph. 0040213156858

Old Court

Muzeul Curtea Veche – Palatul Voievodal, 27-31 Franceza St., ph. 0040213140375

Village Museum

Muzeul National al Satului “Dimitrie Gusti”, 28-30 Kiseleff Ave., ph. 0040213179119

Peasant Museum

Muzeul Taranului Roman, 3 Kiseleff., sector 1, ph. 0040213179690

Cotroceni National Museum

Muzeul National Cotroceni, 49-53 Calea Victoriei, ph. 0040213133030

Romanian Athenaeum

Ateneul Roman, 1 Franklin St., ph. 0040213158798

Palace of Parliament

Palatul Parlamentului, 1, 13 Septembrie Ave, ph. 0040213113611

The Triumphal Arch

Arcul de Triumf, between Kiseleff Blvb.-Maresal Prezan Blvd

The House of the Free Press

Casa Presei Libere, 1 Piata Presei Libere

“George Enescu” Museum

Muzeul George Enescu, 141 Calea Victoriei, ph. 004021318145

“Grigore Antipa” Museum of Natural History

Muzeul de Istorie Naturala Grigore Antipa, 1 Kiseleff Blvd., ph.0040213128863

Art Collections Museum

Muzeul Colectiilor de Arta, 111-113 Calea Victoriei, ph 0040212129641

“Vasile Urseanu” Astronomic Observatory

Observatorul Astronomic Vasile Urseanu, 21 Lascar Catargiu Blvd, ph. 0040212129644

Bucharest Botaniocal Garden Museum

Muzeul Gradini Botanice, 32 Cotroceni, ph. 0040213181519

Bucharest National Opera

Opera Nationala Bucuresti, 70-72 Mihail Kogalniceanu Blvd., ph. 0040213146980

“IL Caragiale” Bucharest National Theatre

Teatrul National IL Caragiale Bucuresti, 2 Nicolae Balcescu Blvd., ph. 0040213139175

Palace of Justice

Palatul Justitiei, 5 Spalaiu Independentei

University of Bucharest

Universitatea Bucuresti, Universitatii Sq.

Patriarchal Cathedral

Catedrala Patriarhala, 25 Dealul Mitropoliei St.

Antim Monastery

Manastirea Antim, 29 Antim St.

Herastrau Park

Parcul Herastrau, 32 Kiseleff Blvd., entrance from Charles de Gaulle Sq.

Cismigiu Park

Parcul Cismigiu, Between Regina Elisabeta Blvd. Stirbei Voda Blvd. – Schitu Magureanu Blvd.

A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth’s shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, there is always a full moon the night of a lunar eclipse. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_eclipse)

Future Eclipses – 2009
Penumbral Lunar Eclipse: 2009 Jul 07
Total Solar Eclipse: 2009 Jul 22
Penumbral Lunar Eclipse: 2009 Aug 06
Partial Lunar Eclipse: 2009 Dec 31

sources: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html

This new appearance wants to promote the cultural diversity and the dinamic of a new and modern place.It will be presented at the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show from Berlin. Brasov is one of the main touristic Romanian atractions. Aproximatively half a million tourists choose to spend their holiday in Brasov every year.

The main atraction points of the city of Brasov are the historical center, the ski-runs from Poiana Brasov and Predeal, the rural tourism from Bran, Moeciu, Vama Buzaului, the Bran Castle, the fortresses of Fagaras, Rasnov, Rupea,  the fortified churches of the Transylvanian Saxons Villages. During the following years the local industry will grow as a result of organizing the Olimpic Festival of European Young People in 2013.
This project is a a part of a bigger strategy of development that has as an objective establishing a mature touristic offer until 2013.

Source www.stiribrasov.ro, translated by www.dracula-souvenirs.com team

Vampire preternatural malignant being, supposed to suck blood; person who preys upon others; kind of bat supposed to suck blood. XVIII. — F. vampire or G. vampir — identical form in Sl. langs., in which there are vars. such as Russ. upy?r?, Pol. upiór.

T. F. HOAD. “vampire.” The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 25, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-vampire.html

In popular legend, a bloodsucking creature that rises from its burial place at night, sometimes in the form of a bat, to drink the blood of humans. By daybreak it must return to its grave or to a coffin filled with its native earth. Tales of vampires are part of the world’s folklore, most notably in Hungary and the Balkan Peninsula. The disinterment in Serbia in 1725 and 1732 of several fluid-filled corpses that villagers claimed were behind a plague of vampirism led to widespread interest and imaginative treatment of vampirism throughout western Europe. Vampires are supposedly dead humans (originally suicides, heretics, or criminals) who maintain a kind of life by biting the necks of living humans and sucking their blood; their victims also become vampires after death. These “undead” creatures cast no shadow and are not reflected in mirrors. They can be warded off by crucifixes or wreaths of garlic and can be killed by exposure to the sun or by an oak stake driven through the heart. The most famous vampire is Count Dracula from Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula (1897).For more information on vampire, visit Britannica.com.

“vampire.” Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (February 25, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1-381741.html

Vampires are mythological or folkloric revenants who subsist by feeding on the blood of the living. In folkloric tales, the undead vampires often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited when they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today’s gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early Nineteenth Century. Although vampiric entities have been recorded in most cultures, the term vampire was not popularised until the early 18th century, after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe,[1] although local variants were also known by different names, such as vampir (??????) in Serbia, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism.

In modern times, however, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, although belief in similar vampiric creatures such as the chupacabra still persists in some cultures. Early folkloric belief in vampires has been ascribed to the ignorance of the body’s process of decomposition after death and how people in pre-industrial societies tried to rationalise this, creating the figure of the vampire to explain the mysteries of death. Porphyria was also linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but this link has since been largely discredited.

The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of The Vampyre by John Polidori; the story was highly successful and arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century.[2] However, it is Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula that is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, and television shows. The vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire

3.Discover the art of Brancusi
Constantin Brancusi was a Romanian sculptor  that had a big impact on Romanian and international art, inventing new elements and bringing a new vision in contemporary sculpture.

4.Find out why Romania was called by Pope Joan the Second ”The Garden of  (Mary) Mother of God”
Romania was named ”The Garden of  (Mary) Mother of God”, because there are a lot of monasteries here.
5.Visit “The Voronet Monastery”
What is interesting about this monastery is that the unknown artist painted with originality, on the walls, instruments and traditional clothes, using a very famous color known as “The Voronet Blue”, compared to the “Veronese’s green” and ”Titian’s red”.
6.You can walk to “The Merry  Graveyard”
“The Merry  Graveyard” is a cemetery in the district of Maramures, in S?pân?a village, famous for the crosses that are colorful painted. The paintings represent scenes of lives and jobs of the dead people. On some crosses there are even verses that remember in a funny way the deads.
7.Customs and traditions
We invite you to discover the beauty of Romanian customs on Christmas, Easter, New Year and many other important moments from people’s life such as traditional weddings.
8.Taste the traditional Romanian cuisine
You will not forget the famous sarmale, bulz (mamaliga cu branza), carnat, cas, racituri.
9. You can take a picture of the “garbage bear”
In Brasov, there is a only place in the world where the “garbage bear” lives, a twin brothr with the brown bear (according Discovery Channel).
10.The Romanian beer

The film offers a unique story for Dracula’s origins not found in any other vampire movie. It is followed by two sequels, Dracula II Ascension and Dracula III Legacy.

The film opens in present-day London, with a group of thieves infiltrating the antique shop Carfax Abbey. Penetrating into its innermost vault they expect to find a fortune in treasure. Instead they encounter a sealed coffin. Upon attempting to move the coffin, some of the treasure-hunting party are gruesomely killed by the vault’s security system, leading the survivors to believe the coffin is the treasure they have come for. It is no surprise when the coffin is later revealed to contain the dormant body of Count Dracula. We learn that Carfax Abbey (also the name of Dracula’s London residence in Bram Stoker’s original novel) is owned and operated by Dracula’s nemesis, Abraham Van Helsing, who, after trapping and subduing Dracula a century before, has been keeping himself alive with injections of the vampire’s blood filtered through leeches until he can find a way to destroy Dracula forever.

While flying the coffin back to the United States one of the thieves manages to open the coffin, releasing Dracula. The count proceeds to feast on the blood of the thieves, one of whom happens to be flying the airplane, causing them to crash in the swamps of Louisiana. Surviving the crash, he heads to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Van Helsing’s estranged daughter Mary and her best friend Lucy live. Meanwhile Van Helsing and his assistant Simon head to the U.S. to recapture Dracula.

The one significant twist this film brings to the Dracula legend is its explanation of his origin. In this film, Dracula is established to be Judas Iscariot, cursed to walk the earth as an immortal for his betrayal of Jesus, being denied admission to both Heaven and Hell. This explains some of the vampire’s best-known weaknesses, primarily Christian iconography and silver, as Judas was paid in silver for betraying Christ to the authorities. Although Bram Stoker makes no reference to a vulnerability to silver in his novel, it is a part of some examples of European vampire folklore.

Dracula 2000 – Cast
* Gerard Butler as Dracula
* Christopher Plummer as Matthew/Abraham Van Helsing
* Jonny Lee Miller as Simon Sheppard
* Justine Waddell as Mary Heller/Van Helsing
* Danny Masterson as Nightshade
* Jeri Ryan as Valerie Sharpe
* Colleen Fitzpatrick (aka Vitamin C) as Lucy Westerman
* Jennifer Esposito as Solina
* Lochlyn Munro as Eddie
* Sean Patrick Thomas as Trick
* Omar Epps as Marcus
* Tig Fong as Dax
* Tony Munch as Charlie
* Shane West as J.T.
* Tom Kane as The Newscaster

source: wikipedia.org

With the invention of Gutenberg, the printing press, the number of brochures containing stories about Vlad the Impaler Dracula amounted rapidly. According as the historic epoch is left behind, the texts are adapted and added to, as being products of imagination, far for real facts. For example the brochures: “About the malefic tyrant Dracula Voda “, “A wonderful story about a great tyrant Dracula Voda ” (Bamberg edition 1491). Stories about Vlad the Impaler Dracula were even written in verses, a poet named Michael Beheim wrote a poem named ” About the tyrant named Dracula Voda ofValahia “, which was widely spread in the entire Europe.Manuscripts about Vlad the Impaler Dracula were discovered in Slavic language in a monastery in Russia, written by an unidentified author, named “Story about Dracula Ruler”, a more indulgent story regarding the cruelties of Vlad the Impaler Dracula, describing mostly his courageous deeds in fighting against the Turks.Here are some stories confirmed by both the writings of the Byzantine chronicles and by the writings of the Turks or Germans.

1.  Some soles came in front of Vlad the Impaler Dracula, sent by the sultan Mohamed II (The Emperor of the Turks). They took off their turbans, leaving the Turkish caps on their heads. Vlad the Impaler Dracula asked them why they were not taking the caps off, they answered that it was a custom in their country to leave the caps on. Vlad the Impaler Dracula ordered that the caps be nailed onto their heads, not to take them off at all, and sent them back to the sultan to inform him on “never to send his habit to other rulers “.

2. A story tells about two Catholic monks coming from Hungary to Valachia to visit Vlad the Impaler Dracula in his castle. Vlad received them in a yard full of people on steaks and asked about their opinion on him. The monks were informed about the cruel reputation of the ruler, and they answered differently: “The first said that the world saw him as a great tyrant, and what he did was wrong because a ruler should be merciful, and the people on steaks were just martyrs “. In exchange, the second one praised him, by telling him “he was sent by god to punish the bad people and mercy the good ones “. Vlad the Impaler Dracula ordered that the first monk be put on a steak, while the other was given 50 golden coins, and told “You are a wise man “.

3. Believing in the effectiveness of his laws, Vlad the Impaler Dracula left a golden cup in the central market of Targoviste. The cup could be used by thirsty travelers, but it had to remain there.According to history, the cup has never been stolen and it was left almost unused.

4. Another story refers to the way in which Vlad the Impaler Dracula got rid of the beggars of the country. He announced throughout the country that all old, sick people or poor people should come to the court. A crowd of poor men, cripples and tramps gathered together, waiting for his mercy. He got them all into a big house, gave them food and drinks, until they all got enough. Then Vlad came and asked them: “Do you want to live with no care at all and never miss anything in this world? ” they all answered they did. Then he went out, locked the doors, and set the house on fire. He also told those who witnessed the atrocity: “I did this so that they wouldn ‘t be a burden on other people any more, so that there wouldn ‘t be any poor man in the country, only rich men. And secondly, I set them free, so that nobody would suffer from poverty or helplessness on this world”.

5. During one of his trips through the country, Vlad the Impaler Dracula saw a peasant wearing a torn and dirty shirt. He asked this one if he had a wife and if he had planted linen last year. The peasant answered he did have a wife and enough linen. Then Vlad entering his house and seeing his young and healthy wife, gave the order to cut her arms as a punishment for laziness, and then put her on a steak.

6. Once, while he was having dinner surrounded by the bodies of a crowd of people on steaks, he noticed one of his fellows hiding his nose out of smell. Then Vlad the Impaler Dracula ordered instantly that his fellow be put on a higher steak, so that he wouldn’t sense the smell anymore.

7. Another story tells about a Polish member of the gentry sent as a sole by Matei Corvin, the Hungarian King. The sole is invited by Vlad the Impaler Dracula to join him to dinner in the middle of bodies on steaks. There was a huge, high and golden steak in front of them and Vlad asked the sole if he knew why he had prepared that steak. The sole answered that it was maybe for a nobleman who made a mistake and deserved a more honorable death. When the ruler told the nobleman the steak was prepared for him, this one answered: “My lord, if I’d done any dreadful mistake, do what you want, becauseyouare the right judge, and you won’t be guilty for my death, I will bear the entire guilt”. Vlad the Impaler Dracula laughed, set him free, gave him gifts and addressed to him: “You will surely be a great sole, because your master has taught you how to talk to the great rulers “.

The 1894 work, which has been in private hands for more than 70 years, is expected to bring $35 million at Sotheby’s on Nov. 3. In May, Munch’s “Girls on the Bridge” sold for $30.8 million, setting a record for the artist.
The “Vampire” painting, also known as “Love and Pain,” caused a stir when it was first exhibited in Berlin in 1902. It was part of a 20-work project called Frieze of Life that explored themes of love, betrayal, death and sex and included his masterpiece, “The Scream.”
“Like ‘The Scream,’ it distills extraordinarily intense feelings,” Simon Shaw, head of Sotheby’s impressionist and modern art, said Tuesday. “The lovers, locked in their dark embrace, evoke love’s paradox as a source of tenderness and pain.”

An avid Munch collector bought “Vampire” in 1903. In 1934, it was purchased by a private collector, who has owned it since. It was on loan at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for about 10 years.
“Vampire” will be the highlight of Sotheby’s sale of impressionist and modern art.
sources: Yahoo News

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker, and an important forerunner of expressionistic art. His best-known composition, The Scream  is one of the pieces in a series titled The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of life, love, fear, death, and melancholy. As here, he often painted several versions of the motif. Similar paintings include Despair and Anxiety.

The Frieze of Life themes recur throughout Munch’s work, in paintings such as The Sick Child (1885), Love and Pain (1893-94), Ashes (1894), and The Bridge. The latter shows limp figures with featureless or hidden faces, over which loom the threatening shapes of heavy trees and brooding houses. Munch portrayed women either as frail, innocent sufferers (see Puberty and Love and Pain) or as the cause of great longing, jealousy and despair (see Separation, Jealousy and Ashes). Some say these paintings reflect the artist’s sexual anxieties, though it could also be argued that they are a better representation of his turbulent relationship with love itself.
sources: Wikipedia