Overview

• Scholars led by Giuseppe Reale announced the decryption of a previously unreadable inscription in the Cappella Turbolo of Santa Maria la Nova.
• The translated text is interpreted as a funerary epitaph for Vlad III of Wallachia, the 15th-century prince known as “the Impaler.”
• Initial iconographic clues from 2014—featuring a draconic emblem and Egyptian motifs—sparked collaboration between Italian scholars and University of Tallinn experts.
• Researchers propose that Vlad III was ransomed from Ottoman captivity by his daughter Maria Balsa and laid to rest in her father-in-law Matteo Ferrillo’s tomb.
• The epigraphic breakthrough considerably bolsters the decade-old hypothesis that the real-life inspiration for Dracula is buried in Naples.