Bran Castle Bran Castle ( ; ; ) , situated near Bran and in the immediate vicinity of Braşov , is a national monument and landmark in Romania . The fortress is situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia , on DN73 . Commonly known as " Dracula ' s Castle " ( although it is one among several locations linked to the Dracula legend , including Poenari Castle and Hunyad Castle ) , it is marketed as the home of the titular character in Bram Stoker ' s " Dracula " . There is , however , no evidence that Stoker knew anything about this castle , which has only tangential associations with Vlad III , voivode of Wallachia , the putative inspiration for Dracula . As discovered by the Dutch author Hans Corneel de Roos , the location Bram Stoker actually had in mind for Castle Dracula while writing his novel was an empty mountain top , Mount Izvorul Călimanului , 2 , 033 m high , located in the Transylvanian Kelemen Alps near the former border with Moldavia . The castle is now a museum open to tourists , displaying art and furniture collected by Queen Marie . Tourists can see the interior individually or by a guided tour . At the bottom of the hill is a small open air museum park exhibiting traditional Romanian peasant structures ( cottages , barns , etc . ) from across the country . History . In 1212 , Teutonic Knights built the wooden castle of Dietrichstein as a fortified position in the Burzenland at the entrance to a mountain valley through which traders had travelled for more than a millennium , but in 1242 it was destroyed by the Mongols . The first documented mentioning of Bran Castle is the act issued by Louis I of Hungary on November 19 , 1377 , giving the Saxons of Kronstadt ( Braşov ) the privilege to build the stone citadel on their own expense and labor force ; the settlement of Bran began to develop nearby . In 1438 – 1442 , the castle was used in defense against the Ottoman Empire , and later became a customs post on the mountain pass between Transylvania and Wallachia . It is believed the castle was briefly held by Mircea the Elder of Wallachia during whose period the customs point was established . The Wallachian ruler Vlad Ţepeş ( Vlad the Impaler ) 1448 – 1476 does not seem to have had a significant role in the history of the fortress , although he passed several times through the Bran Gorge . Bran Castle belonged to the Magyar Kings but due to King Vladislas II ’ s failure to repay loans , the city of Brasov gained possession of the fortress in 1533 . Bran played a militarily strategic role up to the mid - 18th century . In 1920 , the castle became a royal residence within the Kingdom of Romania . It became the favorite home and retreat of Queen Marie . The castle was inherited by her daughter Princess Ileana and was later seized by the with the expulsion of the royal family in 1948 . In 2005 , the Romanian government passed a special law allowing restitution claims on properties illegally expropriated , such as Bran , and thus a year later the castle was awarded ownership to Dominic von Habsburg , the son and heir of Princess Ileana . In September 2007 , an investigation committee of the Romanian Parliament stated that the retrocession of the castle to Archduke Dominic was illegal , as it broke the Romanian law on property and succession . However , in October 2007 the Constitutional Court of Romania rejected the parliament ' s petition on the matter . In addition , an investigation commission of the Romanian government issued a decision in December 2007 reaffirming the validity and legality of the restitution procedures used and confirming that the restitution was made in full compliance with the law . On May 18 , 2009 , the Bran Castle administration was transferred from the government to the administration of Archduke Dominic and his sisters Maria - Magdalena Holzhausen and Elisabet Sandhofer . On June 1 , the Habsburgs opened the refurbished castle to the public as the first private museum of the country and disclosed with Bran Village a joint strategic concept to maintain their domination in the Romanian tourist circuit and to safeguard the economic base in the region .