RURAL TOURISM
BRAN
Bran is a town in the mountains, at 200 km away from Bucuresti and at 25 km away from Brasov, in the south- vest, on the road between Brasov and Campulung(57 km), the ancient road between Transilvania and Valachia. The high mountains, the beautiful hills and the rivers make a very beautiful view. The altitude is between 700 and 900 m. The climate is specific to the temperated-mountain area.
Bran a fortified castle designed in the Gothic style (14th c.) and placed on top of a rock in the pass between the Bucegi and the Piatra CraiuluiMountains; during the Middle Ages it was used for defence against Ottoman raids; it also served as a customs station. Its walls, made of river boulders, were raised by the peuple in Brasov. It has an irregular trapezoid shape and four levels with access made through a majestic staircase. A massive dungeon dominates its northern side with 4 towers oriented towards the four cardinal points. The castle once belonged to the Wallachian ruling prince Mircea the Old(1395); after 1498 it was owened in turn by the inhabitants of Brasov and by the Hapsburg Empire's administration. In 1920 the inhabitants of Brasov offered it as gift to Queen Mary of Romania, niece of queen Victoria; she held it as her second favourite residence after the one in Balcic (present Bulgaria); as requested in Queen Mary's will, after her death, her heart was placed in a silver casket and buried in a grotto by the castle for a while; nowadays, the Museum within the castle exhibits Romanian and foreign furniture and art objects from the 14th-19th centuries.