Visitors to “Dracula’s Castle” in Transylvania are hoping that it will be sold to someone who will keep the doors open for them to come back for future tours. The Bran Castle — better known as “Dracula’s Castle” because of its ties to Prince Vlad the Impaler, the cruel warlord who inspired Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, “Dracula” — was recently put on the market by an heir of Romania’s former royal family.
The castle is located on a cliff near Brasov in mountainous central Romania and is considered one of the area’s top tourist attractions. Legend has it the castle was built in the 14th century to serve as a fortress to protect against the invading Ottoman Turks. In the 1920s the royal family moved into the castle where they remained until the late 1940s. The property was restored in the late 1980s and was later marketed as a tourist attraction.
The current owner, Archduke Dominic Habsburg, pledged to keep the building open as a museum until 2009 and offered to sell the castle last year to local authorities for $80 million, but the offer was rejected. Now the castle is up for sale to anyone who will keep it open as a museum. According to news reports, Habsburg will only sell it to a buyer “who will treat the property and its history with appropriate respect.”
In addition to the nearly 500,000 people who travel to Transylvania to tour the castle (complete with live bats which reportedly fly around its ramparts at twilight) in recent years the castle has attracted filmmakers looking for a dramatic backdrop for films about Dracula and other horror movies.
Have you ever made the trip to see “Dracula’s Castle?” I’m not big on bats (live or otherwise) or nocturnal people who enjoy sucking the blood of innocent victims, but I certainly could see how the property could attract those who get a kick out of those types of things. And, I suppose it would make a heck of a backdrop for a picture to include in the family Christmas card.
Related Articles:
Fun Fall Family Travel Destinations–Part 2: Haunted Houses