From which region does Count Dracula originate in the novel?

Count Dracula originates from Transylvania in Bram Stoker's novel. The story opens with English solicitor Jonathan Harker traveling through the Carpathian Mountains to Dracula's remote castle, where the Count is presented as a Transylvanian nobleman.

Transylvania was a historical region of central and eastern Europe, associated in Stoker's time with the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary. In the novel, it provides the atmospheric setting for Dracula's castle, mountain passes, local folklore, and the fearful villagers who warn Harker about the journey. Dracula later travels to England, but Transylvania remains his homeland and the location to which he ultimately tries to return.

Readers often mix up Transylvania with neighboring or related names. Wallachia and Moldavia were separate historical principalities, although both are connected with Romanian history and helped shape modern Dracula lore. Carpathia is not Dracula's home region in the novel; it refers to the broader Carpathian setting and, in some contexts, to fictionalized geography. The fictional Castle Dracula should also not be confused with a confirmed real castle belonging to Vlad the Impaler.