Utente:Robydr00/Sandbox
| Castello di Bran Castelul Bran | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Ubicazione | |
| Stato |  Romania
|
| Regione | Transilvania |
| Città | Bran |
| Coordinate | 45°30′54″N 25°22′02″E |
| Informazioni generali | |
| Tipo | fortezza |
| Stile | Medievale, Gotico |
| Costruzione | 1211-1328 |
| Costruttore | Cavalieri Teutonici |
| Primo proprietario | Luigi I d'Angiò-Valois |
| Condizione attuale | Museo |
| Proprietario attuale | Arhiducele Dominic, Arhiducesa Maria Magdalena, Arhiducesa Elisabeta |
| Visitabile | si |
| Sito web | www.bran-castle.com/ |
| Informazioni militari | |
| Funzione strategica | 1388 |
| Termine funzione strategica | 1888 |
| Occupanti | Mircea il Vecchio, Vlad l'Impalatore, Ladislao II di Polonia, Maria di Sassonia-Coburgo-Gotha, Ileana di Romania |
| http://www.bran-castle.com/historical-timeline.html | |
| voci di architetture militari presenti su Wikipedia | |
Il Castello di Bran, (in rumeno Castelul Bran, IPA: [kasˈtelul ˈbran]) è un castello della Romania costruito in stile medievale e gotico. Si trova presso il comune di Bran (vicino Brașov) e sorge sull'antico confine tra la Transilvania e la Valacchia.[1]
Nella cultura di massa il castello deve parte della sua fama all'autore Bram Stoker. Si presuppone che egli abbia ambientato il suo romanzo gotico Dracula proprio in questo luogo, dal momento che quello di Bran è l'unico castello della Romania la cui artichettura coincide quella descritta dallo scrittore irlandese. Pertanto, esso è comunemente conosciuto come 'Il Castello di Dracula'. [2][3].
Oggi è la sede di un museo dedicato alla storia della Transilvania e alle collezioni della famiglia reale.[4] É una delle attrazioni più famose e simbolo della Romania.[5]
Luogo
Il Castello di Bran sorge ai piedi dei Carpazi nel comune di Bran, in prossimità dell'antico confine tra la Transilvania e la Valacchia. Esso è uno dei luoghi più famosi della Regione della Transilvania, conosciuta per l'abbondanza di roccaforti medievali che popolano la zona, il territorio prevalentemente montuoso e i paesaggi naturalistici che essa offre.
La fortezza, circondata dai massicci montuosi Bucegi e Piatra Craiului, è situata a circa 30 km di distanza dalla città di Brasov e si erge su un picco roccioso all'entrata del passaggio Rucăr - Bran. La posizione privilegiata del Castello di Bran permette di avere ampie vedute sulle colline circostanti, la Valle Moeciu e la Valle Bârsei. Si raggiunge percorrendo la strada nazionale 73 che collega Braşov a Câmpulung, attravero il Massiccio Piatra Craiuliu, Parco Nazionale, unico nel suo genere per la presenza di alcune specie di flora e fauna autoctona. [6]
In genere, i numerosi castelli che popolano la regione (vedi il Castello di Peleș e il Castello dei Corvino) non hanno subito grandi modifiche di natura stilistico-architettonica nel corso dei secoli e il loro aspetto è rimasto perlopiù invariato. Oggi questi siti medievali sono divenuti località turistiche.
Storia
L'origine della fortezza risale al 1211, anno in cui il Re Andrea II d'Ungheria assegnò la locazione strategica all'ordine dei Cavalieri Teutonici per scopo difensivo-militare. Dapprima venne eretta una costruzione in legno sulla cima di un picco roccioso a guardia dell'antico limes tra Valacchia tra Transilvania. Il passaggio da secoli permetteva il transito dei mercanti e lo scambio delle merci. Tuttavia la struttura venne abbandonata nel 1226.
Il 19 novembre del 1377 Luigi I d'Angiò-Valois riconobbe alla popolazione della città di Brașov la libertà di costruire a proprie spese una struttura fortificata in pietra che sarebbe poi divenuta il Castello di Bran. Il limitrofo villaggio chiamato Bran sorse in concomitanza con l'erigenda. Nel 1377 si quindi avviò la costruzione del castello che proseguì fino al 1388, anno in cui venne sfruttato dal Regno d'Ungheria come baluardo contro l'espansione dell'Impero Ottomano. Le roccaforti medievali di questo genere aiutarono a scongiurare le continue incursioni nel XIV-XV secolo da parte dell’Impero ottomano e a proteggere le popolazioni locali.
L'importanza strategica del castello ne fece uno strumento prezioso anche per i potentati cristiani che regnavano sui Principati danubiani: Bran venne infatti temporaneamente occupato ed utilizzato sia dal voivoda (principe) Mircea il Vecchio (Mircea Cel Bătrân) che da suo nipote, Vlad l'Impalatore (Vlad Ţepeş).
A partire dal 1920, il castello di Bran divenne residenza dei sovrani del Regno di Romania. Vi soggiornarono a lungo la regina Maria di Sassonia-Coburgo-Gotha, che ristrutturò gli interni secondo l'allora gusto Arts and Crafts rumeno, e sua figlia, la principessa Ileana di Romania.
Nel 1948, dopo l'abdicazione del re (dicembre 1947), la famiglia reale rumena venne esiliata dal governo comunista. Il castello, occupato dalla servitù, fu nazionalizzato e divenne un museo.
Nel maggio 2006 Domenico, il figlio della principessa Ileana di Romania, si vide restituire il castello dalle autorità rumene come parte dell'eredità materna.
1407
Image
The Castle was given as fief (“property given in return for loyalty”) by Sigismund of Luxembourg to his ally, Prince Mircea, the Elder of Wallachia, where he could escape to in case of an attack by the Turks. After the death of the Romanian Prince in 1419, due to the political instability of Wallachia, Sigismund took over the castle and entrusted it to the Princes of Transylvania.
Image 1441 The Turks raided Transylvania, but John Hunyadi (Iancu de Hunedoara) defeated them in Bran. Iancu, Prince of Transylvania, who needed the support of the Saxons at the border, reinforced the promises granted to the inhabitants of Brasov by Mircea the Elder and by Sigismund.
Image 1459 Image Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes) was allied with Bran and Brasov during his first reign (1448) and through the start of his next reign, after the Princes of Transylvania requested that he handle the anti-Ottoman resistance at the border. During his second reign (1456 – 1462), however, his army passed through Bran in early 1459 to attack Brasov, in order to settle a conflict between the Wallachia Voivode and the Saxons, who requested higher customs taxes and supported his opponent for the throne. Vlad the Impaler burned the city’s suburbs and murdered hundreds of Saxons from Transylvania, provoking the Saxon community to seek revenge by later mentioning in reports that the Voivode were a tyrant and extremely ruthless.
1498 On January 01, the Saxons of Brasov purchased the right to use the castle for 10 years, for 1000 florins, from King Vladislav II Jagello. The King’s treasury was previously emptied from war expenses. The Brasovs also took on the castle’s money-making customs role as part of the lease.
Image 1651 Image After extending the castle’s lease with the Princes of Transylvania several times – even after the Ottoman conquest of the Hungarian kingdom in 1541 – Brasov managed on April 25, 1651 to sell the castle to George II Rackoczi.
1691 Although Transylvania became part of the Habsburg Empire since 1687, the promises offered by the Princes of Transylvania, including the 1651 sale of the castle, were reconfirmed by the Leopold Diploma.
1723 In 1723, renovation was completed on the northern tower of the castle, as mentioned in an inscription. The Castle was damaged over time, often by sieges and otherwise by common negligence or even by forces of nature. For example, in 1593 there was an explosion on the powder mill and in 1617 a severe storm destroyed the roofs. The castle also underwent reconstruction during the reign of Gabriel Bethlen (1613 – 1629), when the gate’s tower, the round tower and the donjon were all renovated.
Image 1836 By 1836, Bran Castle lost its military and commercial importance, after the border between Transylvania and Wallachia was moved to the mountains, at Pajura. Although Bran ceased to be a border and customs point of Austro-Hungary, the castle continued to be an administrative seat.
1886 Image Between 1883 and 1886, the imperial authorities agreed, at the insistence of the Brasov inhabitants, to repair damages made to the castle during the Revolution of 1848 and during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877. Extensive restoration work was carried out.
1888 The City Administration of Brasov transferred the castle to the region’s forestry. For 30 years, the castle fell into decay – it was inhabited, up to 1918, by the foresters, woodsmen and forest inspectors coming from Brasov.
1920 After 1918, Transylvania became part of Greater Romania. On December 1st 1920, the citizens of Brasov, through a unanimous decision of the city’s council, led by Mayor Karl Schnell, offered the castle to Queen Maria of Romania, who was described in the deed as “the great queen who (…) spreads her blessing everywhere she walked, thus wining, with an irresistible momentum, the hearts of the entire country’s population”.
The Castle became a favorite residence of Queen Maria, who restored and arranged it to be used as a residence of the royal family.
Image 1932 Image From 1920 until 1932, the Castle was converted into a royal summer residence, coordinated by the Czech architect Karen Liman, who designed the castles Peles and Pelisor.
The 57 meter deep well of the castle gave insufficient water; therefore water was piped to the castle from natural springs situated across the valley. In 1932, the castle added a hydroelectric power plant on the stream Turcu, to light the castle but was also connected to the towns of Bran, Simon and Moeciu. The grateful inhabitants thanked Queen Marie, to which she referred in her writings: “poor villages, pure Romanian that in a near future would not have had this advantage.”
The area around the Castle was turned into an English Park with two ponds and a Tea House. An elevator was installed into the well shaft to provide easy access between the castle and the park for the Queen suffering from arthritis. Other buildings were erected: a guesthouse, a wooden church, staff housing, stables and garage.
1938 When Queen Marie died, on July 18, Bran Castle was bequeathed to the Princess Ileana, now married to Archduke Anton of Austria since 1931. The Queen’s favourite, according to a statement from Balchik on June 29, 1933. The Archduchess continued the planning for the castle's future.
Image 1940 Image After the Vienna Award, when Romania lost the South Danube territories, Queen Marie’s heart that had been in the Stella Maris chapel of the Balchik’s palace on the Black Sea, was brought in its sarcophagus to Bran. The sarcophagus containing the heart was placed into a crypt chapel carved into the rock across the valley from the Castle. Upon Queen’s death, her heart had been placed in a silver box that was placed into a precious ornate box, which were then wrapped in the flags of Romania and of her native England and then placed in a marble sarcophagus.
1944 The Princess Ileana built a hospital in Bran, she named it “the Hospital of the Queen’s Heart”, which serviced the treatment for wounded soldiers from Brasov after the Red Cross hospital was bombed by American aircrafts. After 1945, the hospital continued to treat people wounded and maimed in the war and the population of the region. Princess Ileana herself cared for patients as a nurse and even operated in the hospital. She continued the work with great efforts until January 1948.
Image 1948 Image Princess Ileana and her family were forced to leave the country by the newly installed communist regime. Ileana moved via Switzerland and Argentina to the United States in 1950, together with her six children: Stefan (born 1932), Maria-Ileana (born 1933), Alexandra (born 1935), Dominic (born 1937), Maria – Magdalena (born 1939) and Elisabeth (born 1942. At the same time, Archduke Anton returned to Occupied Austria to save what he could of his war ravaged estate. In the United States, Princess Ileana provided for herself, her children and their education through proceeds from lecturing on her life, Romania and Communism.
1956 Bran Castle was transformed by the communist authorities into a museum. The museum had three departments: the Castle – which contained pieces of royal heritage; the medieval customs; and Ethnography – that included traditional houses in the park near the castle.
1990 In September 1990, Princess Ileana, who since 1961 lived in a convent and was ordained as Mother Alexandra, visited Bran Castle and witnessed the damaged buildings and loss of some of the inter-war construction.
She died shortly after, on January 21, 1991, and was buried in The Orthodox Monastery of Transfiguration Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, which she founded and of which she was the abbess. In her grave was placed a small box containing earth from the foot of Bran Castle, collected when she was exiled.
Image 1993 The castle’s restoration works, which had started in 1987, were finished. The Castle was reopened as a museum and was reintroduced into the tourist circuit.
2006 On May 18, after several years of legal proceedings, the castle was legally returned to the heirs of Princess Ileana of Romania and Archduke Anton of Austria. However, the Romanian Government, through the Ministry of Culture, provisionally administered the castle for another three years.
2009 Image On June 1, 2009, the Castle fully re-entered the possession of its legal heirs, Archduke Dominic, Archduchess Maria Magdalena and Archduchess Elisabeth.
Descrizione
Stanze principali, torri, parco/cimitero
Every historical episode is characterized by certain factors that function as a constant, such as time and space. These factors define its place in the evolution of the human community.
The region between Bucegi and Piatra Craiului has sparked a series of historical episodes, from prehistoric days until current times, all due to one major geographical and historical factor: the Bran Gorge.
The Bran Gorge, one of the most important trans-Carpathian passages, has had a dynamic history. Its story has been characterized by two major components: the trade routes of its crossroads, and the recurring military invasions that utilized them.
A natural amphitheater, guarded from the East by the Bucegi Mountains and from the West by the Piatra Craiului Massive, the Bran Gorge offered, due to its concave space, a wide panorama both to Burzenland (Ţara Bârsei), and to the hills and valley of Moeciu.
Castello di Dracula
La leggenda
Tra i numerosi castelli che popolano le montagne e i boschi della Transilvania il più famoso è il Castello di Bran, sia per la sua architettura gotica che per la leggenda a cui è legato alimentata dal romanzo di Bram Stoker. Bram Stoker’s character, Dracula, is a Transylvanian Count with a castle located high above a valley perched on a rock with a flowing river below in the Principality of Transylvania.
This character is often confused with Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), sometimes known as Vlad Dracul, who was a Walachian Prince with a castle, now in ruins, located in the Principality of Wallachia. Because Bran Castle is the only castle in all of Transylvania that actually fits Bram Stoker’s description of Dracula’s Castle, it is known throughout the world as Dracula’s Castle. Chapter 2, May 5 of “Dracula” describes the Count’s castle as “. . . on the very edge of a terrific precipice . . . with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm [with] silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests.”
Image Bram Stoker Bram Stoker never visited Romania. He depicted the imaginary Dracula’s castle based upon a description of Bran Castle that was available to him in turn-of-the-century Britain. Indeed, the imaginary depiction of Dracula’s Castle from the etching in the first edition of “Dracula” is strikingly similar to Bran Castle and no other in all of Romania. Stoker is widely purported to have used the illustration of Bran Castle in Charles Boner’s book, "Transylvania: Its Product and Its People", (London: Longmans, 1865) to describe his imaginary Dracula's Castle.
Dracula – as he is perceived today – is a fictitious character whose name derives from the appellation given to Vlad Tepes, the ruler of Wallachia from 1456-1462 and 1476, and who, for largely political reasons, was depicted by some historians of that time as a blood-thirsty ruthless despot.
Stoker’s character, Count Dracula, first appeared in the novel “Dracula”, published in England in 1897, by the Irish writer Bram Stoker. But the name “Dracula”, far from being a frightening term, derives from the Crusader Order of the Dragon with which Order both Vlad Tepes and his father had been associated. The rest of the Dracula myth derives from the legends and popular beliefs in ghosts and vampires prevalent throughout Transylvania.
Stoker’s Count Dracula is a centuries-old vampire, sorcerer, and Transylvanian nobleman, who claims to be a Székely descended from Attila the Hun. He inhabits a decaying castle in the Carpathian Mountains. In his conversations with the character Jonathan Harker, Dracula reveals himself as intensely proud of his boyar culture with a yearning for memories of his past. Count Dracula appears to have studied the black arts at the Academy of Scholomance in the Carpathian Mountains, near the town of Sibiu (then known as Hermannstadt). While Stoker named his Transylvanian Count “Dracula”, he was careful not to suggest an actual link to the historical character of Vlad Tepes. While Stoker’s character Van Helsing muses as to whether Count Dracula might be the Voivode Dracula, he obviously is not since Count Dracula of Transylvania is plainly not Prince Vlad Tepes of Wallachia and Stoker was disinclined at all to make his character a real person of historic significance.
In the villages near Bran, there is a belief in the existence of evil spirits called ghosts or “steregoi” (a variant of “strigoi”). Until half a century ago, it was believed that there existed certain living people – “strigoi” – who were leading a normal life during the day but at night, during their sleep, their souls left their bodies and haunted the village tormenting people in their sleep. These evil spirits haunt their prey from midnight until the first cockcrow, when their power to harm people faded. “The undead [i.e., ghosts, vampires] suffer from the curse of immortality,” writes Stoker, “they pass from one period to another, multiplying their victims, augmenting the evil in the world…” The Dracula character derives from these local myths.
Image Stoker’s character, Count Dracula As for Vlad Tepes, the ruler of Walachia, he does, indeed, has an association with Bran Castle. Vlad was involved in several campaigns to punish the German merchants of Brasov who failed to abide by his commands as regards their trade in his Walachian markets. Passage to Wallachia was through Bran, the closest gorge to Brasov, which connects with Targoviste, Vlad Tepes’ capital. The original customs houses at which taxes were collected from merchants entering Transylvania are still at the base of Bran Castle. The relationships with the Bran lords were not very cordial, as they were representatives of the Citadel of Brasov, which were hostile to Vlad the Impaler. It is not known if Vlad Tepes captured Bran Castle. Written documents do not describe it. The documents that do exist in archives with regard to Bran Castle, are mainly administrative and refer to the income and expenditure of the ___domain of the Bran Fortress, with little mention of political and military events.
Image Vlad Tepes (Dracul) However, in the fall of 1462, after the army of the Hungarian king, Matei Corvin, captured Vlad Tepes nearby the fortress of Podul Dambovitei, near Rucar, it appears that Vlad was taken to Bran Castle and locked up there for two months. This is affirmed in the recent volume Vlad The Impaler – Dracula, published by the Mirador Printing House, Arad, 2002, authored by Gheorghe Lazea Postelnicu. From here, Vlad was taken and imprisoned in the Visegrad Fortress.
Visitors to Bran Castle should make the distinction between the historic reality of Bran and the character of the Count in Bram Stoker’s novel. Dracula exists in the imagination.
Nel 1897 la Transilvania viene scelta da Bram Stoker come terra natale del suo celebre personaggio, il Conte Dracula. Lo straordinario successo del romanzo, nonché delle numerosissime opere derivate, rende la regione nota a livello internazionale, ma anche la cristallizza nella rappresentazione che ne dà Stoker. Nell'immaginario collettivo la Transilvania è ritratta spesso come una terra arretrata, disseminata di piccoli villaggi medievali terrorizzati da vampiri dimoranti in castelli gotici. L'identificazione della Transilvania col genere horror va al di là del suo mostro più rappresentativo, rendendola l'ambientazione prescelta anche per storie che non trattano di vampiri. Un esempio celebre è il film Frankestein Junior.
Museo
La leggenda nuova il castello si erge su un picco roccioso ed è costellato di torri, scale, passaggi anche sotterranei segreti. a costruzione si affaccia sul villaggio sottostante dove ci si può fermare per una visita nei negozi artigianali oppure si può visitare il museo etnografico. All’interno conserva arredi antichi, armi ed armature dal 14° al 19° secolo. ed è costellato di torri, scale, passaggi anche sotterranei segreti. a costruzione si erge sul villaggio sottostante dove ci si può fermare per una visita nei negozi artigianali oppure si può visitare il museo etnografico.
Galleria d'Immagini
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Il Castello di Bran nel 2012 -
La vista dal parco a sud -
La vista dall'entrata inferiore a est -
La vista dall'interno della torre ovest -
La superficie esterna in pietra -
Castello di carattere gotico
Note
- ^ Transilvania e Castello di Dracula, su romania.it. URL consultato il 12 luglio 2020.
- ^ Stoker, Bram, 1847-1912., Bram Stoker's notes for Dracula : a facsimile edition, McFarland & Co. Pub, 2013, ©2008, ISBN 078647730X, OCLC 853310495. URL consultato il 12 luglio 2020.
- ^ (EN) Duncan Light, The Dracula Dilemma: Tourism, Identity and the State in Romania, Routledge, 12 luglio 2020, ISBN 9781317035329. URL consultato il 12 luglio 2020.
- ^ Bran Castle official website, su bran-castle.com. URL consultato il 12 luglio 2020.
- ^ Principali Attrazioni, su romania.it. URL consultato il 12 luglio 2020.
- ^ Bran Castle official website, su bran-castle.com. URL consultato il 12 luglio 2020.
Voci correlate
Altri progetti
Collegamenti esterni
- Sito ufficiale di castello Bran, su bran-castle.com.
