Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula.

Count Vlad Dracula played by Gary Oldman in the 1992 film Dracula

A Portrait of Bram Stoker (8 November 1847–20 April 1912)

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847–20 April 1912) was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned. 

Stoker supplemented his income by writing novels; the best known being the vampire tale Dracula which was published in 1897. Before writing Dracula, Stoker spent several years researching European folklore and stories of vampires. Dracula is an epistolary novel, written as a collection of diary entries, telegrams, and letters from the characters, as well as fictional clippings from the Whitby and London newspapers. Stoker's inspirations for the story, in addition to Whitby, may have included a visit to Slains Castle in Aberdeenshire, a visit to the crypts of St. Michan's Church in Dublin and the novella Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.

After Irving's death he managed productions at the Prince of Wales Theatre and was also on the staff of the Daily Telegraph, but he concentrated mainly on his writings. In 1906 he brought out his life of Irving, which proved very successful

After suffering a number of strokes Bram Stoker died at No 26 St George's Square in 1912. Some biographers attribute the cause of death to tertiary syphilis[9]. He was cremated and his ashes placed in a display urn at Golders Green Crematorium. After Irving Noel Stoker's death in 1961, his ashes were added to that urn. The original plan had been to keep his parents' ashes together, but after Florence Stoker's death her ashes were scattered at the Gardens of Rest. To visit his remains at Golders Green, visitors must be escorted to the room the urn is housed in, for fear of vandalism.

A Portrait of Castle Bran in Bran, Braşov, Romania
http://www.brancastlemuseum.ro/

Bran Castle (German: Törzburg; Hungarian: Törcsvár), situated near Bran and in the immediate vicinity of Braşov, is a national monument and landmark in Romania. The fortress is situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia, on DN73. Commonly known as "Dracula's Castle" (although it is one among several locations linked to the Dracula legend, including Poienari Castle and Hunyad Castle), it is marketed as the home of the titular character in Bram Stoker's Dracula. There is, however, no evidence that Stoker knew anything about this castle. Furthermore, there are persistent myths that it was once the home of Vlad Ţepeş, ruler of Wallachia. This is not true. The historical person Vlad III never resided there.

The castle is now a museum open to tourists, displaying art and furniture collected by Queen Marie. Tourists can see the interior individually or by a guided tour. At the bottom of the hill is a small open air museum park exhibiting traditional Romanian peasant structures (cottages, barns, etc.) from across the country.
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A Portrait of Vlad Ţepeş, ruler of Wallachia (c. 1431 – December, 1476)

Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (c. 1431 – December, 1476), more commonly known as the Impaler (Romanian: Vlad Ţepeş or Dracula, was a three-time voivode of Wallachia, ruling mainly from 1456 to 1462.

Historically, Vlad is best known for his independent policy towards the Ottoman Empire, the expansionism of which he resisted and for the exceedingly cruel punishment he imposed.

In the English-speaking world, Vlad III is perhaps most commonly known for inspiring the name of the vampire in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.

His Romanian surname Dracula (also spelled "Draculea", "Drakulya"), which Vlad was referred to in several documents, means "Son of the dragon" and points to his father, Vlad Dracul, who received that moniker from his subjects because he had joined the Order of the Dragon. Dracul, derived from the Latin word Draco meant "dragon", though in modern Romanian it means "devil".

His post-mortem moniker of "Ţepeş" ("Impaler") originated in his killing opponents by impalement, a practice popularized by medieval Transylvanian pamphlets. In Turkish, he was known as "Kazıklı Voyvoda"  which means "Impaler Prince".

A Portrait of Elizabeth Báthory (August 7, 1560 – August 21, 1614)

Countess Elizabeth Báthory (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian, Alžbeta Bátoriová in Slovak, Alžběta Báthoryová in Czech, Elżbieta Batory in Polish, August 7, 1560 – August 21, 1614), was a Hungarian countess from the renowned Báthory family. She is possibly the most prolific female serial killer in history and is remembered as the "Blood Countess" and as the "Bloody Lady of Csejte", after the castle near Trencsén in the Kingdom of Hungary, where she spent most of her adult life.

After her husband's death, she and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls and young women, with one witness attributing to them over 600 victims, though the number she was convicted for was 80. In 1610, she was imprisoned in the Csejte Castle, where she remained bricked in a set of rooms until her death four years later.

The case has led to legendary accounts of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins in order to retain her youth and subsequently also to comparisons with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia, on whom the fictional Count Dracula is partly based, and to modern nicknames of the Blood Countess and Countess Dracula.

The exact number of young women tortured and killed by Elizabeth Báthory is unknown, though it is often speculated to be as high as 650, between the years 1585 and 1610. The estimates differ greatly. During the trial and before their execution, Szentes and Ficko reported 36 and 37 respectively, during their periods of service. The other defendants estimated a number of 50 or higher. Many Sárvár castle personnel estimated the number of bodies removed from the castle at between 100 to 200. One witness who spoke at the trial mentioned a book in which a total of over 650 victims was supposed to have been listed by Báthory herself. This number became part of the legend surrounding Báthory. Reportedly, diaries in Báthory's hand are kept in the state archives in Budapest. Supposedly the diaries are difficult to read due to the condition of the material, the old language, the hand-writing and the horrific content.

A Painting of the Vampire of Haidemaque by Victoria Frances

the Vampire of Haidemaque is a legendary Hungarian story of vampirism where the count is not the vampire but the un-dead still consumed blood only to return to their grave. When the bodies were exhumed they found the the bodies of the accused hadn't decayed and were full of blood.

The following events were reported in 1730 by the Count de Cabreras, who was the captain of the Alandetti infantry of Hungary. Some of the count's men were temporarily stationed in the town of Haidamaque, and were consequently staying with the villagers (a common practice at that time). One of the soldiers (whose name is not mentioned) was sitting at a table one day with his host (the master of the house) and some of the man's friends and/or family (it is not clear exactly who the others were). On that evening, a man the soldier did not recognize came in and sat down at the table next to the master of the house. Everyone at the table seemed very nervous at this coming, and the soldier wasn't sure why that was so.

The next morning, the soldier woke up and found that his host was dead. Curious, the soldier asked if the strange visitor had anything to do with it. The others in the house told the soldier that the man who appeared was the host's father, who had been head and buried for ten years! Apparently, they believed he had come to take his son.
Upon hearing that, the soldier informed the others in his regiment, who then contacted the Count de Cabreras. The count was intrigued enough by the report to go the house with some of his men and a surgeon to check the facts for himself. Satisfied that the inhabitants of the house, along with the rest of the village, believed the story to be true, he went with his expedition to the graveyard. They located the grave of the house master's father, and removed the body.

The alleged vampire discovered in the grave seemed to be completely undecayed, as if he were still alive. There was no mention of skin and nails having fallen off and growing back. Also, it is mentioned in the report that his blood was like that of a living man. That was probably an afterthought caused by what happened next. The count had his soldiers cut off the vampire's head, and the preceding statement probably indicates that there was a heavy flow of blood as a result.

After the vampire was disposed of, the count asked if there were any other such creatures in the vicinity. The villagers told him of a couple of instances of vampirism. The first was a man who had died more than thirty years before. He had come back to his own house on three occasions (all of them mealtime). The first time, the vampire attacked and drank the blood of his brother, who died instantly. The next two times, he did the same to his son and a servant, respectively. Both died as well. When they exhumed the body of that vampire, they found it to be in the same condition as the first. This time, however, the count had his men drive a nail into the head of the creature.

The other vampire the villagers mentioned was a man who had died about sixteen years before. That vampire supposedly drank the blood of his two sons, killing both of them. When they removed that body from the grave, they found that it was in a similar vampiric condition. The count, who apparently liked to vary his methods of vampire killing, ordered that the creature to be burned.

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