July 1, 2007 (BUCHAREST / Reuters) -- Romania wants to buy back a mediaeval fortress known as "Dracula’s Castle" from the former royal family of Habsburg, who won it from the state last year after a long legal battle, officials said on Monday.

The Bran castle, whose jagged towers and remote surroundings earned it its famous name, was one of the first prominent pieces of real estate given back by Bucharest under the new European Union member’s troubled property restitution law.

The Habsburgs lost it after World War Two when Romania’s communist regime chased them out of the country.

"We will go to Vienna to negotiate the deal with the owners," Aristotel Cancescu, head of the local council in Transylvania where the castle is located, told Reuters.

Cancescu said the Habsburg family wants 60 million euros for the castle.

Perched among forests on the foothills of the Carpathian mountains, the Bran Castle is a major tourist attraction in Romania.

Despite the name, the fortress was never part of Bram Stoker’s novel "Dracula". However, Romania’s notorious 15th century ruler Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, whose life inspired the book, may have been there briefly. [ed. note: argh! Tepes didn't inspire Stoker's novel!!]

The castle was built in the 14th century to guard the nearby city of Brasov from attacks by the Ottoman Turks.

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Posted by Vladimir Fri, 07/13/2007 - 21:36

 

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