Could It Be?

In a news article whose link was forwarded to me, we have the following somewhat exciting, somewhat scary, sentence: "Estonian researchers think that they've discovered the final resting place of the world's most famous vampire... and they're asking permission to crack open the tomb."

Of course, Vlad III Tepes, Vlad the Impaler, may have been pretty bloodthirsty, but there's no non-fictional evidence that he was a vampire, as in the book Dracula by Bram Stoker published in 1897.

In 1476, during one of his many wars, Vlad suddenly disappeared, and wasn't heard from again.

But now, a group of researchers believe that rather than dying in battle, Vlad was captured and later ransomed to his daughter, who had married a Neoplitan nobleman, and that he lived the rest of his life in Naples, Italy where he was finally buried in the Piazza Santa Maria la Nova Church.  A curious carved monument is found there which experts say belongs to Dracula.

The arms on the monument here do not match the arms I have seen elsewhere for Vlad III Tepes, but I don't know the provenance of those arms, either, so for all I know, none of them are his arms.

Naturally, the researchers are appealing to the authorities for permission to open the grave to prove their hunch.  Of course, if they do, and if Stoker's tale is based on more than we know, they could end up releasing Dracula from his slumber to reinstate his bloody reign of terror on an unsuspecting world.

You can read the full story, with more pictures of the tomb (and a great painting of Vlad pointing with a mace and standing atop a hill of skulls.  The face at least is based on an actual portrait of him that I've seen elsewhere) can be found on the website of Roadtrippers Daily at https://roadtrippers.com/blog/researchers-finally-discover-plan-to-open-draculas-grave-were-all-going-to-die