"Dracula's Castle" For Sale In Romania

galaad2 writes "Want to own the real castle that may have inspired the legend of Dracula? The Transylvanian castle associated with Vlad the Impaler, who may have been part of the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Count Dracula, is on sale for £40 million ($77 million). Bran Castle, near the historic city of Brasov, in central Romania, draws 450,000 visitors a year because of its association with 15th-century Prince Vlad Tepes III. (Wikipedia points out that Bran Castle's ties to Vlad are weak and disputed.) The local town council has been offered first refusal; they have 30 days to review the offer and then the property will be put on the market."

Comments

Re:Vlad's old digs, eh?

[afd8856]

In the interest of spreading real news, I'll try to clarify things a bit.

The castle was donated to an old Romanian queen by the local city. Comunists came and took it, now the royal family got it back as a donation. The Romanian Culture Ministry has a clause in that donation act that they are to be the first to be notified in case it's available for sale and they have the right to purchase it back first. The Royal Family didn't notify the Culture Ministry yet, so they can't officially sell it because the Culture Ministry hasn't refused to purchase it yet.

The whole thing looks a bit like a scam from the Royal Family to increase the value of the castle. Apropos, the castle is the most major Romanian tourist site, it's very beautiful and it makes something like 10 milion Euro/year, with about 6 milion Euro/year expenses.

Dracula's Castle? Since when?

[KaylaVincent]

Well, the castle has little to do with Vlad Tepes, actually. As for Bram Stocker, there's an idea he mostly drew his inspiration from the actions of Elizabeth Bathory. :) You should look more into the subject of this castle. It is beautiful, indeed, but you would really have the wrong expectations of it. Here's the story for those interested in this topic :
http://wordsofabrokenmirror.blogspot.com/2006/09/b reaking-dracula-myth.html

Re:Roommates?

[imsabbel]

The father of a colleque of mine bought a castle a decade ago. For 1 DM at that time.

Its a lot smaller than this particular one, but after a decade of rebuilding and fixing stuff, its still only maybe 25% finished. They ARE a bitch to keep warm (and to keep water out). But they make an impressive party-place.

Re:Long gone

[len_p]

You could eat and sleep. Last week there was also 1m of snow so access might be somehow difficult to some remote parts.

Re:sweet

[sa1lnr]

If you had chicks, you wouldn't have 77 million for long. ;)

Not for sale either

[KaylaVincent]

Quote from Hotnews.ro, a Romanian news site:
The local authorities of the Brasov county will buy the world-famous Bran Castle for 60 million euro and will get the money by leasing with a 10-year loan from an Austrian bank. The move comes eight months after the rightful owner of the castle, now known as "Dracula's castle", Dominic Habsburg, got it back in a retrocession process.

Re:Vlad's old digs, eh?

[MrNiCeGUi]

You are right in saying that it's a scam. But the castle is not the most major Romanian tourist site, far from it, and the actual yearly income is something around a 300.000 Euro, nowhere near 10 million.
In my opinion, the state should pass. There is no particular reason that it should own this castle, as no matter who will buy it will have to keep it opened to tourists. But, as you said, it is just a scam by the owners together with corrupt County Council members to swindle the state out of an outrageous amount. Frankly I'm pretty angry: this particular scam will cost me around 10 Euro.

Re:Vlad's old digs, eh?

[JasonNolan]

There's no real link between the vampire and vlad. Emily Gerard in an article that stoker read, wrote that Dracula was a Romanian word for the devil. So stoker used it. This is well documented, and Elizabeth Miller, who is finishing up Stoker's notes for the novel for publication, has researched this widely. As for the castle, there's a good chance that the historical dracula stayed there, but it was never a place he lived in the fort at Poenari IS well documented as his home, but it is a ruin, and far from the tourist routes, and up a 1200 foot climb. So everyone pushes Castle Bran. I'm looking. My favorite is of course the Castle Dracula Hotel... Just finished up a paper on that one if anyone cares :)