Dracula is someone everybody can show interest in, we can all say that in some point in our life he is responsible for an uneasy nights sleep. The original 1897 novel written by Bram Stoker has been the inspiration for over a thousand other Dracula themed novels, and every appearance you have seen of him on television. Bram Stokers inspiration for Dracula was a man called Vlad III Dracula or what he was better known as, Vlad the Impaler, something that a lot of people don’t realize though is that Bran Castle aka Draculas castle, the castle that tourists come to see from all over the world actually has nothing to do with Dracula. Bram Stoker never references it, Bran castle simply has a hidden passage in it like the one mentioned in the book, and through that people have liked to see it to imagine it is the castle they have read about, this was also helped by Romania encouraging the extra tourism. Vlad III never lived in the castle, he laid siege on it once but Vlad III made his home in the later part of his life in what is now Bucharest. We went to see it and it definitely was no castle, more of a large stately home that is now a ruin. Below you can see the remnants of what is left of it and a statue commemorating him. Vlad III was born in 1431 in extremely dark times, he spent his younger years in Istanbul, him and his brother given to the ottomans by his father as part of an alliance his father needed to retain his throne. Vlad III ruled the kingdom of Wallachia, and where he made his home grew to be Bucharest, he fought back invasions including the ottomans and even managed to expand his territory. He was a ruthless leader estimating that he impaled between 40000-100000 people in his lifetime, impaling was a form of execution, his favourite kind. Where the sentenced would have a sharp pointed long stick pushed up their rectum, then they would be propped up and left, their own weight pushing it deeper inside them, common causes of death from this would be blood loss and dehydration. He grew the name Vlad Tepes Dracula, Tepes mean imapler and Dracula means dragon or devil, you can really tell why Bram Stoker used Vlad III for his inspiration for Dracula.
We went from Bucharest to Brasov a nice city where Bran Castle is located, we didn’t have the best weather, it actually rained pretty much the whole time we was there, but if there was gonna be a day for bad weather im glad it was this one. It suited the setting, in my head I always imagined Draculas home to be a dark dreary place shrouded in shadow in the middle of a forest up on a hill, on this day the only part of that that wasnt true was the forest part, its actually in the very scenic small town of Bran. You enter the castle through a market then into the grounds surrounding it, its all really well maintained and is a nice place to go for a walk after you have taken in all there is to see inside the castle.
It takes just about an hour to walk through the castle, we took about 2 hours though, we wanted to stop and read alot of literature they had put up talking about who the previous owners of the castle actually was (mainly local rulers) and they have also dedicated on of the top rooms to dracula and Vlad the impaler, as they know that alot of people that go there do believe it was his home.
Above you can some really nice views from the castle windows and below in the secret passage that has led to Bran Castle becoming Draculas Castle.
