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
Early German colonists in Transylvania devastated and remained depopulated after the Mongol invasion of 1241. During the following years he laid the foundations to "Villa Nympz" (Nimesch), a fortified peasant village in a side valley of the Great Kokel River near Medgyes.<ref> Despite of all future historical tribulations and misfortunes, Medardus and his descendants, later known as the Maiterth family, managed to cultivate the former wilderness and transform it into rich and fertile farmland (agriculture, viticulture, stockbreeding). Early German colonists in Transylvania Medardus de Nympz is the Latinized name of Medard zu Nimesch, an early medieval German colonist in Transylvania. Born around 1215 in the