London - The Transylvanian castle said to have been the inspiration for the home of Count Dracula is for sale, with an asking price of nearly £50-million.
Bran Castle is Romania’s biggest tourist attraction, with 560 000 visitors every year.
It has connections with Vlad the Impaler, the sadistic 15th-century ruler on whom Bram Stoker was said to have based his vampire.
The author’s description of Dracula’s castle as “on the very edge of a terrific precipice” also resembles the imposing Bran fortress.
The castle was owned by Romania’s Habsburg royal family until they were ousted by the Communists in 1948.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, it was restored to members of the family and opened as a tourist attraction in 2009, but they are all now in their 70s and want to sell.
They are understood to have offered the Romanian government the chance to buy Bran Castle for £47-million but are now seeking alternative offers.
Mark Meyer, of Herzfeld and Rubin, a New York law firm handling the sale, said: “Archduke Dominic and his family care very much for the castle, and it’s in far better shape now than it was when run by the government.
“The aim, though, is to take the whole thing a stage further and make Bran the kind of place people will stay for two or three days.”
He said that there is land for a small hotel, adding: “We’re also installing a glass elevator that will lead to a tunnel in the mountain, with a light show featuring Dracula and the history of the place.” - Daily Mail