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Announcer
Welcome to the Coolest Stuff on the Planet.
Matthew
Is this your wife? What a lovely throat. And that of course was a silly interpretation of an inter title from the classic 19 – you all right, Rachel?
Rachel
Sorry. I’m trying not to giggle over here. Proceed, sorry.
Matthew
From the film Nosferatu that was produced in 1922; a classic. Anyway, Halloween is coming up pretty soon everybody. We thought it would be fun to talk about vampires a bit and perhaps Count Dracula.
Rachel
You know that quote just reminded me of – what was the one that was made later, The Shadow of the Vampire? And he’s talking about the prop girl or something and he’s like, “I’ll eat her later.”
Matthew
Oh yeah.
Rachel
I love that line.
Matthew
Nice.
Rachel
But anyway.
Matthew
Yes, yes.
Rachel
So today we’re going to be talking about Vlad Dracula and we’re headed to Romania, so our first stop is to Bran Castle, which is often kind of hyped up as Dracula’s castle and we’ll talk about whether that’s authentic a little bit later. Basically, every year, hoards of tourists, hundreds of thousands, come to Bran Castle to take a tour of Dracula’s castle.
Matthew
Yeah, that’s right. Look at it towering above the city of Brasov. The castle juts out from a peak in the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania. The castle was constructed in the 14th century, Rachel. And it was a defensive fortress against the Ottoman empire, but it also served as kind of a customs point for moving between Wallachia which was – it doesn’t exist anymore, but it did and Transylvania. So Wallachia, if we’re looking at a map, Rachel, is on the – I guess it’s the lower East part.
Rachel
It was the southern Romania.
Matthew
The southern Romania, and then the Transylvania is kind of northeast – or northwest of that area up above.
Rachel
Yeah, it’s in central Romania today. Over the years, Bran Castle has changed hands a lot. It was in the hands of the Romanian royal family for a while. Then the communists seized it. And then after that, it was returned to the royal family. And today it is owned by a member of the royal family, but it’s run as a museum. So it’s a private residence that is run – that’s kind of funded by the state as a museum.
Matthew
So Rachel, let me ask you a question: what is your favorite thing about castles and fortresses and that kind of thing?