Bran Castle, which was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is once again for sale. No price has been revealed, but the owner is only interested in selling “to the right purchaser under the right circumstances,” according to Michael Gardner, chief executive of Baytree Capital, the company representing the owner.
The castle (seen in an AP photo) is atop a cliff near Brasov, Romania. It is currently owned by Archduke Dominic Habsburg, a 69-year-old architect living in New York City. It was the royal residence, inhabited by Princess Ileana in 1948 when the Communisty revolution took the property. Habsburg is Ileana’s son.
It was restored in the late 1980s and, following the end of communist rule in Romania, it became a tourist attraction known as “Dracula’s Castle.” In May 2006, the castle was returned to Habsburg, who pledged to keep it open as a museum until 2009. The government pays him rent to run the museum.
Commenting on the attempt to sell, Gardner said, “the Habsburgs are not in the business of managing a museum.” He predicted the castle will sell for about $135 million. Habsburg tried to sell the castle to the government last year for $80 million, but they turned down the offer. The government still has the option of matching the best offer Habsburg receives.
Bran Castle was built in the 14th century as defense against the invading Ottoman Turks. The royal family moved in during the 1920s, and lived there until the Communists confiscated it from Princess Ileana in 1948.
According to legend, Prince Vlad the Impaler, the warlord whose cruelty inspired Stoker, spent one night at the castle in the 1400s.
In a statement, Habsburg said “Aside from the castle’s connection to one of the most famous novels ever written, Bran Castle is steeped in critical events of European history dating from the 14th century to the present.”
The castle has recently appeared as a setting for several horror films, and welcomes 450,000 visitors a year.
[5 October 2007: There’s a snag in the attempted sale. See this article for more details.]