Bram Stoker originally envisioned Dracula’s final battle atop a real-life extinct volcano, a fiery climax that was ultimately cut from the novel’s ending
When readers imagine Castle Dracula, they often picture a lonely fortress rising from Transylvania’s crags.
But Bram Stoker’s original vision was far more dramatic. He placed his vampire lord’s lair on top of an extinct volcano.
“My proof is in the Dracula notes,” says Dacre Stoker — Bram’s great-grand-nephew and guardian of the Stoker legacy.
“It actually had map coordinates to put this final battle and the castle on an extinct volcano. As detail-oriented as Bram was, if he’s going to have a volcanic eruption at the end of his story, by golly, it’s going to be on an old volcano.”
The Ending of Dracula That Vanished
In the typescript of Dracula, the Count’s death was followed by chaos on a volcanic scale.
“The deleted ending was only about two-thirds of a page long,” Dacre explains. “But it gives proof… right after Harker and Morris destroy Dracula, a volcano erupts, lots of destruction, the castle goes down, the good guys get away. But that was deleted.”
Why would Stoker cut such a spectacular finale?
“Possibly because it would have been a definitive ending to the Count,” Dacre suggests. “The publisher probably said, no, we want a less definitive and more ambiguous ending to keep him going.”
Dacre decided to see the site for himself. He followed Bram’s map references into the Carpathian Mountains.
“It’s called Mount Isverul and it’s in the Calimani National Park in north-eastern Transylvania, right by Bucovina and not very far from the Borgo Pass,” he says.
“My son and I went, and you’ve got to walk about two and a half miles through meadows and forests. But there’s now a plaque that gets you up there. And you can see that it’s a massive, huge volcano.”
At the summit, the folklore of Dracula came alive.
In the novel, Harker sees mysterious blue flames in the Borgo Pass, said to mark hidden treasure. On the mountain, Dacre found the truth behind the legend.
“One of the miners hammered a rock, lit it with a lighter, and it burned blue,” he recalls. “He goes, this is the blue flame. The sulphur is the treasure — the Habsburgs mined it for gunpowder. But we also have gold here. That’s what the Dacians used to mine up in these mountains. So again, superstition rooted in truth. And that’s what Bram exploited in his writing to make it seem true.”
A Castle of Fire and Stone
Stoker’s imagination stitched together multiple inspirations.
The outside came from sketches of Bran Castle, the inside from Slains Castle in Scotland, and the setting from Mount Izvorul’s volcanic peak.
“Bram merged two castles and placed his fictional castle on top of an extinct volcano in north-eastern Transylvania near the Borgo Pass, about 400 miles north-east of Bran Castle,” Dacre explains.
Though the eruption was cut from the final pages, the mountain remains — a reminder that Dracula is built on more than myth.
It draws on the real earth, where fire, sulphur, and legend still smoulder beneath Transylvania’s soil.
As Dacre Stoker, guardian of the family’s legacy, puts it: “Most of these superstitions have some basis in truth. And that’s what Bram did in his writing — he exploited them to make it all seem real.”
What did you think of this article about Dracula’s volcano? Would you hike to Mount Isverul to see the setting for yourself? Let us know in the comments!
Dacre Stoker is leading a trip to Romania this Halloween 2025. On our recent podcast, Dacre speaks to Spooky Isles about the adventure, as well as other thoughts on Dracula and his great-granduncle’s legacy.
- Book your Dracula adventure with Dacre Stoker: Mysterious Adventures Tours
- Listen to the full interview here: Spooky Isles Podcast with Dacre Stoker
