Visitors to Dracula’s castle in Romania can find themselves being jabbed with the Pfizer vaccination and then explore the historic “torture chamber” for free in a rather unique incentive to get more people vaccinated.
Bran Castle in Transylvania, home of Dracula, is luring people in to get jabbed in the arm with a needle rather than jabbed in the heart with a stake, in a very imaginative bid, created by the government, to get Romanians vaccinated.
Medics with fang stickers on their scrubs are offering Pfizer shots to everyone who rolls up their sleeves while visiting the 14th-century castle.
Quite the setting
Rising up from the mysterious foothills of the Carpathian mountains, Bran Castle has long been associated with Stoker’s vampire Count Dracula, as it is thought to have hosted the infamous Prince Vlad, or Vlad the Impaler, on whom the story was based.
So let’s just say, it really sets the scene.
The castle is currently acting as a mass vaccination centre, with those who receive the vaccine being given a certificate hailing their “boldness and responsibility” and promising they will be welcome at the castle “for the coming 100 years”.
Oh, and the newly vaccinated will also get a free tour of the “torture chamber” thrown in there too – where they can explore the castle’s exhibit of 52 medieval torture instruments. Lovely.
According to reports, the Castle hopes its unique initiative will help boost vaccination numbers, given Romania has one of the highest hesitancy levels in Europe.
During every weekend in May, anyone in the area can turn up without an appointment to get the jab in our favourite vaccination setting yet.
Since the pandemic began, Romania has recorded just over a million infections and nearly 29,000 deaths.