Bran Castle & the fictional Dracula

Whilst in Transylvania in Romania, I was looking forward to seeing Bran Castle, also known as Dracula's Castle. Bran Castle is located southwest of Brasov and is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Romania. Luckily we had a pre-booked evening visit to avoid the crowds, also we were having dinner there.

The castle is marketed as the home of the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula. However the castle was built in 1377 and the book was written in the 1890s. 

Bran Castle was built by the Saxons, who were of Germanic origin. It stands on the Transylvanian side of the historical border with Wallachia and served as a fortress, mainly as a defense against the Ottoman or Turkish Empire. It overlooks a pass in the Bran Gorge. Transylvania had been part of the Hungarian Kingdom, but in 1920 when Hungary lost Transylvania, and Transylvania became part of Romania, the castle became a royal residence for Queen Marie. Marie was the last queen of Romania as the wife of King Ferdinand I. She was born into the British royal family. Her parents were Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. Marie's early years were spent in Kent. During her time the castle was renovated. It even had an electric turbine that provided free electricity to the surrounding villages.  

Queen Marie left the castle to her daughter Princess Ileana. She was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria. The princess and her husband lived in the castle from 1942 - 1948. They then fled the country after Romania became communist and the castle was seized by the communist regime. 

In 2005 the Romanian government passed a law allowing properties illegally expropriated during Communist times could be returned to original owners, and Bran Castle was given to Archduke Dominic of Austria, a son of Princess Ileana. The castle has been refurbished and is now open to the public as a private museum. 

See a detailed account of the history on Wikipedia. 

It is thought that the Wallachian ruler Vlad Țepeș, aka Vlad the Impaler,  doesn't seem to have had any part in the history of the fortress.

Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was published in 1897. Bran Castle is not mentioned in the book. It is thought that during Stoker's research on the region of Transylvania, he came across accounts of the atrocities committed by Vlad III, and used the Dracula name after reading on the subject. Count Dracula was a vampire in the Gothic novel.

Today the village of Bran is dedicated to tourism, as apart from the castle there are numerous guest houses, restaurants and shops all cashing in on Dracula. As you approach Bran Castle from the car park you have to walk past souvenir stalls selling all kinds of Dracula merchandise. 

A model of the castle and surrounding area. Above the red arrow is the remains of the wall marking the boundary between Transylvania and Wallachia -

The rooms have all been done up. I liked the fireplaces, must have been difficult to keep the place warm in winter, even though the walls are up to 1.5 m thick. Some of the doors are rather low.

View looking at the border of Transylvania and Wallachia. The remains of the old wall (which I marked with a red arrow on the photo of the model above)  can be seen at the top of the main grassy area, where the road bends to the right.

Views on the courtyard -

One section of the upper floor is dedicated to the scary myths and legends created by folk stories and more recently by cinema and television.

And Vlad the Impaler is featured in a separate room -

Having negotiated all the narrow winding stairs, we were back down in the courtyard before heading to the restaurant for a delicious dinner -

So although Bram Stoker never visited Transylvania, during his research on Transylvania he learnt about Vlad Tepes aka Vlad Dracula, and used the name for the character in his book, creating Count Dracula, a seductive vampire. Bran Castle later became known as Dracula's Castle as it was considered to be a good fit for an eerie castle.

As soon as I got home, I ordered a (free) copy of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" for my kindle. I have never read the book, although in the 1970s I watched plenty of Dracula and other vampire type films on TV.

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See my blog on the real Dracula, Vlad the Impaler..

Vlad the Impaler - the real Dracula

 Vlad the Impaler was one of the most important rulers and a national hero of Romania. In Romanian his name is Vlad Tepes. He was also known as Vlad III and Vlad Dracula. However the name Dracula in this context is nothing to do with the vampire Count Dracula, but comes from the family name Dracul, and Dracula means son of Dracul. 

Vlad III was born in 1431 in Sighișoara, in the region of Transylvania. He was prince of Walachia, which is now in Romania. He became a Voivode (military governor, or prince) of Walachia and gained notoriety because of his cruel methods of punishing his enemies. He died 1476, north of present-day Bucharest.

A portrait of Vlad III -

His father and elder brother were assassinated at the hands of Walachian nobles in 1447. He embarked on a series  of lifelong campaigns to regain his father’s seat. After he claimed the viovodate, he earned  the name Vlad the Impaler due to his atrocities of impaling his enemies on stakes in the ground and leaving them to die. He inflicted this type of torture on all enemies alike. He supposedly retreated from a battle in 1462 leaving a field filled with thousands of impaled victims as a deterrent to pursuing Ottoman forces.

He was against the Ottomans. He was killed in a battle in 1476 and became a hero due to his efforts against Ottoman encroachment. 

Vlad in Bran Castle -

Whilst in Sighișoara, we went to the house where Vlad was born. We were told we would see the actual room in which he was born. Sighișoara is a well preserved fortified medieval town up on a hill, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was founded by German craftsmen and merchants known as the Saxons of Transylvania.

 

The ground floor is now a shop and the first floor is a bar and Restaurant Casa Vlad Dracul. 

The room where Vlad was born is upstairs on the second floor and I was expecting something historical. Instead it was like a haunted house from an amusement park. Entry was 10 lei (just under £2). As people climbed the dark narrow stairs, the barman let a large toy spider drop on unsuspecting heads. The actual room is really dark and full of "scary" Dracula creatures -

It is thought that Bram Stoker in his book "Dracula"  may have based the title character of Dracula on Vlad Tepes. See my blog on Bran Castle aka Dracula's Castle.

Meals in Romania

Romanians like their meat! Almost every meal we had that wasn't a buffet consisted of a large portion of meat, usually served with mash. And generally the meat was incredibly tender, especially the beef and venison. And the mash was always very creamy and lump free.

The only drawback was the lack of veg. Vegetables were hardly ever served with a meal. And yet there was always plenty of salad items available in the buffets.

Some of the meat dishes -

duck leg with beetroot

pork - the only tough meat we had

                       

pork with mash

chicken with potato

chicken schnitzel

For lunch one day we had this venison, this was all meat apart from the small centre bone, then for dinner the same day we had the turkey - problem was we were still full from lunch and couldn't eat it!

venison osso buco

turkey

We did have fish a couple of times -

trout with rice

Apart from the large portions of meat for a main meal, there was also a lot of cold meats for breakfast and for some starters, as well as cheese.

3 photos of sharing plates before main meals -

cabbage leaves stuffed with pork

Hotel starters -

This was a more delicate starter in a nice restaurant, Casa Doina at Bucharest -

Part of some hotel breakfast buffets -

honeycomb

We had dessert with every meal, and they were generally quite heavy, usually cake and with no sauce or cream. A famous Romanian cake / dessert is papanasi, which is rather similar to a doughnut and best served hot. They were served with some form of cream. Some were huge, some were smaller -

this one was huge

smaller papanasi and also apple cake, with cream and jams

We had a delicious meal in Dracula's Castle - Bran Castle - which was the duck leg (above) and dessert was a chocolate pud and funeral cake. Coliva is a funeral cake distributed for the commemoration of the dead, at funerals, and at memorial services. Made of boiled wheat mixed with sugar and crushed nuts, adorned with candies and powdered sugar, ours had some pear or apple on top. It is on the right -  

Another sweet food we tried was kurtoskalacs. It is like a long empty doughnut and covered with sweet things -

I am now on a diet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Libearty Bear Sanctuary, Romania

 The Libearty Bear Sanctuary in Romania is the largest sanctuary for brown bears in Europe. It is located at Zarnesti, which is outside Brasov in Transylvania. "Libearty" is currently home to over 130 bears, and is recognized as the most ethical sanctuary in the world, spread over an area of 70 hectares of oak forest.

There are 2 tours a day in English, where visitors walk round with a guide to see and learn about the bears. Visitors have to pay to use a camera, phones are free. I decided to get a camera ticket, even though I knew the bars of the fences would get in the way of photos.  

The sanctuary was established in 2005. It was created in memory of the bear Maya and is today the home of over 100 bears, all rescued from a cruel and abusive life of captivity. Most of the bears were rescued from captivity, confined in small cages, miserable, just for fun for restaurants, hotels, factories, gas stations, circuses or even monasteries. They are now in their natural environment. Before seeing the bears you watch a short video about where some of the bears have come from, which is very sad to watch. 

Seeing the first bear was exciting

As we walked on further, we came to a large open area which is used as a feeding station and there is a pond. The bears were being fed with fruit whilst we were there.

Two bears were having fun in the pond -

A male bear -

There is a webcam which shows one of the ponds.