Bran castle has been famous for count Dracula, the tyrannical vampire who lived in a place called Romania. The character has gained an amazing amount of fame after a book under the same name was written by Bram Stoker in the year 1876.’

It has now been exalted to the status of a landmark in this Eastern European country. This castle has been given its name because it was, home to Prince Vlad Tepes who then became Count Dracula. Every year tourists come to this place to get a look at the furniture and art works collected by Queen Marie. The tourists can see the castle individually or do so with the help of a guide. As far as the history of this castle is concerned, legend has it that this site was built in 1212 by Knights of the Teutonic Order. At that time it was known as Dietrichstein. Why most of the people believe that this castle could be home to count Dracula is because of the fact that it has a lot of secret passages which can easily hide a vampire in them.

Prince Vlad Tepes(1431-1476) did not reside in this castle actually but gained refuge in its dungeons of two days when the Ottomans had seized Transylvania. He was the prince of the place named Wallachia and imposed very strict rules there when it came to punishing anybody who could pose a threat to his reign. There were many such people according to him including beggars, clever priests, cruel and exacting Saxons and scheming noblemen. The castle was used for providing defense against the Ottoman empire for the first time in the year 1378.

It was then used for the purpose of serving as a customs post on the pass between Transylvania and Wallachia.

Clad started imposing death punishments on anybody whom deemed was sent by his step brother Vlad the Monk or cousin Dan the Young to harm him. He was called Dracula because his signatures were made in his father’s name with Dracul or devil. Coming to the more recent years, after the royal family was thrown out of this place in the year 1948, the communist regime gained hold of this castle. But in 2006 the ownership of this castle was finally awarded to Prince of Tuscany whose name was Dominic von Habsburg, an architect in New York.

He had inherited the castle from his mother Princess Illeana, daughter of Queen Marie.

He finally decided to put up the castle for auction in year 2007 but the government of Romania did not allow him to do so. In fact the castle has now been converted into a museum for tourists. This castle attracts tourists from all over the world now. It shows to the tourists the artifact collected by Queen Marie including the conventional tapestries and furniture collected by her as a mark of Romanian culture. One can also get to see the museum located at the bottom of a hill displaying conventional peasant structures.