The Bran Castle was built in the 14th century to guard the strategic commercial route between Wallachia and Transylvania.
”Built on the corner of a great rock, so that on three sides it was quite impregnable, on the very edge of a terrific precipice”, the Bran Castle was quickly identified as the place of the nefarious actions of Count Dracula.
The Perfect Gift for a Royal
In 1920, the City Council of Brasov has gifted the Bran Castle to Queen Mary of Romania. It was an act of gratitude for the crucial role she played during the World War I and the peace negotiations which followed and resulted in the international recognition of the unification of Transylvania and Bessarabia provinces with Romania.
The Irish writer Bram Stoker never visited Transylvania. It is widely believed that he drew his inspiration about Dracula’s Castle from an illustrated book about Transylvania published in London, in 1865.