Bran, Romania
The Romanian government has given Dracula’s castle back to the heirs of the Romanian royal family, part of a broad restitution of private property seized by the Communists. Bran Castle was the seat of Vlad the Impaler, the 15th-century nobleman whose bloody exploits inspired novelist Bram Stoker’s vampire character. The castle was given to Queen Marie in 1920, and her grandson Dominic von Habsburg lived there until he was 10, when the Communists took it over and his family fled to the U.S. Habsburg, now 68, said he does not want his childhood home to remain associated with the fictional vampire. That’s bad news for the tourist trade. Since the 1989 fall of communism, the main industry in the village of Bran has been selling Dracula-related kitsch.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Trump hits Africa, Middle East with new travel banSpeed Read The travel ban bars visitors from 12 countries and restricts entry from seven
-
'The bilateral relationship has eroded'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
June 5 editorial cartoonsCartoons Thursday's political cartoons include a presidential get-out-of-jail-free card, masked ICE agents, and the Tooth Fairy's message for Senator Joni Ernst
