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
1537 Transylvania the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Transylvania is also the birthplace of the discoverer Gyula Strommer (1920–1995). "Transylvania" was his only minor-planet discovery. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 February 1980 (). 1537 Transylvania 1537 Transylvania, provisional designation , is a carbonaceous asteroid and long-lost minor planet from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 17 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by Gyula Strommer in 1940, it was later named after region of Transylvania, where the discoverer was born. "Transylvania" was discovered on 27 August 1940, by Hungarian astronomer Gyula Strommer at the Konkoly Observatory near