A family visit to Bran Castle

Time has a wonderful way of showing what matters.

And so these last couple of months time (life) show me that it is important to give my all to my family. Although I do need to find some balance between time given to the family and time given to myself I couldn’t agree more with the fact that time shown me that my girls and my hubby really needed me these last couple of weeks. But about that in a different post.

I am now here to tell you about Bran Castle – a proof that time really show us what matters. I am sure that most of you heard about Bran Castle after all is Vlad Tepes Castle!

The castle is situated in the heart of Bran and a very short drive from Brasov a city I love. Bran Castle is a national monument in Romania although now is owned privately by the Princess Ileana successors – Archduke Dominic and his sisters Maria-Magdalena Holzhausen and Elisabeth Sandhofer.

Princess Ileana used to run a hospital in Bran Castle in World War II and later was seized by the communist regime with the expulsion of the royal family in 1948. So Bran Castle has been through many over it’s long history and of course you can read a lot more about it on the official Bran Castle page.

There is still one more thing I do want to tell my english readers though. Although she was born in Bucharest, Ileana is the youngest daughter of Queen Marie of Romania and King Ferdinand I of Romania (there are rumours that says that Ileana’s true father was her mother’s lover Prince Barbu Ştirbey ut the king admitted paternity). Queen Marie was the one that restored Bran Castle and made it the residence of the royal family. Queen Marie was born in the British royal family and when she was born she was titled Princess Marie of Edinburgh. Her parents were Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. So…as Prince Albert is the son of Queen Victoria that makes Queen Marie her granddaughter and Princess Ileana Queen Victoria great granddaughter. As you can see the ties between Romania and Great Britain are great so no wonder that Prince Charles loves Romania so much.  Queen Elizabeth is also Queen Victoria great granddaughter.

Queen Marie

Princess Ileana

As you know we are a mixed family – english and romanian – so really wanted to show my girls a slice of our united history if you want. To show them – especially to my youngest that she is not the first english child that moves to Romania from UK. They both loved it there – and my husband of course who took lots of pictures of the place and with the girls.

What is pity is that the now owners of Bran Castle removed all the original furniture from the castle and replace it with furniture from other places – can’t recall now from where exactly but I am sure that you will be told if you ever decide to visit the castle.

However the castle it still stands tall and will hopefully be there for the generations that come. The fountain that stands in the middle of the court harden is one of the castle symbols. Apparently it used to be used as an elevator for Queen Marie between the main ground and the lower level to transport patients in the World War II.

These days people that are visiting just use it to photograph themselves next to it and to make a wish by throwing a coin into it.

The “soba’s” – a great feature of the castle are still lasting and they are just great don’t you think? Look at the wonderful painting on them. I know that the pictures are not great but I just had to share. If you visit ,you will find that is quite hard to take pictures inside the castle as it is pretty dark.

I especially like this one below as it even has a sleeping bed next to it – it must’ve been so cozy to sleep there in winter. 

It was a really nice day – my birthday – as this is when we visited the Bran. It seems that every 5 years for my birthday I visit some really magical places. For my 30th I visited Paris with my then family of three and for my 35th (this year) I visited Bran with my now family of four and my parents.

Of course we had moments when the girls were tired and crying – especially my youngest – but overall it was a great experience and we promised Kara we will go back to visit it again when she and her sister will be older.

I know not very often you see me in pictures…

If you do ever visit don’t forget to sign the guest book which me and the girls signed. Look Kara is doing it all by herself – she was really proud about it actually.

Visit Bran Castle

If you plan to visit please know that Bran is within easy reach from Otopeni Airport which is only a couple of hours away. You can very easy hire a car or get an airport shuttle if you prefer it. The area surrounding the castle is beautiful and you can find plenty of accommodation from only 70 RON/per night for a double room which is only around 14£.

We stayed at Club Vila Bran which is a bit more expensive but if you are going with kids is worth it. I will tell you more about it in a separate post later.

Bran Castle Location

Address: Str. General Traian Mosoiu, nr. 24, Bran, Romania

GPS coordinates:  N 45.515178°, E 25.367044°

Disclosure: All images besides the ones with Queen Marie and Princess Ileana were taken and belong to us so if you would like to take them please request.