Dracula’s Castle in Romania

As many of you recall at the beginning of last month I went on a whirlwind trip to Eastern Europe.  When people asked why I was going to Romania – and that was about 98% of people because if you say “I am going to Paris!” Most will say things like wow, amazing but when I told people I was going to Romania the number one question was why, closely followed by, “Bucharest, do you mean Budapest?”  And while I highly recommend Budapest I wanted to go for two reason’s – to see the Christmas markets and to visit Dracula’s castle.

I quickly learned when planning my trip is not actually called Dracula’s Castle but rather Bran Castle, and that it is has very little, if any attachment to Bram Stokers famed Dracula.   The castle is located quite a way from the Romanian capital of Bucharest so we had a few hours to learn all about the famed site from our tour guide before we headed up the hill and into the medical structure.

I could bore you with details but instead I will share a few of my favourite facts and if you want the full thing – you can go check out the Wikipedia page! The castle has more than 500 years of haunted history because it was thought that Vlad III Dracula, better known as Vlad the Impaler, was impressions in the castle in the late 14th century but historians determined he was imprisoned in a less imposing castle but this one was chosen for the tory books because it looked scarier and more impressive.

Instead this castle, which was dark and crafty inside but had a beautiful, bright internal courtyard.  And instead of a prison, the castle is now a museum dedicated to displaying art and furniture collected by the famed Queen Marie, which you can explore on a tour or by yourself.   I opted for the later and after spending more than hour wandering the castle I went off to explore the town of Bran.  In case you want to visit this famed Transylvanian castle and it is open 365 days a year and 40 LEI ($10) will gain you admission.

It was definitely not what I was expecting thought it was interesting to see the queen’s furniture – I really wonder what it would have looked like in it’s original state though!

Is this somewhere  you would want to visit?