Bran Castle

Bran sits on a rock above the pass between Transylvania and Wallachia, and that position is the whole reason it exists. It was built between 1377 and 1388 to watch and tax the road, which is a far more interesting job than the one it is now famous for.

About the vampire

Bran is marketed as Dracula’s Castle. It is not, and the gap is not a technicality.

Vlad III — the historical figure Bram Stoker borrowed a name from — did not live here. His own fortress was Poenari, on a cliff above the Argeș. The story that he was imprisoned at Bran does not survive contact with the record either; the evidence points to Visegrád in Hungary. And Stoker never visited Romania; his castle is a description assembled from books.

The association is traceable, and it is recent: it was built in the 1970s and 1980s around a castle that looked the part and stood in roughly the right country. It is marketing, and knowing that costs you nothing — the building is still worth the climb.

What is actually there

Queen Marie of Romania is the reason the interior is worth seeing. Bran was given to her after the First World War, when Transylvania became part of Romania, and she turned a fortification into a summer residence — furnishing it, opening it up, and leaving the rooms much as they are shown now.

So you are visiting two buildings at once: a defensive work on a trade route, and a 1920s royal house fitted inside it. The narrow stairs and small courtyards are the first one. The furniture is the second.