Go Inside The $80 Million 'Dracula Castle' That Just Went On Sale In Romania

A Romanian castle from the 13th century went on sale this week for a jaw-dropping £47 million, or roughly $80 million at today's conversion rates, according to The Daily Mail.

The hilltop fortress, known as Bran Castle, is a huge tourist attraction with 560,000 annual visitors - many attracted by its reputation as "Dracula's Castle."

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The castle dates back to 1211 (it was completed in 1388) and is believed by some to have been the inspiration for Irish author Bram Stoker's description of Dracula's castle in his 1897 book:

The castle is on the very edge of a terrific precipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green tree tops, with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm. Here and there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests.

Of course, the bloodsucking Count Dracula was fictional and there's no proof that his real life inspiration - Vlad the Impaler, prince of Wallachia in the 15th century - never lived in this fortress either.

In reality, the castle was occupied by warriors and knights during its early history before being gifted to the Habsburg royal family in 1920.

When the Communists came to power in 1948, the Habsburg heirs were forced to leave the country. Today, those heirs run the castle as a tourist destination, but are looking to sell it to a new owner who will continue to run the museum and potentially open a small hotel.

The Daily Mail reports that the Romanian government has been offered the castle for the price of £47 million, but the owners are open to other bids. Mark Meyer of Herzfeld and Rubin, a New York law firm handling the sale, told The Daily Mail: "If someone comes in with a reasonable offer, we will look at who they are, what they are proposing, and will seriously entertain the idea."