Bran Castle

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General

According to this legend, the castle used to be the place where Dracula, the character of Bram Stoker's book, lived. But there is a confusion between Dracula and Vlad Tepes, ruler of Wallachia, as they are not one and the same person. The first is just a mith, a character, and the second has nothing to do with Dracula, it is just a result of the interference between some real historical facts about the rulership of Vlad Tepes, mentioned in the writings of some chroniclers of the time, who wanted to put him in bad light and the association of these facts with Dracula's character. There are many stories about the cruelty of Vlad Tepes "The Impaler", but no one can prove their veracity, so they still remain surrounded by mystery.

Bran Castle, got the name of Dracula's Castle, three decades ago, when tourists who came to Transylvania in the look for Dracula, the famous character, saw the castle and thought it resembled the castle described in Stoker's book as being Dracula's Castle.

In 1920, the castle was donated to Queen Maria, by the City Council of Brasov. She brought an architect from the Royal Court, by the name of Carol Liman, to restore the place. The restoration took seven years, and in the end the castle was transformed in to a gorgeous summer residence, surrounded by a beautiful park with alleys, a lake and several fountains. It was enharited by the queen's daughter, Princess Ileana, who will own it until the year of 1948, when the royal family is expelled from the country.

It becomes a property of the state, but unfortunately, it is devastated and abandoned. Only in 1956 it is opened as a history museum, but still it's state is very bad and has to be restaured, starting from 1987 to 1993.

On the 18th of May, 2009, the Castle was retroceded to the family of Princess Ileana. It suffered some thematic changes: a special room dedicated to Dracula was arranged, and it is called "Bram Stoker", a room in which you can see video projections from the National Archives, about Queen Maria and Princess Ileana. On the 1st of June, the castle was officially reopened.