Dracula’s Transylvanian haunt up for sale

Buyers looking to stake their claim to Romania’s Bran Castle finally have the chance.

The castle was formerly the home of Vlad “The Impaler” Tepes, the member of the House of Draculesti who is said to have inspired Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula. However, rather than ruling the castle and terrorising local villagers, Vlad is thought to have stayed prisoner there for two months in 1462 after being captured by the Hungarian army. Also known by his patronymic name Drăculea, Vlad earned a reputation for torturing and maiming his victims. 

The castle is owned by Archduke Dominic Habsburg and his sisters, Elizabeth and Maria Magdalena. The Habsburgs were expelled from the castle when Dominic was 10 in 1948 when the area came under communist rule. Bran Castle was returned to the family in 2007.

But now it seems that maintaining the drafty old castle is becoming quite a drainer for the Habsburgs. Dominic, Elizabeth and Maria Magdalena are now all in their 70s and faced with operating the sprawling castle as a tourist venture. The family attempted to sell the castle in 2006 to the Romanian government for a reported A$94 million dollars, with no luck. They tried again to put the castle on the market in 2007, but again with no biters.

The castle has 57 rooms, with uninterrupted mountain top views. However, though the reported 560,000 visitors that walk through Bran Castle every year have access to bathrooms, there are none in the residential wing of the castle. They were reportedly ripped out by the communists when the castle was seized.

According to Fox News, current selling agent Mark Meyer from New York’s Herzfield and Rubin refuses to discuss the price. Meyer told the Telegraph that the Habsburgs are keen to see the castle continue as a tourist destination once it is sold.

“Archduke Dominic and his family care very much for the castle, and it's in far better shape now than it was when run by the government," Meyer said.

"The aim, though, is to take the whole thing a stage further, re-route the road and make Bran a destination, the kind of place people will stay for two or three days."

"We'd like whoever buys the castle to continue running it as a tourist destination. This isn't just a national monument, it's the largest and most significant attraction in Romania," he added.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia/Creative Commons.