State aims to buy 'Dracula's Castle' from former royals

ROMANIA wants to buy back a medieval fortress known as "Dracula's Castle" from the former royal family of Habsburg, who won it from the state last year after a long legal battle, officials said yesterday.

By The Newsroom

Published 9th Jan 2007, 00:00 BST

Bran Castle, whose jagged towers earned it its popular name, was one of the first prominent pieces of real estate given back by Bucharest under the new EU member's controversial property restitution law. The Habsburg family lost the castle after the Second World War, when Romania's communist regime chased them out.

"We will go to Vienna to negotiate the deal with the owners," said Aristotel Cancescu, head of the Transylvania council area in which the castle sits. He said the Habsburg family wants 60 million.