Two to get comfy coffin for overnight
stay in Dracula's castle
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[October 18, 2016]
By Radu-Sorin Marinas
BUCHAREST (Reuters) - "No garlic or
garlic-scented items allowed, including perfume," read the house rules
of Count Dracula's castle to ensure that Halloween night guests cannot
avoid the vampire.
On Oct. 31, two people will be allowed to sleep in velvet trimmed
coffins in the seclusion of the count's crypt and will spend the rest of
the night in the Carpathians castle completely alone, says vacation
rental marketplace Airbnb.
The company launched a promotional contest via Airbnb on Monday to pick
the castle's first ever overnight guests since Romania's post-World War
Two communist regime expelled the owners, the Habsburg royal family,
almost 70 years ago.
In 2006, a democratic government that replaced the fallen communists
restored the 14th-century Bran fortress, known as "Dracula's Castle", to
Habsburg descendents. Situated in the wooded foothills of the Carpathian
mountains, it is now a museum and major tourist attraction in European
Union member Romania.
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The castle was never part of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula," although
Romania's notorious 15th century ruler Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler),
whose life inspired the book, may have set foot there briefly.
Vlad was notorious for his cruelty, impaling Turks and thieves on wooden
stakes, but he was no vampire and vampires are not part of Romanian
superstition, which includes the belief that garlic wards off evil.
Airbnb said the winning pair will walk through the castle's labyrinth of
dark corridors to eventually discover a secret passage to the grand
dining room. There, an intimate candlelit dinner will await, prepared in
a traditional way, exactly as described in Bram Stoker's novel: "A
hearty, blood enriching meal of robber beef steak and paprika hendl
chicken."
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![](../images/101816pics/news_L17.jpg)
A general view shows Bran Castle, also known as Dracula's Castle, in
the Carpathian mountains, 200km (124 miles) north of Bucharest,
Romania in this May 19, 2006 file photo.
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"Bran Castle is where the legend of Dracula was born, and I have many
stories to share as I guide the guests through the dark secret passages
of the castle for a private unveiling of its many mysteries," said Dacre
Stoker, a descendant of Bram Stoker who will play the role of Jonathan
Harker, a character from the novel.
The 14th-century fortress's jagged towers, built to guard the nearby
city of Brasov from attacks by the Ottoman Turks, and its forbidding
surroundings, ideal as a horror film backdrop, gave rise to its famous
name.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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