Romania

Peles Castle, Brasov Old Town and Bran Castle

October 14, 2022 /

We took a day trip into the Carpathian Mountains to the land of folklore and mystery, Transylvania. This place was beautiful! It was so nice to see the changing colors of leaves after three years of not experiencing fall. We stopped at two castles and the city (I thought this was just a small town, boy was I wrong!) of Brasov.

Peles Castle

Peles Castle is located in Sinaia, Romania (not technically Transylvania, but close to it). It was built as a summer home for King Carol I and Queen Elizabeth between 1873-1914. The intricate detail in the woodwork and the sheer beauty of this castle and its location made it worth the visit.

This spiral staircase was amazing
There was such intricate detail in the woodwork, all throughout the castle
This room had a collection of weapons from centuries prior to the building of this castle
I liked his pointy feet
In the 14th century, guns were hard to come by so those who were wealthy enough to have them, really jazzed them up
The Romanian coat of arms
This bookcase served as a trap door
The early 1900s iPod
The leaves were on their way to changing!

Brasov, Transylvania

I was expecting a small mountain town, but Brasov is actually the seventh largest city in Romania with a population of over 200,000 people. We drove to the Old Town and had a short walking tour.

The Black Church – so called because it was struck by lightning in the 1600s and the entire building turned black. Time has worn most of that color away now
I think this was the old City Hall…
Pretty buildings in the courtyard
Our guide called this town ‘Transylvaniawood’ because of the Brasov sign at the top of the hill
Rope Street – basically a narrow street that was created after a big fire to make a path from the fire station to city center. Now it is just a wall of graffiti

Bran Castle aka ‘Dracula’s Castle’

This one was hard for me because they totally hoked this castle up to fit the Dracula narrative. This is the castle, built in the 1400s, that was the inspiration for Bram Stoker when he wrote Dracula. Though they do admit that Stoker never set foot in the region, they play it up with confidence that this is the castle he was envisioning. There is also the story about Vlad the Impaler and his connection to the castle, but, again, there is no proof that he ever set foot here either. Regardless, old castles are cool and impressive so I’m still glad I went!

The bedroom of one of the queens who actually did live here, Queen Maria
See what I mean…hokey…
Climbing up one of the scary staircases
Look closely at the tree on the right…hokey…
The castle did have beautiful architecture and views
They had an entire section where they told old Romanian folk stories about scary things. This tells the story of the Santoaderi which is in the next picture
They had video projectors with these silly videos playing
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