Vlad the Impaler: The Real Dracula

Vlad was probably born between 1428 and 1431, and the usual birthplace comes from historian Radu Florescu, who places it in Sighișoara, where his father, Vlad Dracul, lived in a three-story stone house from 1431 to 1435. The father's nickname Dracul passed to the son as Dracula. The house stands on Tin Street between the Citadel Square and the Clock Tower and appears to be the oldest stone structure in town. Today it holds a medieval-style restaurant downstairs and a tiny weapon museum above.

Location precision: Historians date the birth only to 1428–31 and the Sighișoara claim rests on Radu Florescu; the pin marks the house named as the birthplace.

Visitor guidance: The house is at Tin Street No. 1; the restaurant is on the ground floor and the small weapon museum on the first.

In 1442 the sultan ordered Vlad Dracul to Gallipoli to demonstrate his loyalty, and the young Vlad and his brother Radu went along with their father. All of them were imprisoned. The father was released before the year was out, but the two boys remained hostages to keep him faithful. Ottoman chronicles say they were held in the fortress of Eğrigöz. Neither boy was murdered or mutilated, even after their father's rebellion.

Location precision: Gallipoli is where the sultan summoned the family; the boys' prison fortress is not pinned, so the pin marks the town of Gelibolu.

In early October 1448 Vlad broke into Wallachia at the head of an Ottoman army. Then the Ottomans defeated Hunyadi's army at Kosovo on 17–18 October, and by 7 December Vlad was forced to flee back to the Ottoman Empire. He first settled in Edirne, the empire's second capital until 1453. The stay was short: he went to Moldavia in 1449 or 1450 and later to Hungary.

Location precision: The sources name the city but no building where Vlad lived; the pin marks Edirne's centre.

On 10 September 1456 Vlad sent the burghers of Brașov his first surviving letter as voivode, observing that a strong prince can make peace as he wants, while a weak one has a stronger man do what he wants to him. In May 1458 he asked the town for craftsmen. Later he destroyed Brașov's suburbs and ordered captured men and women impaled; peace was back before 26 July 1460. Bran Castle, nearby, is often but incorrectly said to have been his home.

Location precision: The letters and raids concerned the town and its suburbs as a whole; the pin marks Brașov's centre.

In 1459 Vlad repaired the ruined citadel above the Argeș valley and made it one of his main fortresses. After punishing Târgoviște in 1457, he is said to have sent its young people to work at Poenari. One account has his wife throw herself from the tower into the river below rather than be captured. The ruin crowns a mountain top, and a landslide after an earthquake brought down parts of it in January 1913.

Visitor guidance: The ruin is reached by climbing 1,480 concrete stairs.

The sultan sent Hamza of Nicopolis to stage a meeting with Vlad at Giurgiu, with orders to ambush him. Vlad was forewarned, captured Hamza and the envoy Katabolinos, and had them executed. He then gave orders in fluent Turkish for the fortress gates to be opened, and his soldiers broke in and took it. Raids along the Danube followed, and on 11 February 1462 he reported the campaign to King Matthias Corvinus. One tally lists 6,414 victims at Giurgiu alone.

Location precision: The sources name the Giurgiu fortress, but the pin marks the modern town on the Danube.

Târgoviște was Wallachia's capital, and Vlad added the Chindia Tower to its princely court. With the Turks camped south of town, he broke into the Ottoman camp on the night of 16–17 June 1462 to capture or kill the sultan, but the Wallachians attacked the viziers' tents instead. Mehmed entered the deserted town at the end of June. Chalkokondyles has him saying it was impossible to deprive of his country a man who had done such great deeds. The tower now holds an exhibition of Vlad's documents, weapons and objects.

Location precision: The attack hit an Ottoman camp south of town whose exact site is not given; the pin marks the Chindia Tower in the princely court.

In late 1462 Corvinus's commander captured Vlad near Rucăr in Wallachia, and he was held in Visegrád from 1463 to 1475. No document mentioning him between 1462 and 1475 survives, but anecdotes about his cruelty began to spread in Germany and Italy during those years. He was released at the request of Stephen III of Moldavia in the summer of 1475. Visegrád was a country residence of King Matthias.

Location precision: The sources say Visegrád but not which building held him; the pin marks the town.

Vlad was crowned before 26 November 1476, but Basarab Laiotă returned with Ottoman support, and Vlad died fighting him in late December 1476 or early January 1477. His army of about 2,000 was cornered near Snagov by a force of 4,000. Bonfini wrote that his head was sent to Mehmed II. Tradition buries him at Snagov Monastery, yet a 1933 dig found no tomb under his supposed slab, only many bones and jaws of horses. One historian favours Comana Monastery, which Vlad established near the battlefield.

Location precision: His army was destroyed near Snagov and tradition places his grave at the monastery, but the 1933 dig found no tomb and the burial place is unknown.