BRAN CASTLE ~ TRANSYLVANIA

BRAN CASTLE ~ TRANSYLVANIA

Bran Castle in Transylvania is famous for spawning the original Vampire legend of Dracula.

Perched precariously on a rock high above a valley near Brașov in Romania, Bran Castle is open for business – cashing in on its nefarious reputation as Dracula’s former abode.

Irish author Bram Stoker invented Dracula as we know him today.
The novel was set in a vast and creepy castle perched high above a valley.
Beneath the stone fortress, a river flowed past.

Whether fact or fiction, its resemblance to Bran Castle is uncanny, especially as Stoker never actually visited the castle.
In fact, he never even set foot in Romania!

Although Dracula is said to be entirely fictional, Stoker modelled the blood sucking predator on Vlad Țepeș – otherwise known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracule.
Vlad did actually stay at Bran Castle, but only for a few months.
He was a prisoner of the Hungarian army in the 15th century.

Romanian locals believed that strigoi roamed the area after dark.
These spirits rose from the dead and fed on their victims’ blood.

As the story goes, the strigoi were actually ‘normal’ people during the day.
Come nightfall, however, their souls left their sleeping bodies to torment their neighbours…..

In 1920, the country’s beloved Queen Marie of Romania, received the castle as a gift.
Queen Marie was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria and was Romania’s last queen consort.

From 1920 to 1934, she lovingly restored and transformed the property into the royal family’s summer residence.

After Queen Marie’s death, her daughter Princess Ileana inherited the castle.
Queen Marie’s final wish was that her heart be taken to Balchik Castle near the Black Sea and interred.

During World War II, Princess Ileana put the extensive property to good use.
The Princess was a qualified nurse, and used the castle as a hospital to treat wounded soldiers.

Still shrouded in dark myths, Bran Castle’s thick fortress walls have seen dark days, and the love of a queen.

Walking through its cobblestone courtyards is a walk through centuries of history, from its founding by the Teutonic knights in the 13th century, to its 20th-century introduction as a tourism hotspot – built on Vampire legends….