Is the tomb of Vlad the Impaler, the basis for Bram Stoker’s character Dracula, actually located in the cloister of a 13th-century church in the center of Naples? Some researchers believe so, and the church that hosts the tomb, Santa Maria di Nova, happily promotes the connection. Vlad III was Prince of Wallachia between 1448 and 1476, a time during which legends of his cruelty earned him the nickname “Vlad the Impaler.” In the fall of 1476, Vlad’s army was defeated in a battle with the Ottomans. The exact circumstances of…
