Hello! During our visit to Romania, we went to Count Dracula's castle. We stayed in Bran for 6 days. It takes about 34 minutes from Bran to Brașov and a bus departs every hour. The journey takes 52 minutes. The earliest bus departs at 7 in the morning and the latest one at 9 in the evening. You can also reach it by taxi.
The castle was built by the local people in the late 17th century with their own resources. Therefore, they were exempt from paying taxes to the state for several centuries. According to legend, Voivode Vlad Dracula stayed here during his campaigns and the Bran area was one of his favorite hunting grounds. The castle was founded in 1212, while Count Dracula was born almost 250 years later.
There is a parking lot away from the castle. I think it's still under renovation because there are barriers and none of the signs are working. We bought our tickets. It's 60 lei for two people, 30 lei for one person. As far as I understand, you can also purchase an additional tunnel visit for 20 lei per person. Many people said it wasn't worth it, it was too expensive and it looked like medieval torture chambers. So, we didn't want the tunnel tour. We just decided to see the castle.
They were allowing a certain number of people into the castle, so we waited a bit at the entrance.
Bran Castle served as a strategic defense fortress. It has four levels and these levels are connected by stairs. The halls and corridors of the castle are like a maze. Bran Castle has had many owners throughout history. It originally belonged to Grand Mircea, a nobleman of Wallachia.
After Transylvania became part of Romania, two defense towers were added to the castle. The castle belonged to the city of Brașov and was gifted to Queen Maria by the Brașov municipality as a sign of love and loyalty. After that, the castle became a royal residence in the 1920s and is now one of Romania's most popular tourist destinations. The interior is open for tourists to explore either on their own or with tour guides. Since 2006, Bran Castle has belonged to Dominic von Habsburg, a grandson of the Romanian royal family. After the transfer of ownership of the castle to him based on the law of returning properties to Romania's former owners, all the furniture was moved to a museum in Bucharest and Dominic von Habsburg had to buy various antique items to recreate the castle's decoration.
This place was built in the Gothic style and I don't think it evokes any sense of fear whatsoever. The story behind the castle being named Dracula began in the late 19th century when Irish writer Bram Stoker published his famous book. The character of Count Dracula first appeared in this work and later became one of the most popular vampire characters. While working on the novel, Bram Stoker extensively researched the history, folklore and literature of Transylvania and its rulers. In the novel, Count Dracula lives in a castle near the Borgo Pass in Transylvania. The character, based on the real person Vlad III, resided in the capital of Wallachia, Targoviște. People lived in fear. According to legend, Vlad placed a golden bowl next to the well in the central square. It was a bowl that anyone could use and no one dared to steal the gold. The golden bowl remained in the central square for years. Some saw the ruler as a mad tyrant, while others said the Count was a sorcerer who had made deals with dark powers. Even 25 years after Vlad's death, rumors persisted among the people that he was still a legendary vampire. According to another legend, Dracula's body disappeared from his grave shortly after the funeral. The whereabouts of the legendary Count Dracula's remains are still unknown. The castle was built on the edge of a large cliff, making three sides completely inaccessible. The Great Valley was visible to the west, with distant cliffs rising behind it. Today, Bran Castle is one of the most expensive properties in the country, estimated to be worth $140 million.
In the 1950s, Bran Castle offered a rich entertainment program for guests. Here, Christmas was celebrated with folk songs and dances from December 15th to January 15th. On Valentine's Day and Halloween, there were night tours, dances, wine, special guests and animation characters at the castle. Every year on September 29-30, a cheese festival was held at the foot of Bran Castle. As part of the traditional festival, Bran was famous for its cheese; the cheese recipe was kept secret and passed down from generation to generation. Clothes made of natural wool and woven according to ancient traditions were also famous.
Dracula's Castle is open every day from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and only open from 12:00 pm on Mondays. Bran is 170 km from Romania's capital, Bucharest and 150 km from Sibiu. There are hotels in Bran, but there are more options in Brașov, where we stayed. Also, Brașov is quite a large and developed city. You can only book three-star hotels in Bran. We also took a walk in the historic center of Brașov and climbed Mount Tâmpa, which is located within the city. I would like to provide more details about this in my subsequent posts.
I recommend coming here in the late afternoon. The line will be shorter. We spent an hour and forty minutes in the castle, which is quite a long time. This is because it was crowded and there were many rooms. Some rooms were closed, so you had to wander around. Overall, the castle is beautiful. But to be honest, I wouldn't want to come again for a second time. Waiting in line and getting in was a bit difficult.
After the castle, we returned to Brașov and had lunch at the AFI Shopping Center. Then we went shopping. I ordered fries from Burger King and also got spicy fries, I think they contain paprika. I saw a huge Merci chocolate for the first time, it was 102 Romanian lei. We completed our shopping, bought a bottle of water, cheese, chocolate, etc. Food here is quite affordable; we paid a total of 171 Romanian lei. We returned to our hotel and rested.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant near our hotel. I ordered a large carbonara plate, it was quite hot. It came in a pretty large portion. Then I had ordered Nutella pancakes, but they didn't come as shown in the picture, they had powdered sugar on top, I think. I can say I didn't like them at all. They were the worst pancakes I've ever had, even the frozen ones from the supermarkets were better. And it wasn't Nutella on them, it was some kind of Nutella-like syrup. I don't understand why they would do such a thing; they could have made delicious pancakes. Thankfully, the chicken salad and carbonara were tasty.
Impressions of Dracula's Castle: I quite liked it; I love castles. But if there were a bit fewer people, I would want to go again. Waiting in all those lines and wandering inside took quite a long time, but overall, the castle was very beautiful.