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A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
What's New at Arcadia
Historic Burial Grounds of the New Hampshire Seacoast By Glenn A. Knoblock
Arcadia Publishing has releases a new title in the Images of America series, the historic account of the cemeteries along the New Hampshire Seacoast. This collection is a must for anyone interested in local history, genealogy, or colonial-era art. Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Historic Burial Grounds of the New Hampshire Seacoast and browse other cemetery books!
Green-Wood Cemetery By Alexandra Mosca
Arcadia Publishing announces the release of the historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery.
Announcements
Quoting Death in Early Modern England: The Poetics of Epitaphs Beyond the Tomb By Scott L. Newstok
An innovative study of the Renaissance practice of making epitaphic gestures within other English genres. A poetics of quotation uncovers the ways in which writers including Shakespeare, Marlowe, Holinshed, Sidney, Jonson, Donne, and Elizabeth I have recited these texts within new contexts. Visit Palgrave Macmillan and purchase your copy today!
Living by the Dead By Ellen Ashdown with illustrations by Mary Liz Moody.
A memoir about living beside a cemetery--and about the members of my family who came to rest at Roselawn Cemetery in Tallahassee, Florida. Please visit Kitsune Books for more information.
Graveyards of Chicago: The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski.
Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!
Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.
Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman
Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture is now available. Please visit Studio Indiana for more information.
West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark
Features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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Historical sites keep spirit of Dracula alive |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Wednesday, 05 January 2005 |
By Larry Bleiberg
The Dallas Morning News
January 2 2005
TRANSYLVANIA, Romania · I wanted to be scared.
This is Dracula's country, after all. So I toured a horror house. I visited a bar where a coffin lay open and a skull rested on a table. I browsed vampire souvenirs.
The truth is: It was a pretty day in Transylvania.
It often is.
But while vampire country didn't spook me right away, maybe in the end it did.
Most of Romania's scare sites were slapped together in the past few decades by savvy entrepreneurs trying to attract visitors. The Dracula bar and its shadowy rooms, for example, are about as authentic as a state fair ghost house. Romania does have vampire legends, but Dracula the bloodsucker was dreamed up by Irish writer Bram Stoker more than a century ago.
Before you hang up your cape in disgust, though, rest assured: There was a real Dracula. He was quite a nasty fellow. And in a very real sense, he haunted Transylvania. Plus, he has connections to some of Europe's best-preserved medieval cities.
Vlad Tepes, also called Dracula, was born in 1431 and ruled with bloodthirsty efficiency. Dracula, which means "son of the dragon or devil," was called Vlad the Impaler. The name shouldn't be taken lightly. What he did to his victims makes bloodsucking look positively friendly.
As the ruler of part of Romania, Dracula had to contend with challenges from Hungarians on the west and Turks to the south and east. He got their attention by taking captured prisoners and carefully pushing a pole through their body, alongside their spine. Dracula perfected the technique, learning to avoid vital organs so he could impale his victims without killing them immediately. They were left to slowly die, placed on poles like flags, where blackbirds pecked them. The agonizing death could take days -- many eventually perished of thirst. And then their bodies were left to rot on their stakes, a grim testament to Dracula's terror.
Vlad would dine in front of his victims and often arranged them in concentric circles. It's said that Dracula once impaled an entire Turkish garrison. When a sultan came upon the site, he turned around in horror and went home.
Despite his grisly ways, many Romanians admired Vlad. He was seen as a moral ruler who enforced laws and kept the peace. And his traces are found throughout Romania.
Dracula was born in Sighisoara, a 12th century fortress town that has been recognized by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site. The hillside city offers a skyline of towers and steeples crowded behind gates and crenellated walls.
I had dinner in the building where Dracula was born. The restaurant is nice enough, but decorated with a woodcut of a prisoner being impaled. The meal was tasty, ending with expertly crafted crepes. They were filled with sweet cheese and covered with blood-red raspberry jam.
Vampire legends aren't limited to Romania. Stoker may have based Dracula on Austrian countess Elizabeth Bathory. She's reported to have taken youth-preserving baths in the blood drained from virgins. Elizabeth had pale skin because she never went outside during the day. Years before SPF, she knew the sun would age her.
Dracula, published in 1897, was a hit. In the decades to come, the tale of the undead count was captured in film, and a worldwide superstar was born.
But Romania was late to catch vampire fever. Under communism, few had seen the movies or read the book, which wasn't published in Romanian until 1990. The country has made up for lost time. Guides now offer Dracula tours. Transylvania vineyards export a crimson Dracula wine, and there were even short-lived plans to develop a Dracula theme park, which died recently when financing fell through.
Some people thought Bran Castle would be a natural site for the park. It already is the most popular tourist attraction in Romania. The fortress has been called Dracula's castle as a marketing ploy, even though he has little connection to the site apart from once attacking it.
Its famous resident was Queen Maria of Romania, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was, in a sense, the anti-Dracula.
Maria won her subjects' hearts with her tireless work to organize relief camps during the Balkan War of the early 20th century. She ran hospitals during World War I and wrote poetry and fairy tales. The castle, which has been restored to the queen's era, is nice enough, with spires, turrets and even a secret stairway.
Its coffin-shaped seats and bartender wearing a witch's hat were more silly than scary. I did manage a gasp in the spook house, but who wouldn't when someone jumps out of the dark and shouts "Boo!"? The carnival atmosphere continued outside, where souvenir vendors offered monster masks, fake daggers and Dracula ashtrays.
Most visitors to Bran Castle stay in Brasov, another World Heritage Site. It's a city of cafes, pastel buildings and historic churches. Although Dracula ruled here, the town seems to have shed any sense of his evil.
The town's landmark is the Black Church, which dates to 1383. The largest Gothic church between Vienna and Istanbul, it towers about 190 feet. It got its name after being blackened by fire.
The interior is draped with dozens of Islamic prayer rugs. Merchants brought them back from their trips to Turkey as tributes to their church. Apparently they didn't realize the intricate carpets had religious significance. They're displayed in the Protestant church without irony. Wonder what Dracula, the great Turk fighter, would have made of them.
Perhaps the only place I felt Dracula's presence was on a long, curving road that twists over the Transylvanian Alps.
The area is so remote and impenetrable that no major road crossed this often stormy mountain pass until 1974. As my car climbed into the mist, traffic disappeared, and the radio stopped working. The road passes a dam and hydroelectric plant guarded by a handful of soldiers standing alone in the gloom. And at the bottom of the road are the ruins of a castle.
Dracula's castle.
Really.
Dracula created this fortress as a refuge. When the Turkish army surrounded him, he is said to have escaped through a tunnel and disappeared into the mountains.
His young son was strapped to the side of his horse but slipped off and was left for dead. His wife didn't even try to flee. She threw herself to her death from a tower window.
I stepped out of the car to take a look. But it was night now, and the climb to the castle would be difficult. I looked up at the dark mountains and started to shiver, glad I had a car to spirit me away.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/travel/print/sfl-trdraculajan02,0,5083337.story?coll=sfla-travel-print |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Taphophilia Facts
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Each year in the U.S. we bury 30 million board feet of hardwoods, including tropical woods, in caskets
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Quote Repository
“To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?” Logan Pearsall Smith
Grave Epigrams
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I with my offspring here securely rest,
God takes or leaves our comforts as is best.
Prepare my friends, to meet me on that shore
Where soul bereavements shall be felt no more. Dedham, MA 1821 |
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Taphophilia Thanks
Taphophilia (dot) Com would not be possible without the knowledge, experience and talent of DarkestWeb. From its conception and early development, DarkestWeb was faced with many challenges; from inspiring and motivating, to providing guidance and direction. The continued dedication and support has produced results greater than ever expected, and for this, I owe a huge debt of gratitude.
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