Castle for sale....Dracula's Bran Castle

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

by Team Riley

Any biters?

Romanian castle that inspired settings in 'Dracula' up for sale

By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch

Last Update: 2:18 PM ET Jul 2, 2007

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Bran Castle, one of Romania's top tourist attractions and a must-see for fans of literature's most famous vampire, is up for sale.

Those willing to brave a price tag that could exceed $100 million will get the keys to the castle that inspired settings in Bram Stoker's "Dracula," said Michael Gardner, chairman of Baytree Capital, the New York private-investment firm handling the sale.

The building in the Transylvanian region of Romania has become known throughout the world as Dracula's Castle, and is currently being used as a museum, he said.

But Archduke Dominic Habsburg and family, the current owners of the property, aren't looking for just any old investor to bite. The firm was brought on to not only sell the place, but to develop a plan for it as well, Gardner said.

Gardner said the castle and the land around it is ripe for the development of tourist amenities including hotel accommodations and spas, all while "keeping the castle as centerpiece of the resort area." Already, 450,000 people visit the castle annually, he said.

The accession of Romania into the European Union earlier this year will likely bring more tourist activity in the future, Gardner said. New infrastructure will make it easier to get to the attraction, he said, but currently there aren't many places for tourists to stay.

Archduke Dominic chose the New York firm to create a plan for the property because he felt it would be done so with "the utmost sensitivity towards my family, the castle's history, and our ties to the country," he said in a news release.

"Aside from the castle's connection to one of the most famous novels ever written, Bran Castle is steeped in critical events of European history dating from the 14th Century to the present," the Archduke said.

The Archduke's grandmother, Queen Marie, lived in the castle in the early part of the 20th Century, according to the release. The communist regime seized the 700-year-old castle in 1948, and it became a museum in the 1950s. It was returned to the family in 2006.