Facade of the medieval Bran Castle (aka Dracula's Castle) on a beautiful sunny day in Bran, Romania
In 1212, Teutonic Knights built the wooden castle of Dietrichstein as a fortified position in the Burzenland at the entrance to a mountain pass through which traders had travelled for more than a millennium, but in 1242 it was destroyed by the Mongols. The first documented mentioning of Bran Castle is the act issued by Louis I of Hungary on 19 November 1377, giving the Saxons of Brasov the privilege to build the stone castle on their own expense and labor force. In 1438-1442, the castle was used in defense against the Ottoman Empire, and later became a customs post on the mountain pass between Transylvania and Wallachia. The Wallachian ruler Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler; 1448-1476) does not seem to have had a significant role in the history of the fortress, although he passed several times through the Bran Gorge. Bran Castle belonged to the Hungarian Kings but due to the failure of King Vladislas II (r. 1471-1516) to repay loans, the city of Brasov regained possession of the fortress in 1533. Bran played a militarily strategic role up to the mid-18th century. In 1920 the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary ceded Transylvania, and the castle became a royal residence within the Kingdom of Romania. It became the favorite home and retreat of Queen Marie. The castle was inherited by her daughter Princess Ileana who ran a hospital there in World War II: it was later seized by the communist regime with the expulsion of the royal family in 1948. On 18 May 2009, the Bran Castle administration was transferred from the government to the administration of Archduke Dominic and his sisters, Baroness Maria Magdalena of Holzhausen and Elisabeth Sandhofer. On 1 June 2009, the Habsburgs opened the refurbished castle to the public as the first private museum of the country and disclosed with Bran Village a joint strategic concept to maintain their domination in the Romanian tourist circuit and to safeguard the economic base in the region.
Size: 5760px × 3840px
Location: Bran Castle, Strada General Traian Mo?oiu 24, Bran 507025, Romania, Europe
Photo credit: © DE ROCKER / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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