Hunedoara Castle is the best-preserved and most impressive of all Dracula’s castles

Tepes made two separate trips to Hunedoara Castle, also called Corvin Castle. He was given his home at Sibiu and promoted to commander in John Hunyadi's army during his first visit. On his second visit, Matthias Corvinus imprisoned him to prevent further conflict with the Ottomans, who by this time had returned to capture Wallachia with the help of Tepes's hated brother, Radu the Handsome, a Muslim convert who had persuaded a sizable portion of the Wallachian army and mercenaries to switch sides. Matthias Corvinus wanted to avoid further conflict with the Ottomans. To prove Tepes and Mehmed were working together, several fabricated letters were manufactured.

Of all of Dracula's castles, Hunedoara Castle is by far the most spectacular and well-preserved, which is one of the most interesting facts about Vlad the Impaler. Hunedoara, a Gothic and Renaissance-style city, is reached by a large stone bridge that spans a steep gap. It is perched high on a rocky precipice and is ringed by a deep moat. The 30-meter-deep well has a fascinating backstory: it was excavated over 15 years by 12 Turkish inmates who had been promised freedom if they could get to the water below the rock. Graffiti on the well's wall lists some of the names of the unfortunate captives, proving that their captors broke their word.