Table of Contents
Main help menu
Close help
 
Dracula's Castle at sunset - Bran, Romania - December 10, 2008
 
Shot from the street below. One thing you discover about Romania very quickly is that they have a LOT of wires draped across the country.

In early December 2008, I went on a research trip to Romania for a film I'm working on. One of our stops was at Bran Castle, more popularly known as "Dracula's Castle". Honestly though, the popular name is misleading since Dracula never resided here. It does guard a key pass through the Carpathian Mountains into the area that Dracula ruled, but it mainly gets associated with him because of how inspirational it was to Bram Stoker when he was developing his Dracula story. Regardless, it certainly was an interesting place to wander around.

 
The forest surrounding the castle really set a perfect, eerie mood.
 
Me.
 
No idea what this marker just outside the castle was all about, but it was pretty great looking.
 
The little black dog made for one of my favorite shots of the trip.

Another thing you quickly discover about Romania is that there are stray dogs everywhere. If you stand on a hill overlooking pretty much any town, the main noise that drifts up to you is constant barking and howling. So it was no surprise that as I was shooting this cross shaped marker, a little black dog came casually trotting out of the woods right past my legs so that he could curl up on the little snow-free spot by it's base. 

 
This is the stairs up to the main entrance. If you look closely above the door, you can see some pretty cool writing on the wall. I don't know what it says, but it looks great. In fact, I'll add a close-up of it below.
 
Tighter shot of the writing. You can see some just up below where the roof starts as well.
 
This is known as the "secret staircase". It was a pretty tight squeeze. I'm about 6'1" and 185 pounds, and I had to turn slightly sideways and hunch over a bit to get up them. Our guide tells us that Romanians were a bit smaller back when the castle was built. I'm inclined to believe him.
 
Once upstairs, you can step out for a view of the courtyard.
 
In the courtyard looking up. You can see the archway the picture to the upper left was taken out through at the top left of this shot.
 
And this is the view through the pass deeper into the Carpathians from the rooftop.
 
A couple shots of Bran through some castle windows...
 
A few more shots taken from inside the courtyard. I thought the cross-shaped shadow on the wall in the upper left of frame was a nice touch.
 
And finally, another one of my favorites from this stop showing the castle jutting up above some of the souvenir stands set up at it's base.
COMMENTS
Tunderke said at 10:18 p.m. on Jan 1, 2009:
I never seen as much pictures of Dracula's Castle. Some of the picture very beautyful. Love the stairs.kiss
Moabjeeper said at 8:01 a.m. on Jan 2, 2009:
Too bad about wires all over. Nice trip.
Chaitiamma said at 10:54 a.m. on Jan 2, 2009:
Nice tour. Did you wear any garlic around your neck ?
Grandbrother said at 4:00 p.m. on Jan 2, 2009:
Honestly, the wires everywhere made for an interesting compositional element in many of the shots - especially in Bucharest. Basically, as more technology was being added to the Romanian infrastructure, the regulations were loose enough that anyone who wanted to could add their wires to the mix, so it got pretty crowded pretty fast. I'll do a Bucharest Tabblo soon so that you can see what an interesting element they became...
Afterdinnermint1 said at 7:32 p.m. on Jan 7, 2009:
The shot of the staircase was my favorite.
HtD said at 2:26 a.m. on Jan 8, 2009:
a nice tabblo
Mirella said at 7:51 a.m. on Jan 12, 2009:
Romania is a beautiful country, especially the Carpazi zone, and Bucarest is a wonderful city too; but wires and stray dogs are the first signal of an economic suffering and lack of regulation, and not only in Romania..... Thanks for making me remember my trip there. Ciao
Mirella said at 7:52 a.m. on Jan 12, 2009:
Have you been in Sibiu ? another beautiful city !
Grandbrother said at 3:22 a.m. on Jan 13, 2009:
Yeah, we ended our trip in Sibiu. Loved the outdoor markets there. And the pork everywhere....
Eduardo.affonso said at 7:27 a.m. on Jan 16, 2009:
Thanks for the tour! I visited this castle once, for a few hours, at twilight - and didn't have a digital cam by that time (it was so long ago I wonder if Mr. Vlad Tepes wasn't still alive). The last shot is my favorite.
Add a comment
Flag this tabblo as "may offend"