Romanian Bran Castle Officially Becomes Private Property

Bran Castle in Romania has officially been transferred into the ownership of Archduke Dominic of Habsburg and it is running as a private museum as of 12.00 p.m, Corin Trandafir, the attorney of the House of Habsburg, told MEDIAFAX.

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The castle has become the property of Dominic of Habsburg after being under the management of the Romanian Culture Ministry for the last three years. Objects in the national patrimony housed at Bran were withdrawn in April by the ministry and stored in the Medieval Customs House, where they will be displayed to visitors. Items from the personal collection of Dominic of Habsburg were brought to Bran.

Habsburg intends to open an outdoor café near the Princess Ileana guest house and announced he will invest significantly in restoring the buildings in the castle’s park. Archduke Dominic and his sisters, Maria Magdalena Holzhausen and Elisabeth Sandhofer, will reopen the Castle on June 1, which will be promoted by the Tourism Ministry as an important Romanian tourist attraction. The castle will be managed through the Bran Estate Administration Council, which is controlled by Dominic of Habsburg and his sisters.

Bran Castle was returned to the Archduke Dominic of Habsburg on May 18, 2006, but remained under the management of the Romanian state, through the Ministry for Culture, for another three years. The state has been paying a rent for its own collections in the castle.

Following the reinstatement, Dominic of Habsburg took possession of: the castle, Queen Maria’s tea house, the house of Princess Ileana, the administrator’s house, Queen Maria’s Heart Tabernacle and a 7500 sqm plot of land belonging to it, the castle’s 28,000 sqm park, the two lakes in the park and the 1,650 mp road.

Dominic of Habsburg, grandson of Queen Maria and son of Princess Ileana, regained the castle nearly six decades after the royal family was forced to leave the country by the communist regime, when Dominic of Habsburg was ten.

Castle Bran, attested since November 1377, is one of the major tourist objectives in Romania. The castle is famous worldwide for its association with Dracula.

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