Dracula - Myth and reality » Bran Castle http://dracula-souvenirs.com Dracula - a character that is always en vogue for so many centuries, is a name that inspired and still inspires many legends, a word that brings fear into some regions where it is spoken, show the real identity: demon, wear wolf, vampire, or fearless leader, unmerciful, unforgiving; a fighter for law, for justice and liberty. Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:54:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 The Bran Castle-Chateau Bran http://dracula-souvenirs.com/the-bran-castle-chateau-bran/ http://dracula-souvenirs.com/the-bran-castle-chateau-bran/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:40:43 +0000 http://dracula-souvenirs.com/?p=155

The first step the new owner of Bran Castle did, was rebranding it. Dominic de Habsbourg changed the name in “Chateau Bran“, although neither the place nor the royal family had anything in common with France.

Changing the name to “Chateau Bran“, it is probably connected with the 2 French wine collections that will be presented on 1st July, called Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, together with the reopening of the museum. A private tour of the chateau and a concert of old Romanian music will take place also, during the reopening day of the museum. Between 9.30 and 15.30 the children are invited to the Medieval School. There will be held workshops, heraldic paintings and iconography, handling swords, target shooting with the arc, painting eggs and pottery classes.

]]> http://dracula-souvenirs.com/the-bran-castle-chateau-bran/feed/ 0 How to get to Bran Castle – house of Dracula http://dracula-souvenirs.com/how-to-get-to-bran-castle-%e2%80%93-house-of-dracula/ http://dracula-souvenirs.com/how-to-get-to-bran-castle-%e2%80%93-house-of-dracula/#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 18:02:27 +0000 http://dracula-souvenirs.com/?p=81 How to get to Bran Castle – house of Dracula
1.    How do I get to Romania?
The easiest way is to arrive by plane, at the Otopeni international airport, in Bucharest (the capital of Romania).
Air connections with Europe: London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Moscow, Warsaw, Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris, Munich, Prague, Zurich, Vienna, Budapest, Verona, Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Ancon, Bari, Sofia, Thessaloniki, Istanbul, Athens, Lanoka, Madrid.
Air connections with Middle East: Aleppo, Beirut, Damascus, Tel-Aviv, Cairo, Amman, Sham el Sheikh.
International Airport Bucharest Henri Coanda – http://www.otp-airport.ro/
2.    From Bucharest (the capital of Romania) to Brasov city
In Bucharest you can come to Brasov by train, by bus, or by renting a car.
Buses route Bucharest-Brasov :
Bucharest – Sinaia – Predeal – Brasov       or    Bucharest – Brasov – Sighisoara – Targu Mures
Cost 7 Euros and time: 3,5h
[Bucharest map]
Train routes Bucharest – Brasov 166 km:
From Bucharest North Railway Station:
R – Rapid 2h 29′ (1st Class /2nd Class)
A -Accelerate 3h 12′ (1st Class /2nd Class)
IC – InterCity 2h 50′ (1st Class /2nd Class/Couchette)
[Bucharest map]
Renting a car routes Bucharest – Brasov
Renting a car per day is   30-130  Euros, and you make 3, 5 hours.
Important: In Brasov,  taxi is very cheap (like 0.5 Euro per/km)but there are firms that practice bigger prices. Our advice is to ask the driver when you get in, the cost per/km and the total cost of the trip.
If you plan to stay many days in Brasov, but you don’t know what to visit, read the article Brasov – Tourist attractions

3.    From  Brasov to Bran Castle
Bran is situated at 24 km from Brasov on the national road 73 (DN 73).  You can get there by bus from the Autogara Brasov and it costs 1.5 Euros.

]]> http://dracula-souvenirs.com/how-to-get-to-bran-castle-%e2%80%93-house-of-dracula/feed/ 1 The Bran Castle – the historical retrocede http://dracula-souvenirs.com/the-bran-castle-the-historical-retrocede/ http://dracula-souvenirs.com/the-bran-castle-the-historical-retrocede/#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 17:44:41 +0000 http://dracula-souvenirs.com/?p=64 The Bran Castle is on of the most important tourist objectives of Romania and Brasov, more specific. According to the historians the Bran fortress was build between 1377 and 1378. Ludovic de Anjou let the people from Brasov build a stone fortress using their own money and work force.
The Castle was given to Queen Mary of Romania, as a symbol of respect for her contribution to the Reunion on the 1st of December 1918, by the Brasov Community in 1920. After the royal family departure from the country in 1948, the Bran Castle was under the Romanian State.
Presently, according to an evaluation its value rises to 25 million dollars, but the historical value and the association with the Dracula Character cannot be measured. The Castle was retro ceded not to the descendents of Dracula, but to the nephews of Queen Mary.

The actual owner, Dominic de Habsburg is the son of Archduke Anton of Austria and Princess Ileana of Romania, nephew of King Ferdinand and Queen Mary of Romania. In the retrocede contract it is stated that the Bran Museum remains open to the public for 3 years and the Romanian state has the right to be the first taken into consideration when selling.

]]> http://dracula-souvenirs.com/the-bran-castle-the-historical-retrocede/feed/ 1 History of the Bran Castle http://dracula-souvenirs.com/history-of-the-bran-castle/ http://dracula-souvenirs.com/history-of-the-bran-castle/#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 17:42:44 +0000 http://dracula-souvenirs.com/?p=62 Castle Bran – Built by the inhabitants of Brasov as a result of the Privilege granted to them on November the 19 1377, the fortress was ment to survey and defend the Bran mountain passcrossed, during the Middle Age, by the most important commercial road joining Brasov to Wallachia. Ever since its beginnings, the fortress was endowed with an archer and ballister garrison. In order to provide the necessary incomes for its support, the castle was allotted an estate covering nine villages from the region called: Baciu, Turches, Cernatu, Satulung, Zizin, Purcareni, Târlungeni, Crizbav and Apata.

The fortress and the Bran estate were ruled by castle lords who held both the military functions as garrison commanders and the ones regarding administration and jurisdiction. They also collected the mediaeval taxes from the castle subjects. Between 1395 and 1427 the Bran fortress was possessed by Mircea the Old and his successors.

Thus having the control of the Bran pass, the Wallachian volvodes established close commercial and cultural relation ships with Brasov and Transylvania. In 1413 Mircea the Old licensed to the inhabitans of Brasov the well known commercial Privilege by which he reinforced” the custom establishments they had inherited from their ancestors throughout the Wallachian towns and on the road from Brasov to Braila, along the Bran pass.”Close by the fortress there was, up to the middle the 19 century, a custom house that used to take a 3% tax for all the commodities passing along the Bran road.

Ince 1498, the fortress and the Bran estate were mortgaged to the town of Brasov, which possessed them until 1651. The same year, as result of the Transylvanian Diet’s approval, the inhabitans of Brasov became owners of these territories “for ever and irrevocably”. After the events of 1848-1849, when serfdom-and thus the Bran feudal estate was abolished, the castle, still kept as a property of Brasov, became the seal of a forest enclosure in charge of the castle lord. On December the 1-st 1920, the castle was bestowed to the royal family and become a summer residence until December the 30 1947, when the abolishion of the monarchy made it belong to the estate patrimony.In 1956 the Bran fortress-castle was laid out in order to be a museum of history and feudal art and was opened up to the visitors.

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