Legendary Transylvanian castle for sale (vampire not included)

Bran Castle, the 630-year-old structure that is now more popularly known as Dracula's Castle, is on the market.

The structure was put up for sale by Archduke Dominic Habsburg and his family and is reportedly expected to sell for $135 million or more. Baytree Capital, a New York investment firm, is handling the sale.

"Dracula" author Bram Stoker is said to have based Dracula's Castle on Bran Castle, and to have based Dracula on Vlad III the Impaler, a former prince for a region called Wallachia that is now part of Romania. But the ties between Bran Castle and Vlad the Impaler (also known as Vlad Ţepeş and Vlad Drăculea) are fairly loose. A history of Bran Castle states that Vlad in 1459 attacked a nearby city "through Bran, burning the suburbs and the old church of Bartholomew," and "Bran was also the pass used" by armies of a prince loyal to Vlad during Vlad's second reign in 1456-1462.

The castle, which has been one of the most popular tourist attractions in Romania, was reportedly seized from the archduke's family during communist rule in Romania and converted into a museum in the 1950s.

Vlad is more closely associated with Poienari Castle, a now-ruined Romanian castle that was repaired and became one of his main fortresses. His nickname as "the impaler" reportedly relates to his tendency to impale his enemies.

The archduke had reportedly tried to sell the castle to local authorities in Romania for about $80 million in 2006, though that offer was rejected, the Associated Press reported. The Romanian government had returned the castle to his family last year.

News about the sale of Dracula's castle has touched off a flurry of Internet gossip, from Yelp.com to the Shadowed Realm Medieval History Community to the Ghost Mysteries Community Discussion Forums and everything in between.

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