Romania Photo of the Day by Dreamstime: Bran Castle in autumn colors

The Romania Photo of the Day created in partnership with stock photo provider Dreamstime aims to highlight the best of Romania. From stunning landscapes and popular tourist destinations and landmarks to people, traditions, and food, this series helps you discover Romania one photo at a time. This week, we put the focus on beautiful Romanian landscapes in autumn colors.

High above a small town near Brasov, silhouetted against the sky on an imposing mountain cliff, sits Bran Castle. (Photo source - click on the number to get to the photo 103767614 © Sorin Colac | Dreamstime.com)

The top of the cliff offers a great viewpoint, a feature to which travelmakertours.com attributes the very construction of a fortress here. They say the first fortress was built out of wood in 1211 by the Teutonic Knights, who had received the lands from King Andrew II of Hungary, in order to defend the Southeastern border of the Transylvanian region and the Hungarian empire.

From 1226 to 1377, the fortress was abandoned, and at the end of 1377, the Hungarian King Louis I of Anjou granted the people of Kronstadt the right to build a castle, so, according to rolandia.eu, the Saxons of Kronstadt built it at their own expense.

In 1388 Bran Castle was finished, and officially received the name it has today. It took on the role of military fortress, defending the border against the Ottoman Empire, and was used as a customs point and trade pass as well.

Between 1407-1419, Bran Castle was held by Mircea the Elder, the ruler of Walachia, given to him by Sigismund of Luxembourg as a place to retreat to during armed conflict with the Ottomans. And in 1441, Iancu of Hunedoara defeated the Turks here.

Despite popular belief, the reality is that Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes) had little to do with the castle, although he passed through the area occasionally. During his first and second reigns, Vlad Tepes was allied with Bran, but at some point, he quarreled with the local Saxons, and in 1459 the voivode attacked Brasov, murdering hundreds of them.