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Young World
Dracula's castle on sale
COMPILED BY NIMI KURIAN
Bran Castle, better known as Dracula's Castle, has been put on sale for 60 million euros ($75.6 million) and local authorities in Romania are considering buying it, officials said. "Bran Castle is very important for our province's tourism industry. We have set up a commission with five members of the council that will examine the possibility of buying it," said Aristotel Cancescu, president of Brasov province's council. The castle was returned in December 2006 to Dominic Habsburg, the grandson of Queen Mary of Romania, 58 years after it was seized by the communist regime. Habsburg, 68, initially agreed with the culture ministry that the castle would remain a museum for at least three years and could only be sold to the state. But the same month, Habsburg announced he was going to sell the castle anyway and he submitted a letter of intent to the Brasov council. The castle, which was built in 1212 by the Teutonic Knights, once belonged to the cruel 15th-century prince Vlad Tepes, who notoriously impaled his victims and inspired the character of Dracula in Bram Stoker's novels. Given in 1920 by the people of Brasov to Queen Mary, who turned it into her summer residence, the castle remains a vital attraction for Brasov's tourism industry.
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