Bran Castle, medieval stronghold in the Transylvanian Alps (Southern Carpathian Mountains) of Brașov county, central Romania. Bran Castle is often associated with the fictional vampire Count Dracula. The Romanian castle resembles Castle Dracula, as described in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula (1897), in that both stand on rocky precipices and command spectacular views. But Stoker, an Irish writer, is not known to have ever visited Transylvania. Moreover, Vlad the Impaler (Vlad III Dracula), the historical personage most closely identified with Stoker’s Dracula, never ruled Bran Castle, although some sources claim that he was held prisoner there for two months.

In 1377 King Louis I of Hungary authorized the Transylvanian Saxons of the Brașov region to build a castle as a bulwark against northward expansion of the Ottoman Empire. The castle was completed by 1388; it also served as a customs house for Transylvania, then a voivodate (province) of Hungary.