Bran Castle

Bran Castle stands on a rocky outcrop near the town of Bran in the Transylvania region of Romania, built between 1377 and 1388 by the Saxon merchants of nearby Brasov under a charter granted by the Hungarian king Louis I, intended to guard a mountain pass on the trade route between Transylvania and Wallachia. Its medieval towers and defensive walls have made it popularly known as Dracula's Castle, an association drawn from its loose and largely legendary connection to the fifteenth century Wallachian ruler Vlad the Impaler, whose historical ties to the site are limited and disputed by historians. The castle passed to the Romanian royal family in the early twentieth century, when Queen Marie of Romania had it renovated as a royal residence. It now operates as a museum displaying furniture and art from the royal period alongside exhibits on the castle's medieval origins and its later folklore fame.