I vant Dracula’s castle back

by Kris   ⋅   January 8, 2007   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

Chris and I were totally going to do this “Dracula’s Castle” trip in the Carpathian Mountains and Transylvania this past Halloween, but it was postponed. I know that it’s only speculated that Vlad the Impaler may have roamed the halls or even briefly bunked there, but it still seems eerily romantic. There’s a gypsy kind of flea market where you can find handmade goods and probably meet interesting local folk/entrepreneurs. And I hear they won’t “suck you dry” monetarily speaking. In fact, they will sell you a quality hand woven wool sweater for about $10 and are generous with local faves like sheep cheese and plum brandy, even “vampire wine”.

Locally named Bran Castle, it was originally used as fortification, not a residence. There are secret passageways and a secret exit. Later, it was a gift presented to Romanian Queen Maria, whose daughter (Princess Ileana) married Anton of Habsburg. The 14th century fortress now belongs to the former royal Habsburg family, who lost the property after WWII when it was seized by communists, but fought for it in court and finally won it back last year. It was awarded to Princess Ileana’s son, Dominic von Habsburg who is an architect in New York City, and hasn’t returned to Romania ever since his family was forced to leave the country 58 years ago. Dominic agreed to leave it publicly accessible as a museum for at least three years, but now the Romanian government wants it back.

I wish I had more details, but their interest is all I could find. (I also didn’t intend this to be such a history lesson, but I think this place is pretty cool.) The heir previously didn’t have any interest in selling it, as he sees the property reinstatement as a form of justice for the exile of his family, but his set $80,000,000 asking price says otherwise. I think the Romanian Ministry of Culture is just concerned that Dominic will discontinue interest in upkeep of the museum due to cost, but he had agreed to continue it well beyond 2009. Aristotel Cancescu, head of the local council in Transylvania, is in purchase negotiations to ensure the public accessibility of Drac’s Crib. This is vedy vedy vedy good news.

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