Bran Castle on Bing

Bing.com is presenting Bran Castle, near Brașov, Romania, on the front page. This happens on Romania's National Day, December, 1st. Nice! 
In the past, I presented Bran castle, sometimes referred to as Dracula's Caslte

In Search of Dracula

Second part of the documentary "In Search of Dracula" presents Snagov, where many thought Dracula was buried, as well as Transylvania (mainly Sighişoara, where Vlad was born in 1431). It says that Vlad Dracula thought salvation can be obtained by punishing people. However, as it seems the documentary presents some painted monasteries from Moldova, presenting biblical scenes about good and evil, heaven and hell. From Vlad's young-hood dates also the first painted monasteries in Bucovina, Moldova.
And we know Vlad went to Suceava, by that time capital of Moldova, where his mother was from , after he was put away from the throne in 1448. We get presented the ruins and the history of Suceava, then Braşov, where Vlad manifested one of his most cruel atrocities, as well as images from the Court of Târgovişte.
Also few images from the Old court of Bucharest are completing the overview of Vlad Dracula's life



Here is part 3 of the documentary about Dracula

Dispute over Bran Castle

Visited by over half a milion tourists each year, the Romanian Castle that is presented as Dracula Castle, Bran Castle, near Brasov is subject of intense dispute between Dominique of Habsburg and Romanian Government.

After giving the castle to his previous owner, Dominique of Habsburg, the romanian government rejected his expensive offer for buying the castle. Now the decision to give the castle back is put under doubt and there are voices asking for that decision to be canceled, as the castle belongs to the Romanian people.

Whatch this BBC documentary over Bran Castle for details:



also have a look on this short slide show about Bran Castle

Medieval Saxon Citadels

In the April 2007 number, National Geographic Romania publised two very interesting related articles, featuring the medieval Transylvania: one about the saxin citadels, and one about Medieval Sibiu.
The saxon fortifications are presented in a very nice graphical presentation by Radu Oltean. Medieval towns as well as fortified churches are presented here. One can admire the XIII-th century peasants churches of Câlnic, Prejmer, Cisnadioara and the fortified church in Biertan, but also the graphical representation of Medias, Brasov or Sighisoara.

Here you can admire some photos from this great article.

Bran Castle on Italian Television Rai 1

This morning the Italian television RAI 1 aired a 5 minutes documentary about Bran Castle. They mentioned it has been built “in 1300” (although the “official” year is 1377), that it belonged to Dracula in the 15th century (still we'll see later on this blog if it really belonged or not to Vlad III), than to Queen Mary of Romania at the beginning of the 20th century (they “forgot” to mention that the local council of Brasov offered it to Queen Mary “for her contribution to realizing the union of 1918” – is still unclear to me what her contribution was, but let’s skip this “detail”). Then they mentioned the castle has been transformed into museum by the communists and that Dominic of Hapsburg managed to have the castle given to him as he inherits the royal family (respectively Queen Mary). Images in the short documentary where from the castle, from the movie Dracula (1931) - a few seconds with Bela Lugosi and from the moment when dominic

The future of the Castle is still unclear; Dominic of Hapsburg wants to sell it for an amount of 60 to 100 m. USD but the Romanian state considered the sum exaggerated and refuses to pay.