“Did he?” So, on the trail of Vlad III, Laureen and I found ourselves at the hilltop home of the former ruler of Wallachia, a section of modern-day Romania north of the Danube, east of ...

Bran Castle, a modern-day tourist attraction in Transylvania ... which was at that time the royal seat of the principality of Wallachia, where his father was a "voivode," or ruler.

Vlad III was born in 1431 in Transylvania, a mountainous region in modern-day Romania. His father was Vlad II Dracul, ruler of Wallachia, a principality located to the south of Transylvania.