Brasov is surrounded by snowcap mountains and on our way to Bran castle, we got to see them close up. Bran castle was built in the late 14th century by the residents of Brasov to block the Bran gorge from an enemy invasion. The castle was renovated in mid 20th century by Queen Regina Marie, so that she and her family could live in it.

Bran castle is the nocturnal residence of Count Dracula. Count Dracula, who is created by the Irish writer Bram Stoker, is based on the 15th century Wallachian prince Vlad Tepes. It is also based on a Romanian folk tale about people who were murdered. They would rise at night and suck blood from people. To stop this you would have to unbury them, put a stake through their heart, and re-bury them.

Queen Marie’s husband, King Ferdinand, was called the unifier as he was able to unify the four historic provinces to create the kingdom of Romania in 1918.

Today, Romania is a semi-presidential, representative democratic republic where the Prime Minister is the head of state. For Europe, it is a poor state on a par with Portugal.

History of Romania is quite complex because they were constantly being overrun by other empires. The Roman empire gave them their name and language. After that they were overrun by Huns, Hungarians and the Ottoman Empire to name a few. After World War II they were occupied by the Russians followed by a dictatorship under Ceausescu until 1989.

Rasnov fortress is a medieval and premodern citadel dating from the 14th century overlapped on Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements. At one time or another the citadel was occupied by Saxons, Hungarians, Turks, among others.

Peles castle is the former summer residence of King Carol I and Queen Elisabeth. It was a place for political decisions and an important European cultural center at the time. The castle was the first building in Romania to have central heating, electrical system, central vacuum cleaner, ducted air heating system, and electric elevator. Peles Castle has extraordinary value as a monument of European architecture, typical for late 19th and early 20th century. The woodwork in the interior is just unbelievable.

Here are a number of pictures of the castle and its surroundings.