"Dracula's Castle" For Sale In Romania

galaad2 writes "Want to own the real castle that may have inspired the legend of Dracula? The Transylvanian castle associated with Vlad the Impaler, who may have been part of the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Count Dracula, is on sale for £40 million ($77 million). Bran Castle, near the historic city of Brasov, in central Romania, draws 450,000 visitors a year because of its association with 15th-century Prince Vlad Tepes III. (Wikipedia points out that Bran Castle's ties to Vlad are weak and disputed.) The local town council has been offered first refusal; they have 30 days to review the offer and then the property will be put on the market."

Vlad's old digs, eh?

Ok, I'll bite...

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I never knew that there was really a Dracula castle in Transylvania, Romania. I am a bit scared now :-(

Re:Vlad's old digs, eh?

In the interest of spreading real news, I'll try to clarify things a bit.

The castle was donated to an old Romanian queen by the local city. Comunists came and took it, now the royal family got it back as a donation. The Romanian Culture Ministry has a clause in that donation act that they are to be the first to be notified in case it's available for sale and they have the right to purchase it back first. The Royal Family didn't notify the Culture Ministry yet, so they can't officially sell it because the Culture Ministry hasn't refused to purchase it yet.

The whole thing looks a bit like a scam from the Royal Family to increase the value of the castle. Apropos, the castle is the most major Romanian tourist site, it's very beautiful and it makes something like 10 milion Euro/year, with about 6 milion Euro/year expenses.

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I've seen a report on this story last night, including an interview with the Minister of Culture and he said that as far as he's concerned he will refuse to puchase it. Also I believe that the castle will go to the city of Brasov as that was the wish of th

Re:Vlad's old digs, eh?

Comunists came and took it, now the royal family got it back as a donation.

Yeah, it was the Communists who kicked the old man [wikipedia.org] out of the castle; he lived in New York City for a while and then settled down in Rio de Janeiro. No word yet if he wants his old castle back. It might suck for the royal family if he did show up.

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I didn't know Dennis Miller surfed slashdot...

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There's the ruins of one he got some Turkish landowners to build, too. The remains of it overlook the Arges river and it's a bit of a slog to get to it (1500-odd steps). Legend says that he worked rebellious Boyars to death building it.
http://www.draculasc [draculascastle.com]

Re:Vlad's old digs, eh?

Ok, I'll bite...

Eh, Dracula sucks.

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I'll drink to that! Bloody Mary, anyone?

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On /. you'll byte.

Bats

£40 million GLORIOUS bats. HA HA HA.

Choices, choices!

Damn, do I spend my recently acquired $70 million inheritance to buy Sealand, or this castle?

Re:Choices, choices!

Get the castle. Dating back to 1337 it must have a totally 1337 basement!

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No! Buy Sealand! Forget the 14 century basement, how many people get to say that they have their own private country? Now THAT will attract the ladies!

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That's the old English spelling.

Re:Choices, choices!

It's a castle, right? It must have been built to defend against aggressors. So buy the castle and declare it an independant state. All the benefits of Sealand (except fishing), but with better views and less rusting.

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Just think, with $140M you could buy both, and move the castle TO Sealand. How cool would that be ?

£40 Million?

Real Estate salesman: Wow, we don't see many vampires around here.
Vampire: Yeah well, at these prices you won't see many more.

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What else is there to do over that way? I was just looking into booking an overnight train to spend a long weekend there.

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You could eat [www.len.ro] and sleep. Last week there was also 1m of snow so access might be somehow difficult to some remote parts.

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I recently spent a night just in the proximity of the castle and I wake up much more revigorated than usual

How did you expect to feel? You are now immortal! Stay off the sunlight, though, either that or wear that ultra-extra-super-strength sunblock.

Roommates?

Who wants to go in on a castle?

Ideal roommates should be able to appreciate trap doors, suits of armor used used for conversation pieces, abandoned rooms with misc furniture covered in white sheets, pictures of aristocrats with the eyes cut out (for spying), rotating bookshelfs, and indie rock.

No dogs.
No smokers.
Weed is ok.

Re:Roommates?

I imagine old castles suck.

Plumbing problems, roof problems, heating issues.

Normal bills are probably a real bitch. Special "one-time" maintenance is surly out-of-this-world.

I have no idea what Romanian property taxes are like... You think Vampires suck - you don't want to see the local Tax authority.

So, if you are handy, with a strong back, you might make a good roommate/co-investor. Speaking Romanian probably wouldn't hurt.

Is broadband available there (at that specific castle)?

I'll pass.

Re:Roommates?

The father of a colleque of mine bought a castle a decade ago. For 1 DM at that time.

Its a lot smaller than this particular one, but after a decade of rebuilding and fixing stuff, its still only maybe 25% finished. They ARE a bitch to keep warm (and to keep water out). But they make an impressive party-place.

Re:Roommates?

Okay, who's the wise guy who keeps hiding all these hearts behind my candles?

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And some of them drop $1000!

sweet

All I can say is if I had 77 million lying around I would love to pick this castle up. I could get so many more chicks: "come back to my castle... of love"

What chick wouldn't want to go back to a castle? Of love?

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What chick wouldn't want to go back to a castle? Of love?

Oh, I dunno... one that wants to keep her blood?

Re:sweet

If you had 77 million, you wouldn't need a castle to get chicks. :))

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Good point. But just having a castle would be sweet!

Re:sweet

If you had chicks, you wouldn't have 77 million for long. ;)

Stone walls vs. ductwork.

Putting in heating, ventilating, and air conditioning will be a tough job. I know someone who converted an old stone barn, and that was a major project, even with substantial spending.

There's only one catch...

Sure you can buy Dracula's castle, but there's one catch. You have to spend the night there.

My only concern

If I become the Lord of this castle, will Simon Belmont come and whack me with that nasty whip thingie he is carrying around?

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If I become the Lord of this castle, will Simon Belmont come and whack me with that nasty whip thingie he is carrying around? No. That's extra.

Do the math...

Certainly nobody will buy this castle for making a profit. Do the math: 40 million pounds have to be spent. People pay 2.40 per entry. Thus you need 16.7 million entries to cover the acquisition costs (assuming the 450,000 visitors a year are all adults, a bit optimistic). Using this figure, it takes 37 years to pay off the initial investment - ignoring costs for running the castle, such as ongoing repairs, staff, etc.

Still, it would be cool to have that castle and enjoy eternal night life...

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As someone pointed out above the castle makes 10 Million Euros a year and spends 6 Million on expenses so even if you paid back the 40 Million for repairs etc over 20 years you'd still be making a profit of 2 Million a year.

Re:Do the math...

Certainly nobody will buy this castle for making a profit. Do the math: 40 million pounds have to be spent. People pay 2.40 per entry. Thus you need 16.7 million entries to cover the acquisition costs (assuming the 450,000 visitors a year are all adults, a bit optimistic). Using this figure, it takes 37 years to pay off the initial investment - ignoring costs for running the castle, such as ongoing repairs, staff, etc.
 
Still, it would be cool to have that castle and enjoy eternal night life...

Speaking of eternal night life, here's an even better idea. Every night throw a wild and massive party. Cover charge is 100 Euro per person. 500 Euro gets you your own room to host your own mini-party in true bacchanalian fashion. Or 2500 Euro gets you the dungeon for the evening. On Friday and Saturday, tasteful in-period costumes are mandatory (vampires okay, clowns not okay... rent 'em at the door if you forgot yours). It's like Disney Land but for mature audiences only. Have live DJ competitions where the audience votes and the top prize for the winning DJ is 10% of the take from cover charges or something like that.

It'd be a hell of a blast until it gets shut down for some please-think-of-the-children reason.
 

The Romanian property market

Expected to increase in value more than tenfold over the next 10-15 years. They've just joined the EU you see.

So, even accounting for some inflation by the current owners, anyone who can afford to buy this place is almost certain to make a bundle.

Meat in the walls

I only have one question. If I buy it can I get fully cooked meat out of the walls by destroying certain blocks?

Dracula's Castle? Since when?

Well, the castle has little to do with Vlad Tepes, actually. As for Bram Stocker, there's an idea he mostly drew his inspiration from the actions of Elizabeth Bathory. :) You should look more into the subject of this castle. It is beautiful, indeed, but you would really have the wrong expectations of it. Here's the story for those interested in this topic :
http://wordsofabrokenmirror.blogspot.com/2006/09/b reaking-dracula-myth.html [blogspot.com]

I vaaant...

... to suck your dollars.

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if you had said you wanted to suck anything else you would have had a deal... well as long as you are female anyway. :-)

Every Romanian castle is "Dracula's Castle"

I've been to a few, and they were all advertised as being "the real one". The joke among Romanians is apparently that every castle over there belonged to some Vlad this or that, and because that Bram Stoker has never been to Romania, there is no problem in claiming that it is Dracula's castle

Been to Bran and the real Castle too

The Castle in Bran *looks* the part. If Disney were to make a real castle, it would look like this. It is well located for access by train from all over the country. I'm not sure it would be a good investment as their door policy isn't exactly difficult to skip around.

Anyway, the castle at Poenari is the real deal, though it is difficult to get there. You have to climb up a very steep mountain side to actually get to the castle, sometimes you are watched by armed guards protecting a nearby Hydro plant or something. The guys had guns, I didn't ask. This castle really was the home of Vlad the Impaler and the slope you climb to reach it once had the decapetated heads of his victims strewn across it on spikes.

The castle itself is actually very small and nobody is ever going to make moey selling tours there (hence Bran is where the tours are sent). It is spooky and very, very cool. It is perched on a teeny tiny outcropping from the mountain and is a really fantastic experience , as I recounted here many years ago http://www.apj.co.uk/tales/vlad.htm#vlad [apj.co.uk].

I've just visited this place

...a week ago.

It is really beautiful, and the surrounding village of Bran is extremely nice. The caste is quite small, but very nice, with small corridors, winding stairs, inner terraces and balconies, even a secret passage from Queen's room to King's room. All asymmetric, you can easily get lost in there. The entire thing is in mint condition, but heating in the winter must be a bitch.

As can traffic. A few hours after we left, the whole village got snowed in, and thousands of tourists couldn't leave as the roads were buried in half a metre of snow.

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just the 22 million people of this country ...

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Romania is a nice place to live and now it's in the EU and will no doubt have a lot more money pumped into it I imagine it will become even nicer.

Its certainly a lot closer than Brazil as well, a £40 plane journey I believe.

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Ironically, it would probably be more lucrative to buy property in something like Second Life than a castle like this. The castle is cool as hell, but the location is not very convenient.

Nor is your suggestion. I mean, it's not like my name is Thomas Anderson or something.

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As opposed to all those middle class and blue-collar folks with $77 Million lying around?

I meant that most people don't have 77 mil to spend without expecting to get something back. If the place would be likely to generate money a suitable organization cou