Posted on 05/19/2014 7:51:16 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Now you can own Dracula’s castle
Transylvania's Bran Castle, long connected with Bram Stoker's indelible creation, is for sale.
Count Dracula never lived in Bran Castle, in the Transylvania region of Romania, because he was a fictional character.
But look, it’s a Gothic-looking castle in Transylvania — plus, Vlad the Impaler, the historical figure who inspired Bram Stoker’s indelible creation, was reportedly imprisoned here. So it’s no surprise that it’s commonly called “Dracula’s Castle,” and that (like Transylvania’s Hunyad Castle and Poenari Castle in Wallachia) it’s often linked with the vampire legend. And now, you can own it. If you happen to be fabulously, outrageously connected and rich.
Bran Castle isn’t “for sale” in the way a normal house that isn’t a spooky mountaintop fortress haunted by the spirits of the damned undead and their victims might be “for sale.” But Mark Meyer of New York law firm Herzfeld and Rubin says that he’s entertaining offers on behalf of the castle’s current owners, Archduke Dominic Habsburg and his sisters Maria Magdalena and Elizabeth.
You may need to outbid the Romanian government — reportedly, Archduke Dominic offered to sell it to them for $80 million. You’re unlikely to be able to manage upkeep without tourists traipsing through — now 560,000 people a year come to visit. And you have to feel okay about the lack of plumbing — there are bathrooms for visitors, but the ones in the residential part of the castle were destroyed when the castle fell under the control of the communist Ceaușescu regime.
But if you can get past those obstacles, look what you get: bulletproof walls, loads of history (Romania’s royal family lived here until 1948), beautiful hilltop views to spot approaching armies, and so many bedrooms that it might take you years to find out which ones still contain undead brides.
**and they had a John Deere tractor***
What! No LONG or BELARUS tractors available? (there is a joke here for people who have owned one)
Yeah, people get Vlad all wrong. He was really a pretty reasonable guy - instead of massacring his prisoners he invited them all for a nice sit-down conversation. They were just short of chairs there. And when the Turkish ambassadors refused to take their turbans off to him, he didn't go nuts, he just helped them keep them on.
With a hammer and nails.
He just didn't have very good PR, that's all. These days we get him a New York publicist, a little market research, a press agent, and you've got Mother Teresa all over again. Well, except for the spikes part. We're gonna hafta focus group that one.
It did look a bit odd to me. One just thinks you would see an Eastern European model.
Oh yeah!
That’s more like it!
ROFLMAO!
He had a make an impression on those Muzzies that would last for centuries!
“Im-Pale ale”?
Goes well with stakes ... bloody stakes.
LOL! Agree on the breakfast nook for sure!
The first place my daughter lived in off-campus when she went to college was a nice split level single family house with a very odd room.
It had this HUMONGOUS kitchen/dining area. It was bigger than some NYC apartments. It also had a very large yard. But off this huge kitchen area was also kind of a large room. Way too big to be a breakfast nook. Could have been some kind of planting room, but why would you need that with the huge yard? Not a bedroom, too many windows and there was an little bedroom on that level.
Of course the kids used it as a beer-pong room, which it really seemed to be made for.
At one point the owner had some appraiser come to look over the house. He asked the roommate: what’s that room? She said: we were hoping you could tell us!
And I pay you four, five bucks a day to scare the crap out of people.
Hmm yea, I see it now. Very clearly.
Yes, yes,, It's all perfectly clear now.
YES! YES! YES!
Ever watch GHOST ADVENTURES? They had a full episode inside the castle and the idiots spent most of their time near the gulags where Vlad threw the impaled bodies to feed the dogs.
“Nice knockers!” (I know, I know, wrong movie)
Sounds like a sunroom.
Bran Castle - Dracula's Castle - Braşov Transylvania - Romania
A really nice photo essay of the castle and town.
My brother had already let me know the castle was for sale. It's a beautiful place. My brother sent me a souvenir from Romania. It's a decorated, round wooden box with Vlad on the lid. I like the box but I'm thinking I'll sand Vlad off of it. Can't bring myself to do it. There was a tiny bottle of holy water inside the box.
Added to the Christmas list.
Well I think we are entitled to this castle simply because hubby is a descendent of Bram Stoker. So there!
I guess that is what it was. It was a pretty nice house, that kitchen area was fantastic. The owner always rented it to college kids, so they didn’t really make the most of it.
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