Dracula's castle returned to Van Hapsburg

AP ^ | 5/26/06

[Grzegorz 246]

BUCHAREST, Romania - More than 60 years after it was seized by communists, the Romanian government is to hand back one of the country's most popular tourist sites, the fabled Dracula Castle, to its former owner, the culture minister said Tuesday.

The castle, worth an estimated $25 million, was owned by the late Queen Marie and bequeathed to her daughter Princess Ileana in 1938. It was confiscated by communists in 1948 and fell into disrepair. It will be transferred on Friday to Dominic van Hapsburg, a New York architect who inherited the castle from Princess Ileana decades after the communists seized it, minister Adrian Iorgulescu told a news conference.

Van Hapsburg is a descendant of the Hapsburg dynasty which ruled Romania for a period starting in the late 17th century.

The hand-over ceremony will take place Friday at noon in the 14th century castle's museum deep within the fortress in Transylvania, Iorgulescu said.

Restoration work began in the late 1980s and was partially completed in 1993. It is now one of Romania's top tourist destinations. Under the agreement, the owner will not be allowed to make any changes to the castle for the next three years, Iorgulescu said.

While known and marketed as "Dracula's Castle," it never belonged to Prince Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Bram Stoker's Count Dracula character. But the prince is thought to have visited the medieval fortress.

The Gothic fortress, perched on a rock, has appeared in numerous Dracula movies.

At the gates of Bran Castle, peasants sell Dracula sweaters hand-knitted from the thick wool of local sheep, cheesecloth blouses, and Vampire wine. The castle is the most famous of 15 citadels and fortresses in the area, which were built by peasants to keep out marauding armies of Turks and Tartars and cruel local medieval lords.

Another former royal property, the Peles Castle, built in the late 19th century in the mountain town of Sinaia, will be returned to former King Michael. He owned it before it was confiscated by the communist regime in 1948.

Romania passed legislation earlier this year to return property to its former owners and establish a "property fund" to pay damages for assets that cannot be returned. The fund includes stock in state-owned companies that are being privatized.

[Grzegorz 246]

Bran Castle in Transylvania, Romania which was the temporary home to Vlad the Impaler, the Romanian 16th-century prince who inspired Bram Stoker's fictional Dracula, is seen, Friday, May 26, 2000. More than 60 years after it was seized by communists, the Romanian government is to hand back one of the country's most popular tourist sites, the fabled Dracula Castle, to its former owner, the culture minister said Tuesday. The hand-over ceremony will take place Friday May 26, 2006 noon in the 14th century castle's museum deep within the fortress in Transylvania, said minister Adrian Iorgulescu at a news conference.(AP Photo/Eugeniu Salabasev)

[Grzegorz 246]

Eastern European ping list

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[BlackVeil]

It does look quite the setting for a Dracula movie.

[kinoxi]

cool, would like to see it

[metesky]

Vampire wine

A red wine, I presume.

[mtbopfuyn]

it never belonged to Prince Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Bram Stoker's Count Dracula character. But the prince is thought to have visited the medieval fortress.

I thought once of visiting it, can it be changed to my name?

[PBRSTREETGANG]

"My castle actually had a much bigger rec room."

Sincerely,

Vlad

[Rocko]

A red wine, I presume.

"I never drink...wine."
Bela Lugosi, Dracula (1931)

[kinoxi]

changing it to your name would require thousands of muslim invader's heads on poles...

[Fairview]

I have heard that the governments of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary are anxiously seeking the pre-communism owners of many of the castles and hunting lodges the aristocracy used to own in those places. They don't want to spend money to manage these white elephants themselves and hope that rich American descendants will take them over. In some cases they're being sold for reasonable amounts of money as potential hotels; in others they're being practically given away. I read in the NY Slimes several years ago that one very successful American-Czech and his wife moved back to the Czech Republic to take over the family castle. Talk about expensive home renovations--!

[cschroe]

[Chorus:]
Vlad, Vlad, Vlad the impaler
Vlad, Vlad, He could have been a sailor but he's
Vlad, Vlad, Vlad the impaler
Vlad, Vlad, He could have been a
Whaler could have been a Tailor,
He turned out to be Norman Mailer
Whoaaoo
He stepped back and he smoked a joint
Twenty thousand peasants had to get the point
Mommy was a hamster,
Daddy was a jailer
Real tough childhood for such a f*ing failure
[chorus]
He's so glad he's Vlad
When he was a boy, they sent him to the Turks
But you know they didn't like him because all the Turks were jerks
When Vlad returned home his wrath for his ancient foe had spurned
But the ancient art of impalement was something that the boy had learned
Oh, how he learned
He learned, they burned and burned and burned
Rotisseries of corpses turned
He's so glad, oh he's so glad he's Vlad

Vlad the Impaler, by GWAR

[metesky]

Nice profile page, Rocko.

Never forget!

[firewalk]

Interesting, thanks for posting

[Nightrider]

can we send some of these bloodsucking judas goats in the house and senate over there?

[Thermalseeker]

The article says he was a 16th century Prince, but the stamp says 1431-1476. This guy really was immortal.....

[Red Badger]

Wow! Blood suckers giving something back!.....................

[PzLdr]

"I never drink....wine."

[Sensei Ern]

If someone can get a job at AP, without the math skills of a third grader, maybe I could get a desk job there.

"More than 60 years" + 1948 = 2008+

[sinanju]

I understand that Vlad the Impaler's real castle still exists, as a haunted, seldom-visited ruin. There was some recent Discovery-chanel thing about it.

Of course, Bram Stoker never visited Romania, nor cared to learn anything about it or Prince Vlad. He just took it as a vague background for his lurid novel.