Scholomance

The Scholomance (modern Romanian Solomonanţă) was fabled to be a legendary school of black magic run by the Devil, supposedly located near an unnamed lake in the mountains south of the city of Hermannstadt (Nagyszeben in Hungarian, now called Sibiu in Romanian) in Transylvania.

Emily Gerard, a Scottish author married to a Polish cavalryman stationed in Hungary, gave a detailed description in an article titled "Transylvanian Superstitions" in the magazine The Nineteenth Century (1885):

Wilhelm Schmidt, then a schoolteacher in Hermannstadt (modern Sibiu), discussed the Scholomance 20 years earlier in an article for the Österreichische Revue, along with the Scholomonariu, the sorcerers who graduated from it.

Katherine Ramsland describes the nine remaining scholars, known as Solomonari, as "tall, redheaded men clad in white wool...[possessing] several instruments of magic and a book of instruction." She also goes on to explain that they are "trained for nine years...overcoming obstacles and surviving ordeals. Their final examination involved copying all that they knew about humanity into the Solomonar's book."

Charles Godfrey Leland associated it with medieval stories of a school of sorcery taught by the devil located in Salamanca, Spain, in the Cueva de Salamanca (). The Solomonari in Romanian folklore were commonly associated with King Solomon, a leading figure in Western occult traditions.

Bram Stoker, likely drawing from Gerard's work, referred to it twice in Dracula, once in chapter 18:

And in chapter 23:

Stoker's reference to "Lake Hermanstadt" appears to be a misinterpretation of Gerard's passage, as there is no body of water by that name. The part of the Carpathians near Hermannstadt holds Păltiniş Lake and Bâlea Lake, which host popular resorts for people of the surrounding area.

...
Wikipedia