Castle Bran Roumania

420 kilometers from Chisinau, on the border between the Romanian provinces of Transylvania and Muntenia, on the top of a cliff, we meet the silhouette of one of the most famous fortifications in the world.

The Castle of Bran, or, as he likes the amateurs of sensation, Dracula's Castle, built here more than 600 years ago, keeps and conveys to the visitor something of the pride of the knights who have crossed the threshold in his time.

Bran Castle is located less than 30 km from Brasov, built on a cliff, in a strategically key location. It is home to the Bran Museum, a museum that stretches across the four floors of the castle. Here are exhibited collections of ceramics, furniture, weapons and armor, and in the courtyard of the castle there is a small museum of the village, with traditional houses from the region of Rucar-Bran.

Although he entered the circuit and tourist folk as Dracula's Castle, it seems that Vlad the Impaler never lived in the castle. However, the legend seems to be stronger than reality ... here is the famous film "Interview with a Vampire", as a direct reference to the supposed vampire features of the Wallachian voivode. In 2000, Bran Castle was claimed by the Archduke Dominic of Habsburg and its sisters, Maria Magdalena Holzhausen and Elisabeth Sandhofer, the castle's heirs, who became the owners of the castle and of their domain after a governmental restitution decision. The Romanian state preserved the administration of the castle for another 3 years until 18 May 2009. Prior to the restitution, the Ministry of Culture ordered the relocation of the collections belonging to the Romanian state from the Bran Castle to the Medieval Customs.

In order to reopen the museum, the Habsburg family rented the castle with objects from the personal collection. The official reopening of the museum took place on 1 June 2009.

The story of the castle
A document issued by King Ludovic I of Hungary (1342-1382) on 19 November 1377 in Zvolen confirms to the Saxons of Braşov the right to raise, according to the promise, at their expense and with their craftsmen, a new stone fortress at Bran. On this occasion, the King promises to the Brasov that if Wallachia will get "in our hands" then the customs will be moved from Ruffa Arbor to Bran.The reference in the text of the 1377 document on a "new stone fortress "allows the deduction that the stone fortification, to be built on this site, was preceded by an older border reinforcement. This fortress, probably of wood, would have been raised by the Knights Templar between 1211-1225. It is attributed to Master Theodorikus. In the thirteenth century the territory of the Bran fortress was subjected to the jurisdiction of the royal county of Alba Iulia.
In 1395 Sigismund of Luxemburg, the German emperor and king of Hungary, used Bran Castle as a strategic base for an incursion into Wallachia, after which he removed Prince Vlad Uzurpator, the rival of Mircea the Elder, his vassal.
In 1407 Sigismund granted Mircea the rulers of Bran (without the related field) and Bologa. The Bran remained under the authority of Wallachia until 1419. In 1427 Bran Castle passed from the property of the Brasov chair to that of the Crown of Hungary, which financed the fortification and expansion works. In 1498 Bran Castle was rented by the Hungarian kingdom to the seat of Brasov.

In 1920 Brasov City Council donated the Bran Castle to the Queen Maria of Romania, in gratitude for its contribution to the Great Union on 1 December 1918. The Queen arranged it and left her inheritance to her daughter, Princess Ileana, sister of King Carol II century. After the expulsion of the royal family from the country, in 1948 Bran Castle became the property of the Romanian state, being abandoned and devastated.

The castle was then reopened to public visits in 1956, being partially arranged as a museum of history and feudal art. In 1987 he entered the restoration, a work largely finished in 1993.