Politicians fight over Dracula theme park

[Gauracandra 1]

Politicians fight over Dracula theme park

November 14, 2001 Posted: 12:17 PM EST (1717 GMT)

 

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) -- Romanian politicians are fighting tooth and nail over who has the right to build a Dracula theme park.

 

Tourism Minister Dan Matei Agathon last week officially launched the concept of Dracula Park, which is to be built in the Transylvanian birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, the 15th-century count whose cruelty inspired the Dracula legend.

 

Agathon said the $30 million park would bring hundreds of thousands of international tourists to impoverished Romania and would create more than 3,000 jobs.

 

But on Tuesday, the Liberal Party proposed an alternative Dracula theme park that would be located in the Transylvanian town of Brasov, near Bran Castle, which is popularly known as Vlad's home. The park envisioned by the Liberals would cost just $18 million.

 

An angry Agathon denounced that idea as "immensely foolish."

 

Plans for the original Dracula Park in Sighisoara, where Vlad was born, have upset environmentalists and local religious leaders who fear the park will draw Satanists to Romania.

 

Some observers mocked the Dracula dispute.

 

"We can't make Swiss watches, American films, Russian bombers or German cars, so maybe we'll build Dracula parks and export some Dracula dolls throughout the world," the daily Evenimentul Zilei said in a commentary Wednesday.