Who Should You Think About when You Think Transylvania?

When you think about Transylvania, the place, the area within the country of Romania, who should you think about?  When you are working with people and places is one person more important than another or are you getting only one part of the story about Transylvania?

The people who lived there  or the people who others have told stories of time and again?  It is partly based on oral history, a good example being the Transylvanian Saxons writers who would focus on writing about customs but did not focus as much on the people who lead the lives dictated by these customs.  It was a village mentality long before people wanted to accept this fact.

There were many famous people who changed how we view Transylvania and not all of them were real people, they could be fictional characters or one whose "real" history was altered by other writers with an agenda.

Who is more important to the people who lived in the area: Vlad Tepes, Prince of Wallachia, and his father or Count Dracula, a fictional character of the novel Dracula?

What is most important the history of the land or the future of this land?

Who do you think of when you think about Transylvania?

If you think of politics- what Romania is like now you are not thinking of what is there, the people, but if you only think of the past, you will not understand much of the present.  To have an understanding of why people look to Bran Castle and see many things you have to know that Britain has played a part in how Europeans see Transylvania, Romania  If you take just one thing form this land, it is that people and cultures mixed, some times not well, but they lived there and still do.  Another writer who you should think about when you think about Translyvania is Queen Maria of Romania, formerly a Princess of Great Britain and Ireland.