A Disney-style theme park based on a more gothic version of Goofy – Count Dracula – is set to be created in Romania.
A development company called Dracula Park SA planned to build the spooky attraction at Sighisoara, close to the Transylvanian birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, the evil warlord said to have been the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s aristocratic vampire.
But UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations, objected to the scheme because the 700-year-old town is a World Heritage Site, which it felt would have been ruined had the theme park been allowed to go ahead.
However, Reuters news agency reports that another site has now been found for the project at Snagoy Lake, about 10 miles from the Romanian capital Bucharest.
“All I can say is that the Dracula project is going ahead. We’re drafting a detailed plan, subject to shareholder approval by the end of this year,” Reuters quotes Sorin Marica, the chairman of the Dracula Park SA company as saying.
The park will have horror rides, labyrinths and catacombs, and will be built on state -owned land with private funding.
Government officials believe the attraction could pull in up to a million tourists a year by 2006, a fifth of them from abroad.
