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| - For years, internet users have shared a sepia-toned photo of a castle on a hill and identified it in captions as an authentic photo, taken in the 1920s, of the abandoned castle of the real Dracula, perhaps best known as Vlad the Impaler.
(Facebook page Abandoned World)
A reverse-image search of the picture
The photo showed Bran Castle, a 14th-century fortress near the city of Brasov, Romania, a spokesperson for the stronghold — which now operates as a tourist attraction — confirmed via email. The picture originally appeared in "La Grande Roumanie," a 1929 book published by L'Illustration (a popular French magazine from the 19th and early 20th centuries).
Although the picture did authentically date to the 1920s, captions identifying it as "the real Dracula's castle," and implying it was abandoned at the time the photo was taken, were not factually accurate.
Bran Castle has been popularly nicknamed "Dracula's Castle" since the 1960s, as tourism scholar Duncan Light, who holds the position of principal academic in tourism management at Bournemouth University Business School, explained in his 2012 book, "The Dracula Dilemma: Tourism, Identity and the State in Romania."
However, the castle never belonged to the real Dracula, who is commonly known as Vlad the Impaler, a 15th-century Wallachian prince. At most, according to Light, "he may have stayed as a guest at the castle, although firm evidence is lacking." Light noted that some historians have also speculated that Vlad may have briefly been a prisoner at Bran following a 1462 arrest.
As for the fictional Dracula — from the imagination of Irish author Bram Stoker — the writer, who thought up the mythical creature, never visited Bran Castle — or anywhere in Romania — and no mention of the castle appears in Stoker's original notes for "Dracula," which were published in book form in 2008.
There is also no concrete evidence that Stoker based his description of the fictional vampire's castle on images he saw of Bran Castle, despite persistent speculation that he did.
For example, as the literature scholar Elizabeth Miller, who coedited the 2008 edition of Stoker's notes, acknowledged in her book "Dracula: Sense and Nonsense," Dracula's castle is described in the novel as "ruined," with "tall black windows" and "broken battlements" — all characteristics that Bran Castle does not have.
However, some people still believe Stoker based Dracula's castle on an illustration of Bran Castle. This is noted on the castle's official website.
How Bran Castle Became Dracula's Castle
Transylvanian Saxons built the fortress known as Bran Castle in the late 14th century, and over the following centuries, it changed hands many times. It eventually ended up in the possession of Queen Marie of Romania, who used it as a summer residence from the 1920s until her death in 1938.
This means that when the photo shared in the social media posts was taken, the castle was by no means the abandoned abode of an undead count. Rather, as Light said over email, "it was a quaint royal castle with no association with vampires."
In the 1950s, Romania's then-communist government converted the castle into a museum. In the course of his research into the tourism history of the castle, Light found that early Romanian promotional materials for the castle made no mention of Dracula — either the historical Vlad the Impaler or Bram Stoker's fictional vampire.
According to Light, the earliest evidence of Bran Castle's association with Dracula came from the late 1960s, when increasing numbers of Western tourists began to travel to Eastern Europe on coach bus tours. Bran Castle happened to be a conveniently located stop for such tours, many of which devoted only a single day to the Transylvania region.
Thanks in part to the explosion of Hollywood vampire movies in the middle of the 20th century, many Western visitors on these trips had one thing on their minds during their brief visits to Transylvania: Dracula.
As a result, Light wrote: "It is not surprising that Western tourists quickly projected all their fantasies and expectations of Castle Dracula on to Bran Castle."
According to Light, Romanian authorities did not actively encourage the narrative that the castle had a strong connection to either Vlad the Impaler or Stoker's Dracula. However, the claim quickly took hold in the West and, by the 1970s, Bran Castle became more or less synonymous with Dracula's Castle in Western books and magazines.
For example, a 1976 article in House and Garden magazine described Bran Castle as "where Dracula, or Vlad the Impaler, lived."
Under current ownership, the attraction has, to a degree, embraced the castle's popular association with Dracula. The castle hosts regular Dracula-themed events, and a page on its website mentions the theory that Vlad the Impaler once stayed — or was held prisoner — there, as well as speculation that Bran Castle inspired passages in Stoker's "Dracula."
However, the castle's website also makes it clear that Vlad the Impaler never owned or spent significant time at the castle. A disclaimer at the bottom of that page also reminds visitors that the castle was never home to an actual vampire, reading:
Visitors to Bran Castle should make the distinction between the historic reality of Bran and the character of the Count in Bram Stoker's novel. Dracula exists in the imagination.
In summary, it's true that the castle depicted in the photo shared on social media has had the nickname "Dracula's Castle" since the 1960s. However, little evidence links the castle to the historical Vlad the Impaler — who never lived there, although he may have visited it or been held prisoner there. There is even less evidence that Stoker, the author of the novel "Dracula," drew inspiration from the castle.
Furthermore, at the time the photo in question was taken in the 1920s, the castle was an active residence of the Romanian royal family. It was not abandoned, and there is no evidence that anyone at that time would have called it "Dracula's Castle."
As a result, we have rated this photo as miscaptioned.
Previously, we investigated the claim that King Charles III is descended from Vlad the Impaler.
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