Bran Castle or Dracula's Castle

Today I'm going to take you to the Bran Castle, (Romanian: Castelul Bran, German: Törzburg, Hungarian: Törcsvár), a national monument commonly known as Dracula's Castle, situated near Brașov, Romania. It is a famous and well known tourist destination, so if you are in Romania, don't miss it!

The castle is now a museum dedicated to displaying art and furniture collected by Queen Marie, Marie of Edinburgh, commonly known as Marie of Romania. Marie Alexandra Victoria was born on 29 October 1875 at Eastwell Park, Kent, England and had died on 18 July 1938 at Pelișor Castle, Sinaia, Romania). She was the last Queen of Romania as the wife of King Ferdinand I.

The first documented mentioning of Bran Castle is the act issued by Louis I of Hungary on 19 November 1377, giving the Saxons of Kronstadt (Brașov) the privilege to build the stone castle on their own expense and labor force. This amazing place has a long and interesting history, went through a lot, you can read more about it here.

On December 1st 1920, the citizens of Brasov, through a unanimous decision of the city’s council, led by Mayor Karl Schnell, offered the castle to Queen Maria of Romania, who restored it. From 1920 until 1932, the Castle was converted into a royal summer residence, coordinated by the Czech architect Karen Liman, who designed the castles Peles and Pelisor.

In 1956 the castle was transformed into a museum by the communist authorities. On May 18, after several years of legal proceedings, it was legally returned to the heirs of Princess Ileana of Romania and Archduke Anton of Austria.

Warning: the photos are not of the best quality and I'm sorry for that. These were taken in 2014 with a borrowed camera, so I did what I could with what I had but since this is not a photo contest ... :)

This is the steep road to the castle. I remember some tourists were complaining about the physical effort you have to make to visit the castle and also complaining about the lack of an elevator. This is partly funny because this is a historical place, it is kept as it was a hundred years ago and that's the beauty of it, you get to go back in time for an hour or so and see how royalties were living. Unfortunately this is not a place for disabled. An elevator would only take you to the entrance. There is not room for elevator inside, nor for a wheelchair or a mobility scooter. You'll see watching my photos below.

The castle is situated on a hill and below has a very nice garden with a couple of wooden houses probably used by servants. These are just a couple of them, now fully covered with moss.

A few photographs of the garden with the small lake with waterlilies.

I was happy to see everything is well taken care of.

A stone cross in the garden.

The main entrance of the castle with a very nice wooden door and a special and stylish door knock.

Starting from here, taking photographs was a real challenge. You have to know that even though the castle looks huge from outside, that's not the case inside. The rooms are small, the windows are small, corridors are narrow, the illumination is poor, and most of the rooms can't be stepped into, visitors are standing in the doorway, in front of the ropes. Sometimes I had to wait 5 minutes to take a photo from the only spot available, no matter if it was a good angle or not.

This is a fireplace right in the first room, which was some kind of hall I guess. Let's not forget that at the beginning of the 20th century, when this castle served as a summer residence for the royal family, there was no electricity, heating and cooking was made probably with woods and everything had to be carried up here (woods, food, water etc.).

This is a real masterpiece of those days. I'm not sure if it's a piece of furniture or a travel crate, I can't remember exactly but it's beautiful.

A kettle probably made of copper.

Next is the bedroom of Queen Mary of Romania. The furniture is made of wood and it's all carved.

This is the castellan's room. A castellan was the governor or captain of a castellany and its castle.

Part of the large drawing room.

Have you ever seen a door and a lock like this?

This was a secret staircase which connects the castle's first and third floors. It was extremely narrow, it was full of visitors, you couldn't stop, not even for a second, so this is the best I could do.

This is the entrance of the secret staircase. You can see how narrow it is and the ceiling is also so down you could hit your head any time.

A piano in the music room, with two candles.

Another great piece of furniture, featuring a royal scene.

A wooden carved work of art which served probably as a drawer.

This was the office or workroom. Now imagine yourself sitting on that very uncomfortable and hard wooden chair, working at the light of a candle. On the right you can see the ... I don't even know what to call it, it was used to place the royal seal to the documents, letters.

This is the other corner of the office.

A beautiful and stylish, hand painted fireplace.

A bedroom with this carved wooden bed.

A very beautiful hand painted wooden door with floral pattern.

Two pieces of the armor collection, worn by soldiers and some weapons.

Queen Mary's emblem and a flag.

This is the castle from the inner courtyard. I just love it! It's so beautiful.

There is a stone well in the inner courtyard, which is called the wishing well.

These wells are usually full of money, tourists love to throw money into them, maybe make a wish. This had some money as well but I guess it is emptied at the end of each day, but this is just a guess.

This is the first part of my post, it's the longest so far, I know and I'm really curious to see how many people have the patience to read it. This is a very important historical place and deserves respect. I wanted to show you as much as I could. There is another part, a commercial part with the souvenir market which is situated outside of the castle territory and suits @dswigle's, our lovely friend's #marketfriday but with your permission, I'm going to post it next week.

I hope you enjoyed my presentation and if you are in Romania, don't forget to visit Dracula's castle :)) Don't be afraid, You won't bump into Dracula, so it's perfectly safe to visit this beautiful castle :)

P.S. Bram Stoker’s character, Dracula, is a Transylvanian Count who is often confused with Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), sometimes known as Vlad Dracul. Because Bran Castle is the only castle in all of Transylvania that actually fits Bram Stoker’s description of Dracula’s Castle, it is known throughout the world as Dracula’s Castle.