The "Bran Castle", a fortress that reportedly "inspired the architecture of Bram Stoker's Dracula" has hit the market for a rumored $135 million. The property is being marketed privately.
Noting its rich history, Curbed reports that the castle - which completed construction in 1388 - has served as a warehouse, a prison, a hospital and even a museum. Located at the border of Transylvania, the castle wasn't really the home of Count Dracul, also known as "Vlad the Impaler." However, Vlad was imprisoned in the castle for a while.
Bram Stoker never visited the castle, but read about it somewhere and decided to use the setting in his book's backdrop.
Castle Bran - which means "gate" in German - has been on and off the market several times. This time, the giant mansion is being marketed for an official undisclosed price, but word has it that the owners are seeking $135 million for the place.
The 57-room, 22-acre castle never really exchanged ownership much. The mansion was handed down into generations and was last transferred to the legal heirs of the Archduke and Archduchess in 2001.
Castle Bran has now become a major tourist spot. It receives approximately 560,000 visitors every year, who pay $6.50 for entry, according to the Huffington Post. The castle has been renovated to stand the test of time.
"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, re-route the road and make Bran a destination, the kind of place people will stay for two or three days," said Mark Meyer of Herzfeld and Rubin, a New York-based law firm that is representing the property, to the Telegraph.
Meyer also said that the Duke and the Duchess would like the buyer to maintain the castle as a tourist destination because the castle is not just a "national monument", but also a "significant attraction of Romania."
"If someone comes in with a reasonable offer, we will look at who they are, what they are proposing, and will seriously entertain the idea," Meyer told the Telegraph.
Read more on Castle Bran on its website. Also, take a tour of the castle in the video below:
