28:29 · The above entry sign, but with a square in its middle, can be seen on a painting from the fifteenth or sixteenth century, a portrait of Vlad, the Pole Piercer, more commonly known as Count Dracula (from Rumanian dracu = devil). Vlad was prince of Valakia, the southern part of what is now Rumania. He had to withstand constant pressure from the Hungarians in the north and the Ottoman Turks in the south. But he surely also considered it his duty to defend Christianity, , against the Ottoman Turks, , the latter having recently conquered the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople, earlier Byzantium, taking over its symbol, , and renaming this mighty Christian metropolis, which for more than 1,000 years had withstood all attacks, Istanbul.
    Vlad was well known for his cruelty. He was the prince or count of the Frontier Lands. His assignment was to hold Christianity's south eastern border against the mighty Turkish empire in the southeast. The princes of Valakia had for centuries upheld their independence as rulers of these frontier lands, sometimes paying tribute to the Sultan in Constantinople. Vlad was known as the Pole Piercer because he ordered quite a lot of people killed, and his favourite method of execution was piercing them alive on poles under the skin of the back so that it would take quite a time for them to die.
    The Muslim Turks probably had an eightpointed Venus star on their banners as well as the crescent, just as today they use , also a symbol for Venus as the Morning star, the goddess of activity and fighting. Note also that the square in is a symbol for land, the fief to be defended against the enemies of Valakia.