The real fortress of Vlad III, the ruler behind the Dracula name, perched on a crag in the Fagaras mountains of Romania above the Arges river, reached by 1,480 steps up through the forest. Vlad rebuilt it with forced labour in the 1450s, and legend says his wife threw herself from the tower rather than be taken. It is a genuine ruin in genuinely wild country, far more atmospheric than the tourist castle at Bran. PUBLIC (the stairs are steep and bears live here).
Arges valley (Romania)
See it on the map
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
