A theme park dedicated to Dracula will be built near the Romanian capital rather than in Transylvania.A feasibility study carried out by PriceWaterhouseCoopers claims the park would attract more than a million tourists a year if it were located near the Romanian capital.
They add just 600,000 visitors would come if it was built in the area where the vampire is said to have come from.
Sighisoara was initially chosen because it gave birth to the 15th century prince Vlad the Impaler.
According to legend, the bloodthirsty prince captured invading Turks and common criminals and impaled them on stakes in public market places. That legend inspired Bram Stoker's 1897 novel of the bloodsucking count.
However, residents and officials in Sighisoara are angry at the results of the study, as they had hoped the park would help revive the struggling local economy.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers is to identify the best location for the park near the capital by March, said Tone.
Bucharest also has alleged ties to the prince. Vlad's body is believed to be buried in a monastery he built on an island of Snagov lake, just north of the capital.
Building the park near the capital would also appease conservationists, who have claimed that intensive tourism and construction would damage a medieval citadel in Sighisoara and a protected oak forest.
Romania hopes the park will bring hundreds of thousands of Western tourists.
Sighisoara was known as Sandova and dates as far back as the 3rd century BC. A charming medival city. The taylor's guild was the richest in town and this can be seen in the imposing tower that carries its name. Built in the 14th century, the tower was initially as tall as the Clock Tower but its upper part was destroyed in a fire in 1676, when the town's gunpowder deposit which was located in this place exploded. The Taylor's Tower is the second access road into the citadel, an entrance consisting of two vaulted galleries, which used to have huge oak gates with iron lattice. The tower was restored in 1935
Sighisoara is considered to be the most beautiful and
well preserved inhabited citadel in Europe,
with an authentic medieval architecture.
In Eastern Europe, Sighisoara is one of the few,
and in Romania the only fortified town which is
still inhabited. The town is made up of two parts.
The medieval stronghold was built on top of a hill
and is known as the "Citadel" (Cetate).
The lower town lies in the valley of Tarnava
Mare river.
The houses inside Cetate/Sighisoara Citadel show
the main features of a craftsmen's town. However, there
are some houses which belonged to the former patriciate,
like the Venetian House and the House with Antlers.
"The House with Antlers" has been brought into the
possession of the Messerschmitt Foundation with
the help of the Romanian Government and the
town council of Sighişoara in April 2000, defrauding
the legitimate heirs, the descendants Leicht-Bacon
(with English roots), who are mentioned in the cadaster
of Sighişoara as owners before the communist
dispossession of 1950.
In 2001-2003 the illegal construction of a Dracula theme
park in the 'Breite' nature preserve near Sighişoara was
considered but ultimately rejected, due to strong
opposition of local civil society and national and
international media as well as politically influential
persons, as the theme park would have detracted
from the medieval style of the city and would have
destroyed the nature preserve.
