Bran Castle: The “Castle of Dracula”
Posted by Edward Dy on July 9th, 2008
Photo credit Azazel331
Popularly known as “Dracula’s Castle,” the Bran Castle is located near Bran and within the area of Brasov. The Castle of Dracula is a national monument as well as landmark in Romania. Bordering between Transylvania and Wallachia, the fortress is marketed as the home of the character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which led to the myth that it this once served as the home of Vlad Tepes, ruler of Wallachia.
Today, the castle is a museum open to tourists. It boasts of Queen Marie’s art and furniture collection. If you’re a tourist, you can go and see the interior of the castle by yourself or by a guided tour. There is a tiny open-air museum park at the foot of the hill, where Romanian peasant structures from across the country are displayed.
Photo credit dryasadingo
The history of the castle dates back to around 1212 when the Teutonic Knights built the wooden castle of Dietrichstein as a fortress in the Burzenland at a mountain valley’s entrance where traders traveled through for more than a millennium. This fortress was, however, destroyed 1242 by the Mongols.
On November 19, 1377, the Saxons of Kronstadt were granted by Louis I of Hungary the privilege to the stone fortress which would later be known as the Bran Castle. In the year 1378, the stone fortress was used in defense against the Ottoman Empire, and then became a customs post later on the mountain pass in the middle of Transylvania and Wallachia.
The castle was briefly owned by Mircea the Elder of Wallachia. Although legend has it that Vlad Tepes lived in the Bran Castle, the fact is he did not actually live there, but merely spent a couple of days locked in the dungeon when Transylvania was under the control of the Ottomans.
In the 20th century, around 1920, the castle became a royal residence under the Kingdom of Romania. Queen Marie lived there about that time and decorated the castle with her own artifact collection. This collection includes traditional furniture and tapestries that she collected to highlight Romanian crafts and skills.
The castle was thereafter inherited Queen Marie’s daughter, Princess Ileana. Unfortunately, during the communist regime, the castle was seized after the royal family was expelled in 1948.
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