Anyone who is interested in finding any information on the internet about Lancaster Castle will definitely come across this sentence: “Reception Criteria: Normal reception arrangements: The prison is not presently accepting Life Sentence prisoners and has some restrictions on long term prisoners.” So if you are looking for a nice cosy atmosphere in a romantic medieval castle you’d better search again unless you want to enter the castle for a long term high quality … imprisonment.

The present day correctional facility was opened in 1955 but in fact the Castle is the oldest and longest serving prison in Europe. It has been a prison since at least 1196 when Richard I commisioned the first Keepers of the Peace.

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The last 100 years brought into the lime light of the contemporary literature and show industry an old element of the traditional European folklore and legends: the vampires. Thought to be un-dead damned persons, cursed creatures of the night, blood thirsty killers passing to innocent people their terrible burden, the vampires haunt the imagination of the public who is eager to be frightened by horrific images. Bram Stoker, an Irish novelist, is among the first notable western authors to have used the myth of vampires in a successful literary work. His famous novel Dracula, published in 1897 by Archibald Constable and Company, was at the time of its publication a moderate success. After 1922 when it was released a film adaptation, the popularity of Dracula and the vampires increased considerably. Nosferatu, directed by the German director F. W. Murnau brought into the show biz the image of the un-dead man who haunted the imagination of people seeing one of the first horror movie ever made.

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