Dracula Park cancelled, to churches' relief

Christian Century, March 22, 2003

Romanian churches have welcomed the cancellation of plans for a $32 million Dracula Park in Transylvania in the western part of the country, but warned the government against trying to relocate the project.

"We would support a functioning park which assisted economic development in a particular area," said Costel Stoica, spokesman for Bucharest's Orthodox patriarchate. "But we can't agree to its being named after a fantasy character who has nothing to do with Romanian history, spirituality or culture."

A stake was driven through the heart of the plan for the park near the Hungarian border after a financial study commissioned by Romanian authorities recommended in January that it be located elsewhere, according to a report in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentul zilei.

Preparations for the attraction had been started in November 2001 by Tourism Minister Dan Agathon in a campaign to attract a million tourists every year.

But Romania's Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran churches claimed the project would fuel interest in the occult and disrupt life in the region. "There are beautiful places in Romania, which would be well worth popularizing and bringing tourists to--but not a negative fabrication which corrupts moral values and damages young people," said Stoica in a mid-February interview.

Stoica said the Dracula myth had been created by Irish writer Bram Stoker in 1897, and should not be used to entice tourists to Romania. He added that Vlad Tepes (1430-77), prince of Romania's Wallachia province, on whom Stoker's novel is believed to be based, was a "great Romanian figure" who had nothing in common with the mythical Dracula.

The prince, whose popular name, Dracula, derived from the Order of the Dragon set up to defend Christendom, was assassinated by opponents. In the Stoker novel, Dracula is killed by a knife through the heart, though it is popularly believed that the weapon was a wooden stake.

The project had also been attacked by environmental groups and UNESCO, whose World Cultural Heritage roll includes medieval Sighisoara, a picturesque town in central Romania where Vlad was born.--ENI