Travel Blog #1: The Bran Castle (A.K.A Dracula’s Castle)

Hello, Bookaholics! I’ve got something different for you today. I’m not going to review a book, or write a short story, or write about a cool author. I’m going to talk about my experience in a place where one of the greatest literary masterpieces took action.

I bet you all at least heard about Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” if you did not read it. ( I will give you a little synopsis for it in a bit.) So I thought it would be cool if I wrote an article about my visit to the Bran Castle, since it is a book-related location.

Right now, I am planning to go to as many literature-related locations as possible this summer. And I am, of course, going to write about them in here. But let’s focus on the one at hand, for the time being.

Synopsis for “Dracula” by Bram Stoker:

Count Dracula, a 15th-century prince, is condemned to live off the blood of the living for eternity. Young lawyer Jonathan Harker is sent to Dracula’s castle to finalise a land deal, but when the Count sees a photo of Harker’s fiancée, Mina, the spitting image of his dead wife, he imprisons him and sets off for London to track her down.

A quick tour through “Dracula’s Castle”

Image of the Castle, from the outside yard

A national symbol for Romania, the Bran Castle is known for showing just how well can Mythology and Real History go together. To me (as well as to many others), it represents the swing of the Gothic Art in our country and, of course, it shows how much work and talent were needed for such a great work of art to be done.

Now I’ll put here some of the best pictures that I took, showing off my photography skills. Just kidding, I want to show off the amazing architecture and details that this whole big ass building has got to offer. 🙂

The Welcoming Hallway

The Library

The Music Room (pic 1)

The Music Room (pic 2)

The Myths Room (right side)–with a Witch (rather a mannequin resembling a witch)

The Myths Room (left side)– the said Witch’s Room

Just a staircase, but it looks too nice not to be put in here :))

Dining Room

Gothic Room

King Ferdinand’s Dormitory (left side)

King Ferdinand’s Crown

King Ferdinand’s Dormitory (right side)

Princess Ileana’s traditional costume, sewed with gold and silver thread

Mihai The Brave’s cinematographic costume

Fireplace and Vlad the Impaler’s cinematographic costume

Exposition of armouries

Exposition of weapons and heraldries

Fountain

Exposition of torture instruments used by Vlad the Impaler (right side)

Exposition of torture instruments used by Vlad the Impaler (left side)

A really nicely made lamp. I fell in love with those details 🙂

Beautifully detailed weapons at a souvenir store. I loved their design

Exposition of alcoholic drinks

Restaurant in the yard of the Castle

Old-fashioned house (in a Village Museum exposition)

Another old-fashioned house 🙂

Gothic souvenirs that I simply fell in love with, and I just took pictures of them because my mom wouldn’t let me go home with all those little adorable things 🙂

Same as above 🙂

And same as above 🙂

“The Castle Of Horror”, an adventure type of tunnel. Unfortunately, my mother was too afraid that I might get a panick attack inside of it, so she didn’t let me go on the journey. But I will come back there, and will definitely go through this tunnel.

If you want to read more about the myths and real history of the Bran Castle, I recommend you to check out The Bran Castle Official Website, where you can have a little virtual tour of the castle, or go here The Bran Castle: Dracula’s Myth to read the whole myth surrounding Count Dracula and how he became a national symbol for Romania.

🙃

LOL (Lots Of Love), ♡Patry♡