Dracula theme park town bites back

BUCHAREST, Romania --A bloody battle is brewing in Romania as environmentalists protest over government plans to build a Dracula theme park in a Transylvanian town.

Groups including the U.N's cultural body UNESCO to Greenpeace are opposed to the park, which they say will spoil the local environment and the medieval heritage of the town of Sighisoara.

But the government says it will not allow protesters to dictate its plans and that a survey to be released into the park's location next month will determine whether the park will go ahead or not.

"We respect UNESCO's stand ... but this is a government project and UNESCO cannot put constraints on it," a tourism ministry spokesman told Reuters on Monday.

Protesters though vowed to step up the fight. "Building a Dracula park near Sighisoara would endanger the cultural value of the city," UNESCO Secretary-General Koichiro Matsuura told Reuters this month during a visit to Romania.

Sighisoara is the birthplace of the 15th century Romanian Count Vlad Tepes, or "Vlad the Impaler" who inspired Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula."

Some opponents say they fear that the town's moral values are in danger. "This place will be invaded by those who practise satanic rites and by drugs," local priest Hans Frolich told Reuters.

"What could children see in such a park? People who sharpen their teeth and drink blood or some crazy guys clad in bed sheets and posing as ghosts? It's ridiculous," Frolich said.

The government says the 30 million euro (dollars) Disney-style park will bring about 3,000 jobs to Sighisoara, a town that has recently suffered from high unemployment.

http://cnn.com

Is employment a more pressing need than protecting the environment? What do you think?

Do you think that vampires are a suitable subject for a theme park?

I don't think that it sounds like a very good idea. People are not going to come all the way to Romania just to see the kind of thing that they can see at any American theme park or haunted house.

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Groups including the U.N's cultural body UNESCO to Greenpeace are opposed to the park, which they say will spoil the local environment and the medieval heritage of the town of Sighisoara.

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I agree with these groups.

Environmental reasons or not, I just think the idea is tacky.

I guess this is the teenager in me coming out, but I think it sounds like fun! They just need to open one here in the States....

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Unfortunately, tacky sells.

I found this story rather amusing, but then I have a unique sense of humor

ShadowHippie

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I don't think that it sounds like a very good idea. People are not going to come all the way to Romania just to see the kind of thing that they can see at any American theme park or haunted house.

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Maybe not, but I'm sure American's are not the sole target group the developers have in mind. I have a feeling they'll be expecting a lot more Romanians to visit than Americans!

You know that wherever you go when you travel, you'll find that if a place was mentioned in literature or a film there will be a legend and the town will have something to commemorate it and then gradually they'll probably see the business aspects of it.
Sounds like Amish Wonderland or whatever they called it back in Pennsylvania and the irony of it all was that Old Order Amish cannot use certain electronic devices so I bet they couldn't hire many local youth from the order. They had amusement park rides based on the Amish!

Here in France the Beast of Gevaudan has generated a park full of wolves, sponsored by Brigitte Bardot as the beast was said to have been a wolf perhaps. This park respects nature though and the animals.
All around that area wherever there were victims, there are beast cafés and statues.

In England you have the dungeons now in several cities, they take the famous deaths and have a theatrical attraction.
Any town that has something historical that generates curiosity will have an attraction.

As long as they do it tastefully it will probably generate income for local people. It's something very inevitable.

Oh yes, just revisited the Loch Ness exhibits, now they've got two rivals showing you Nessie's shadowy photos...and selling you all sorts of things. So I guess it gives work to people in the area because people will always be curious and drawn to the stories.