A lot of mysteries and legends are related to the island located in the middle of Snagov lake.

Alexandru Odobescu visited it in 1862 and heard an ancient story: "... sometimes, when the wind blows and makes the deep waters wave, one can hear a bell sound coming from the bottom of the lake ..."

The tradition mentions an old dwelling swallowed by water. It's door, made of sculptured wood might have floated on the lake. Someone took it and put it at the entrance of a small church from Turbati village. It' s very precious and Odobescu realized that it's the same ancient door from Snagov (made in 1453 A.C.).

Referring to the place where Tepes was buried Odobescu wrote: "on the island from Snagov, only the biggest floor- plate placed in the front of the Altar's door is related to a legend which may be true: it seems it was the gravestone of the tomb of Vlad Tepes."

The legend says that the feared Dracula was buried at the entrance of the dwelling, so that everybody should walk on his tomb.

In this dwelling was discovered a coffin which contained the red hair of a woman and an ivory comb. No bones, no clothes, instead of the body just a filum made of club rush . It's mystery was solved later, after 10 years from its discovering. It represented the size of the deceased and it was always left in place. In another tomb , there was a woman who "wore" a silver earning and some other jewels made from silver covered with gold and precious stones.

And there was another coffin containing the remains of a very important person, as one could say by the clothes he had. If we wanted to solve the mystery of the king buried in the front of the monument, we had to find out the truth about the golden crown and about a woman's ring which were hidden under the clothes of the unknown dead person [ ... ]

It was not an ordinary crown, but a crown which looked very likely to the one given as a reward during the medieval tournaments. But a golden crown offered to a man? And a women's ring ? How could this be explained?

In a certain way the answer to these questions was related to a special situation. The Romanian archeologist Dinu V Rosetti, who investigated this monument, found in a German publication the photo of the crown we are talking about; it looked just like the one offered to the winner of a medieval contest (XVth century)

In the same publication we also saw the image of the ring (same type). So he had to answer one very important question: who, from all Romanian kings, took part at such a contest during the XVth century ?

Doing some researches he found out that at these contests were allowed only the nobles whose ascendents belonged to the aristocracy for at least four generations.

Vlad Tepes, the grandson of Mircea cel Bătrân had all the necessary requests for taking part to such a contest. At the Ambras castle, just near the portrait of Vlad, was found a painting representing a medieval tournament. All these dates are pure coincidences ?

Nicolae Iorga,a great historian said in 1921 about Vlad Tepes: "He died in 1476. He was carried to the Snagov monastery, built at his order, located in the middle of the lake".

Another historian, Stefan Andreescu, in 1976 published some conclusions regarding Vlad Tepes: "At the time he died, VladTepes was about 45 years old. He was the ruler of Wallachia three times (1448, 1456-1462, 1476) and he had an out of common life. He was kept prisoner by the Turkish sultan,then he was imprisoned in Antalia, in Transylvania and in Bosnia. He was lucky enough to end his life as king, on Romanian land. His tomb is still covered by mystery but it seems he was buried at the Snagov monastery, which belonged for centuries to the royal family.

English version by Nora Parvu