Bran Castle, Romania.

              Cross outside main entrance to Vlad Tepes III castle, Bran, Transylvania, Romania.

A door under the mountain upon which sits Castle Bran, the home of Vlad Tepes, better known as Dracula.

                                  Wall of Bran Castle - haunted by the ghost of Vlad Tepes.

                                                              Bran Castle, Romania.

Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes) was allied with Bran and Brasov during his first reign (1436 – 1442) and through the start of his next reign, after the Princes of Transylvania requested that he handle the anti-Ottoman resistance at the border. During his second reign (1456 – 1462), however, his army passed through Bran in early 1459 to attack Brasov, in order to settle a conflict between the Wallachia Voivode and the Saxons, who requested higher customs taxes and supported his opponent for the throne. Vlad the Impaler burned the city’s suburbs and murdered hundreds of Saxons from Transylvania, provoking the Saxon community to seek revenge by later mentioning in reports that the Voivode were a tyrant and extremely ruthless.

Bran castle is advertised as fictional Dracula the vampire castle, not as castle of the real voivode named Vlad III Draculea, or Vlad the Impaler. As some wrote its true that voivode (duke) Vlad the Impaler had the Poenari fort which also true is in ruins today, he also had 2 or 3 other forts, one of them also ruins at Bucharest, there is only the underground more or less intact. Vlad was founder of Bucharest, as city there, can see today a small monument and the ruins and underground of his previous fortress. Poenari is considered an important fortress, its in the Carpathians on the border of historic Wallachia and Transylvania on a high peek (that's the beauty of the place that you can see on one side Transylvania and on other Wallachia), near the river Arges that is also seen in some fictional movies.

Hunyad Castle

The Hunyad Castle (Romanian: Castelul Huniazilor or Castelul Corvinestilor, Hungarian: Vajdahunyad vára) is a castle in Transylvanian Hunedoara, present-day Romania. Until 1541 it was part of the Kingdom of Hungary, and after the Principality of Transylvania. Vlad the Impaler was imprisoned here for 7 years. Supposed to be extremely haunted.

Hunyad (or Corvin) Castle in Hunedoara is an amazing construction dating back to the 14th or 15th century, depending on whom you ask. Interestingly, it also has a tower named Nje Bojsia (meaning “Don’t be afraid,”) by the Serbian mercenaries who fought there. Add that to the coat of arms of the ruling family, which is a raven, and you get the perfect haunted location. And people really, really wanted it to be haunted. The crew of Most Haunted Live spent three nights here looking for Dracula, trusting the myth that says that Vlad the Impaler himself had spent seven years in the dungeons of the castle.

Although there is no proof of this being true, the castle still had its fair share of pain and torment. It is said that one of the leaders of the fortress, Iancu of Hunedoara, promised freedom to three Turkish prisoners if they would dig in the rock until they found water. The three prisoners are said to have dug for no less than 28 years before reaching their goal. Unfortunately for them, Iancu had died, and his wife didn’t care about her late husband’s promises. She ordered them to be beheaded. Before that, however, it is said that the three men managed to write, “You now have water but you don’t have heart,” together with their names, on the well wall to show the family’s lack of honor. Today, visitors can see both the well and its inscription in Turkish.