Dracula's castle: Spanish vampire Count's Costa Brava haunt

BRAM Stoker's terrifying fictional Count from Transylvania might not have been the first undead human parasite in popular culture, but is certainly the most famous worldwide – and is credited with having started a genre that continues to generate blockbuster films and bestselling novels today. Without the daylight-avoiding, coffin-sleeping Dracula, Brad Pitt would not have had his huge rôle in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, Buffy wouldn't have had any creatures to slay in the cult TV series, and Stephanie Meyer's Twilight trilogy would not be avidly devoured by young adult readers in the 21st century.

But Spain's very own Count Dracula is believed to have lived centuries before his counterpart in Stoker's gothic masterpiece.

He resided in a castle close to the Costa Brava, and it was his own fault he became a blood-sucking immortal. If he hadn't been involved in burning witches, he would have been resting in peace for the last 800 years.

Mediaeval powerpoint: Almost intact 1,000 years on

This year, the national holiday on November 1 – All Saints' Day – falls on a Tuesday (remember to do your shopping the day before, as a bank holiday means everywhere is shut), so many Spanish residents will have booked the Monday off work to make a long weekend of it.

And if you're one of these, and planning a Hallowe'en road trip, you could make it authentic by heading to one of Spain's notorious 'haunted' sites or, given that temperatures on the Mediterranean are still expected to be in the low to mid-20ºCs around then, take in the Costa Brava and combine it with a visit to the village of Llers.

Here, the castle of the same name, strategically-placed for defence in the Middle Ages as it dominates the high plain it sits on, and for trading and military operations, as it is right on the cross-border route through the Pyrénées, is a hotbed of goosebump-inducing legends.

Llers Castle was also a residential seat for the wealthy and powerful, and remains of what were once sumptuous rooms can be explored within its mostly-intact boundary walls.

Constructed in the 11th century, a traditional Romanesque model around a central round tower, this fortress offering panoramic views across the Alt Empordà district of the province of Girona remained in practically perfect conditions until 1939, the final year of the Civil War.

A stash of gunpowder held at the nearby parish church was blown up by the Republicans – the faction fighting against the troops supporting the future fascist dictator General Franco – and the blast took out part of the castle, which has never been restored.

Whilst Spain is replete with Mediaeval castles, seats of power for everyone from the Knights Templar to Moorish rulers, some in ruins and some unchanged in a millennium – and, almost certainly, there'll be at least one within a few kilometres of wherever you live or stay – the solid-stone fortress in Llers is especially well-known and a major international tourism haunt.

An ageless aristocrat of high military ranking

Legend has it that the castle was occupied by a member of the aristocracy around the middle part of the Moorish Empire, but the dates are uncertain. 

Whilst it is claimed Count Guifred Arnald Estruch lived in the shire of Alt Empordà between the 11th and 12th centuries and resided in the keep in Llers for most of that time, it is also said that he was in service to the Crown, a member of the military for the Kingdom of Aragón, the eastern half of mainland Spain, and was active in the early 13th century.

Count Estruch is rumoured to have fought in the battle of Navas de Tolosa, won by the Christians against the Moors, also known as the battle of Úbeda or, in Arabic, as the Al-Iqāb, or 'battle of punishment', which took place on July 16, 1212 in the Jaén-province town of Santa Elena.

If he had been alive in the 11th century, Count Estruch would have been at least 113 years old if he had been in combat in this famous conflict in southern Spain.

Also, he is said to have been assassinated in the year 1173, meaning he would have already been dead for 39 years before he donned his armour.

Despite all the speculation surrounding his life, death and bellicose activity, Count Guifred Arnald Estruch is, indeed, suspected to have been a real person – possibly just an ordinary, if high-ranking, soldier with an impressive and prominent main residence.

But where's the fun in that? It's much more entertaining to believe he was genuinely a vampire whose age was in treble figures when he helped the Christians to victory in Jaén.

Witch's revenge: Young, undead and out for blood

For the woman who 'made him a vampire', the situation was far from entertaining. These were dangerous times to be female – if it was rumoured you were a witch, they would try to drown you; if you drowned, you were innocent, and if you didn't, you were definitely a witch, so you would be burned on a pyre.

Anyone could make these allegations against you, on practically any grounds or none at all, and you were automatically condemned one way or another. 

The last woman Count Estruch burned as a witch is said to have laid a curse on him just before she died, which led to his returning to Llers after his own demise, neither alive nor dead, but with a much younger appearance.

This newly-revived Count was widely feared, rumoured to survive by sucking the blood from the inhabitants, and leaving Llers' young women pregnant.

They would then give birth to mini-vampires, with monstrous features, who perished shortly after they came into the world.

Such was his reign of terror from beyond the grave that the villagers commissioned a 'professional' vampire-slayer to exorcise him.

According to legend, this drastic action worked, and Llers has been safe from Dracula's predecessors ever since.

But rather like the green, rural and peaceful Romanian region of Transylvania – whose name translates as 'across the woodland' – Llers castle's reputation as a vampire's residence has stayed with it forever.

Author Salvador Sáinz helped perpetuate it, too, with his novel Estruch, about a 12th-century vampire from a Girona-province village, turning the ancient folklore into popular modern fiction.

Getting there by motorway

Whether or not you believe the hype, the Alt Empordà area is an attractive, tranquil and traditional part of the world, popular as a quiet rural retreat for a relaxing staycation, and Llers Castle is an impressive example of Mediaeval architecture very much worth the detour.

It's easy to reach and very well signposted from the AP-7 motorway, which runs from the French border down to the Costa del Sol along Spain's east coast.

From Girona city, Llers is about 40 minutes, or just under 50 kilometres, or from Barcelona city, about an hour and a half.