epa05515641 A picture dated 04 August 2014 showing the Bran castle, in Bran village, 173 km north from Bucharest, Romania. The Teutonic Knights, a religious Catholic order founded by German crusaders in Palestine in the late twelfth century, received from King Andrew II of Hungary Barsa land to administrate. The gift was aimed at establishing and defending the Teutonic border region of southeastern Transylvania, and they raised a fortress at Bran. In 1920, Brasov City Council donated the castle to Queen Maria of Romania, as a sign of gratitude for his contribution to the Great Union. Following Queen s death in 1938, the castle was inherited by his favorite daughter, Princess Ileana, married to a former member of the Habsburg imperial family. Bran Castle is often associated with the myth of Dracula. Bram Stoker, who never visited Romania, possibly described Dracula s Castle from a Bran Castle graphic presentation available at the end of the nineteenth century in England. The castle, a