Unseen Romania

Rasnov Fortress, Guardian of the past

Settlement

Passing through the city of Rasnov, you cannot miss the Rasnov Fortress, located on a rocky hilltop in the ancient Carpathian Mountains, 200m above the town. It is 15 km southwest Brasov and also about 15 km from Bran Castle, commonly known by foreigners as Count Dracula’s Castle. The fortress is on the Bran Pass, a trade route connecting legendary Wallachia with mythical Transylvania. The view from the top of the castle hill makes you travel through time into medieval times; the wind still carries the dust raised by the Teutonic Knights while defending the people. For the armies invading Transylvania through the Bran pass, the first important settlement was the city of Rasnov.

The prosperous fair city, near the town of Brasov, was destroyed in the Middle Ages by the numerous invasions. The sole chance of survival for the inhabitants under the mounting Postavarul was to take refuge in the castle erected on the hill dominating the road to the city of Bran. This castle was meant to be a place of refuge for the commoners from sieges over extended periods of time. As such it had at least 30 houses, a school, a chapel, and other buildings more commonly associated with a village. The first written record for the fortress dates from 1331. In 1335, when the Tartars invaded, Rasnov Fortress was already strong enough to offer resistance.

The castle has an upper and lower section, with polygonal perimeter walls reaching an average height of 5m. The most heavily fortified part is the east side and the walls on both that side as well as the northwest side are doubled. The defenses include 9 towers, 2 bastions, and a drawbridge. As Transylvania has always been disputed, arms were stockpiled in the defense corridors at the walls.

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transilv
Posts: 2

Rasnov-fortress
Reply #2 on : Mon June 02, 2008, 12:22:38

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Dear writer,

also, regarding the "Rasnov" fortress, pls be correct in publishing the whole historical facts:
the Rasnov fortress was build by German minority in Transylvania, which founded also the city of Rasnov.
The name Rasnov is in use only after 1920, this cities original name is "Rosenau".

transilv
Posts: 2

Bran-Dracula´s castle??? Answer: totally wrong
Reply #1 on : Mon June 02, 2008, 12:16:49

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Dear writer,

as you can read in every history book about the Bran castle, this castle was built by the German minority from Transylvania.
The German minority gave this castle as a gift to the Romanian principess Maria after the Great Unification in 1919 after the end of the WW1.

Dracula is the name given by hungarian writers to Vlad Tepes, which was a little count of the Romanian countries from south of the Carpathian mountains.

Vlad Tepes has never been a count of Transylvania, which at that times was total independent from Romanian countries.