Bran Castle and the legend of Count Dracula
How can you not celebrate Halloween without a reference to the mythical Count Dracula? Well for the occasion it was decided to present the infamous Bran Castle, the one that now mass culture associates with the infamous Count due to Bram Stoker, who seems to have set his gothic novel Dracula right within its walls, from since that of Bran is the only castle in Romania whose architecture seems to coincide with that described by Stoker … but let’s find out better together.
Bran Castle
The castle stands at the foot of the Carpathians in the municipality of Bran, near the ancient border between Transylvania and Wallachia. Today it houses a museum dedicated to the history of Transylvania and the collections of the royal family, as well as being one of the most famous places in Transylvania, a region that stands out for the abundance of medieval strongholds that populate its mainly mountainous territory.
The fortress stands on a rocky hill, whose privileged position allows for sweeping views of the surrounding hills, the Moeciu Valley and the Bârsei Valley.
Adding charm to the structure is the fact that the numerous castles that populate the region, as well as the Peleș Castle and the Corvino Castle, have not undergone substantial stylistic-architectural changes over the centuries and therefore their appearance appears largely unchanged.
The history of the castle
The origin of the fortress dates back to 1211, the year in which Andrew II of Hungary granted the order of the Teutonic Knights to build a wooden fortification on the top of a rocky peak in Burzenland to guard the ancient limes between Wallachia and Transylvania. The passage for centuries allowed the transit of merchants and the exchange of goods.
The original name of the castle, Dietrichstein or lapis Theoderici in Latin, “Stone of Dietrich“, seems to derive from the Comthur (Commander) and regional Preceptor, frater Theodericus, mentioned in a document from 1212. This Dietrich is the probable builder of this first castle. A further document from 1509 would confirm the link between a Teutonic Order commander named Dietrich and the Törzburg county he owned.
We always know thanks to the sources that this structure was abandoned during 1226.
The first documented mention of Bran Castle is the deed issued by Louis I of Hungary on November 19, 1377, by which the sovereign granted the Saxons of Kronstadt (today Brașov) the privilege of at his own expense and with his own force work build a stone castle. The construction of the castle continued until 1388, when it was used by the Kingdom of Hungary as a bulwark against the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. Medieval strongholds of this kind helped to avert the constant raids of the 14th-15th centuries and to protect the local populations.
The castle was therefore used as a bulwark against the Ottoman Empire, and later became a customs post on the mountain pass between Transylvania and Wallachia. Although many castles of the time belonged to members of the nobility, historians have established that Bran Castle was built almost exclusively as a fortification to protect German colonists in Transylvania.
In 1407 the fortress was donated by the King of Hungary Sigismund of Luxembourg to Mircea I of Wallachia, to ensure him a protected place in case of attack. Later the property was sold to the Princes of Transylvania.
It seems that in 1448, the voivod Vlad III of Wallachia also known by the nickname of Vlad Tepes, “Vlad the Impaler“, due to his reputation as a bloodthirsty man, settled in the castle.
After the death of Vlad III, the now disused castle was bought by the Saxons for only 1000 florins on January 1, 1498. On April 25, 1651, the inhabitants of Brasov then sold the castle to the Transylvanian prince George II Rákóczi. Although the region became part of the Hapsburg Empire in 1687, the fortress was renovated after a long period of decline first in 1723 and then in 1863, when the border between Transylvania and Wallachia moved further north and the castle Bran became an administrative headquarters. However, from 1888 for another 30 years or so, the castle was completely uninhabited.
With the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, Hungary lost Transylvania and Bran Castle became a residence of the rulers of the Kingdom of Romania. It became the home and favorite retreat of Queen Maria of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who ordered the extensive renovation conducted by Czech architect Karel Zdeněk Líman. The castle was later inherited by his daughter, Princess Ileana, who built and directed a hospital inside during the Second World War. The castle was subsequently seized by the communist regime and the entire royal family was exiled in 1948.
In 2005 the Romanian government passed a law that allowed the restitution of illegally expropriated properties, it was also the case of Bran Castle, and then a year later the ownership of the castle was assigned to the American Dominic von Habsburg, son and heir of Princess Ileana .
After several conflicts, on 18 May 2009 the administration of the castle was transferred by the government to Archduke Dominic and his sisters, Baroness Maria Maddalena di Holzhausen and Elisabeth Sandhofer. On 1 June of the same year, the Habsburgs opened the renovated castle to the public as the country’s first private museum and presented in collaboration with the village of Bran a common strategic concept to maintain their leading role in the Romanian tourist circuit and to to safeguard the economic base in the region.
The interior of the castle
The castle has the typical features of Gothic architecture, with its massive and severe stone mass, its towers and truncated conical roofs with reddish tiles. Inside, what are now the rooms of the Museum of Medieval Art can be reached via narrow stairways, long corridors and secret passages.
The rooms reflect the alterations that have taken place over the centuries, showing a mixture of the different styles that have affected it over time. The structure is divided into four floors: the first one that can be visited retains a very medieval aspect and it is used as a basement, the first floor instead was the one intended for servants and is characterized by large rooms with Spartan furnishings; the second floor was the one that was occupied by Queen Maria of Saxony and her daughter Ileana, its importance is underlined by the presence of massive and refined furniture, with rather precious drapes and kits and finally there is the third floor which was intended for the royal consort, Ferdinand I of Romania, even more luxurious than the previous one, and from which you can enjoy a spectacular panoramic view.
The castle and Vlad Tepes
The link that unites the castle to Vlad III of Wallachia, also known by his patronymic Dracula, is due to the presumed stay of the voivode in this stronghold for a short period, in order to monitor his possessions. In reality, the historically accredited residence of the Romanian Prince is located in Arefu, about a hundred kilometers west of Bran, in the valley of the Arges river, known as the Poenari Fortress of which today only a few very scenic ruins remain.
Vlad III of Wallachia
Vlad III of Wallachia (Sighișoara, 2 November 1431-Bucharest, December 1476/10 January 1477), better known only as Vlad, or by his patronymic name, Dracula, was a member of the House of Drăculești, a side branch of the House of Basarab. He was the son of the voivode of Wallachia Vlad II Dracul, a member of the Order of the Dragon, established by the Germanic Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund, with the aim of destroying the Hussite heresy and containing the power of the Ottoman Empire.
He was voivode of Wallachia three times, respectively in 1448, from 1456 to 1462, and finally in 1476. The nickname Vlad Țepeș derives from his preference for impaling enemies. During his lifetime, the reputation of being a cruel and bloodthirsty man spread throughout Europe and, mainly, the Holy Roman Empire.
Vlad III is still revered today as a folk hero in Romania, as well as in other parts of Europe, for protecting the Romanian population both south and north of the Danube. This heroic re-evaluation of the voivode is linked to the independenceist awakening of the Romanian populations against Turks and Austrians in 1804, a moment in which the figure of Dracula re-emerged in the folds of history. From this moment in fact the Romanian popular memory forgot the horror for the atrocities committed by Vlad Țepeș in favor of the admiration for his warrior virtues, for his spirit of freedom, for the courageous deeds carried out in defense of his land against the Turks.
Fatalistic motives were used as mitigating factors: the war was in itself cruel, the enemy did the same, there were no other ways to face the Ottoman terror. The myth of the reckless patriot and that of the wise ruler concurred together to consolidate in popular historical memory the image of an exemplary prince, able to safeguard not only the independence of the kingdom but to ensure order, legality, the same industriousness of the inhabitants. A sort of national hero emerged, ready to perform terrible deeds in order to preserve the integrity of his land.
However, it was precisely the brutal acts more or less likely to be associated with it and for its patronymic, that Vlad became a source of inspiration for the Irish writer Bram Stoker in the creation of his most famous character, the vampire Count Dracula, protagonist of the namesake novel published in 1897.
The real face of Dracula
Vlad’s only true portrait was part of the “gallery of horrors” at Ambras Castle in the Austrian Tyrol:
“The prince is depicted in three quarters, and on his head, over his long curly hair, a red velvet headdress adorned with eight rows of pearls. On the forehead, an eight-pointed gold star set with a huge rectangular ruby, supports a plume in the lower part of which five large pearls stand out. The eyebrows are arched and overhang two large gray-green eyes. A long and slightly aquiline nose, with prominent nostrils, borders on the long straight brown mustache that takes almost the entire width of the face. The lower lip, red and protruding, delimits the chin affected by a slight prognathism. This combination of an aquiline nose and red lips was once called “a parrot’s beak on two cherries.” Vlad Dracula wears an orange-red shirt, a purple tunic, with large round buttons, adorned with precious stones. A sable coat with purple frogs completes the outfit.”
A fresco depicting Vlad, dating from 1526, also adorned the walls of the church of the monastery of Curtea de Argeș, but was canceled at the beginning of the 19th century by order of the bishop of Argeș, who had it replaced by his own portrait.
Further portraits of Dracula, thanks to the German pamphlets printed up to 1568, circulated throughout Europe. The Vienna edition of 1463 was the first to inaugurate the series, and it was this depiction that ended up under the eyes of Pope Pius II in 1463 and, a few years later, under those of Leonardo Hefft, the notary of Regensburg who wrote to about:
“And now his appearance looks just cruel and gloomy, as the painted image of his face is around more or less all over the world.”
Trained at the University of Turin, where she obtained her three-year degree in Cultural Heritage Sciences and her master's degree in History of Archaeological and Historical-Artistic Heritage, she specialized at the University of Milan, graduating in Archaeological Heritage. Freelancer, she deals with computer archeology and virtual heritage, museum displays, 2D graphics and multimedia products applied to cultural heritage. Collaborates with various public and private bodies in the field of projects related to the research, enhancement, communication and promotion of cultural heritage. She deals with the creation of cultural itineraries relating to the entire Italian Peninsula and the development of content (creation of texts and photographic production) for paper and virtual publications. Her study interests include the development of new techniques and means of communication for the enhancement of cultural heritage and the evolution of the symbolism of power between the Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
