Bran Castle

Bran Castle is one of the top tourist attractions in Romania, and most of those tourists come to see "Dracula's Castle." It is conveniently just a 30 minute drive from the city of Brasov in southeastern Transylvania.

More on tourism below, but first, let me share a brief history of the castle.

Origin of Bran Castle
In 1377, King Louis I of Hungary authorized the citizens of Brasov to construct a fortress in Bran. The fortress would serve to defend the mountain pass against the increasing raids of the Ottomans to the south, as well as serving as a customs post between Transylvania (under Hungarian rule) and the Romanian principality of Wallachia. Construction was completed by 1382.

The fortress belonged to the Hungarian kings until it was passed to the city of Brasov in 1533. It is possible that it was held briefly by Mircea the Elder (the grandfather of Vlad the Impaler) who was prince of Wallachia in the early 15th century.

Bran Castle and Dracula

Sorry tourists, Bran castle was never the castle of Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Țepeș in Romanian), the historical Dracula.

Although the novel by Bram Stoker connects Dracula with Transylvania (and Dracula may have been born in Sighisoara, Transylvania) he was prince in Wallachia, the southern region of Romania. At the time of his rule in the mid-15th century, Bran Castle was controlled by Transylvania, out of his jurisdiction. However, Vlad the Impaler would have passed through Bran, and some speculate that his troops fought at Bran when he attacked and looted Brasov in 1459. It's also said that Vlad Dracula was briefly imprisoned in the castle dungeon in 1462.

Opinion varies as to whether or not Bram Stoker (who never traveled to Transylvania himself) had access to written descriptions of Bran castle when he wrote his 1897 novel Dracula. If so, he may have incorporated certain features of Bran castle into his fictional Dracula castle. However, this isn't to say that Bran castle is the castle in the novel; the setting of the novel is clearly in northeastern Transylvania and Bran castle is in southern Transylvania.

Bran Castle and the Royal Family

By the 19th century, the fortress had lost its military importance. It easily could have become a ruin like so many medieval fortresses scattered throughout Romania. The one in Bran was maintained by the Brasov Forestry Office until the 20th century. 

In 1920, two years after the the union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania, the city of Brasov gifted Bran castle to the Romanian royal family. Queen Marie of Romania, great-granddaughter of England's Queen Victoria, initiated a complete renovation of the castle to turn it into a comfortable residence for 20th century royalty. In fact, Bran became a favorite residence of Queen Marie (next to Balcic by the Black Sea). The 1934 video below documents Queen Marie at Bran Castle.

Queen Marie is buried in Curtea de Argeș, but her heart was buried in Balcic. In 1940, when the region of Dobrogea (including Balcic) was ceded to Bulgaria, the queen's heart was moved to Bran. 

When the communists took power and forced the royal family to leave Romania, the castle came under the administration of the communist government. It wasn't until 2005 that the royal family regained ownership of the castle. As of May 2014, the castle is for sale (for 80 million dollars).

Souvenirs for sale outside Bran Castle -- with
both the historical and fictional Dracula

Bran Castle and the Tourism
When you arrive at Bran Castle today, you are bombarded by buses of tourists and dozens of souvenir stands with merchandise to tourists -- everything from traditional handcrafts and foods to tacky Dracula souvenirs.

The inside of the castle, however, is much the way it was under Queen Marie, filled with Renaissance and neo-Baroque furnishings. The exhibits are mainly about the history of the castle and the Romanian royal family. There is, however, one small room tucked away with information about Bram Stoker's Dracula and the historical figure of Vlad the Impaler.