My Visit to Castle Poenari — Dracula's Castle

Castle Poenari photo gallery, part 3

This is part 3 of 4! See part 2 here.

Here's me actually in the archway of the tower. I sent my best friend Ben a text message from right here simply saying "I AM IN DRACULA'S FREAKING CASTLE," and then I realized it was 6:30am back in Philadelphia...

A look at the castle wall from the far end.

This is the highest point of the castle that you can reach yourself. The tower is higher, you can't get on top of that.

It was really windy up there. You can really see from the top why Vlad would've chosen this high peak for his castle.

A little background about the place: Apparently there was already actually an ancient castle on this spot before Vlad arrived, but it was in ruins, and when he wanted his own place built, he thought this would be a good location. He'd enslaved a large number of his political enemies and told them they had two years to build him a castle here. If they succeeded, he'd let them go free, and if they failed, he'd kill them. The actually did it, but it's assumed a lot of them died along the way from the hard work. It's still pretty impressive to see that some parts of their labor are still standing after 500 years and an earthquake. Good job, you guys.

On to part 4!

Other Stuff

My photos from Dracula's Castle: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Information on getting to Castle Poenari
More information on Castle Poenari and the historical Dracula
My photos from Curtea de Arges, the town near Castle Poenari
My photos from Sibiu and Cluj-Napoca, two other great Romanian towns
My photos from my first trip to Romania in 2005
My other European travel galleries
Cool Stuff in Paris — my site about weird and spooky attractions in Paris
ManningKrull.com — my personal site