Transylvania and literature as a land of mystery and magic. For example, in Paulo Coelho's novel "The Witch of Portobello", the main character, Sherine Khalil, is described as a Transylvanian orphan with a Romani mother, in an effort to add to the character's exotic mystique. The so-called Transylvanian trilogy of historical novels by Miklos Banffy, "The Writing on the Wall", is an extended treatment of the 19th- and early 20th-century social and political history of the country. Among the first actors to portray Dracula in film was Bela Lugosi, who was born in Banat, in present-day Romania. Transylvania Transylvania is a
Transylvania University representatives, 36 U.S. governors, one Confederate President, and 34 U.S. ambassadors, making it a large producer of U.S. statesmen. Its medical program graduated 8,000 physicians by 1859. Its enduring footprint, both in national and Southern academia, makes it among the most prolific cultural establishments and the most storied institutions in the South. Transylvania was the first college west of the Allegheny Mountains, and was named for the Colony of Transylvania, Latin for "across the woods", which aimed to educate good citizens. Thomas Jefferson was governor of Virginia when the Virginia Assembly chartered Transylvania Seminary in 1780. Called Transylvania University by