Sunday, 10 February 2008

2007_07_01_archive



Bran Castle, made famous in Dracula, for sale

Dracula's frightful lair for sale

3 July 2007

The Record

* WHAT'S NEW: An heir of Romania's former royal family is putting

Dracula's Castle in Transylvania up for sale, hoping to secure a buyer

who will respect "the property and its history."

Archduke Dominic Habsburg put the 14th-century Bran Castle up for sale

Monday "to the right purchaser under the right circumstances," said

Michael Gardner, chief executive of Baytree Capital, the company

representing Habsburg. "The Habsburgs are not in the business of

managing a museum."

No price was announced, though Gardner predicted the castle would sell

for more than $135 million. He added that Habsburg will only sell it

to a buyer "who will treat the property and its history with

appropriate respect."

* BACKGROUND: Bran Castle, perched on a cliff near Brasov in

mountainous central Romania, is a top tourist attraction because of

its ties to Prince Vlad the Impaler, the warlord whose cruelty

inspired Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, "Dracula." Legend has it that Vlad,

who earned his nickname because of the way he tortured his enemies,

spent one night in the 1400s at the castle.

Bran Castle was built in the 14th century to serve as a fortress to

protect against the invading Ottoman Turks. The royal family moved

into the castle in the 1920s, living there until the communist regime

confiscated it from Princess Ileana in 1948.

After being restored in the late 1980s and following the end of

communist rule in Romania, it gained popularity as a tourist

attraction known as Dracula's Castle. In May 2006, the castle was

returned to Princess Ileana's son, Archduke Dominic Habsburg. He

offered to sell it last year to local authorities for $80 million, but

the offer was rejected.

* WHAT'S NEXT: Habsburg, a 69-year-old New York architect, will keep


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