One of Dracula’s Castles is Targoviste Fortress

In the Dracula book, Castle Bran Castle has been cited as Stoker's inspiration for the Transylvanian Carpathians, where Dracula sits positioned high on a rock. Despite being positioned to guard one of his primary targets, Brasov, the castle has never been visited by the real Dracula, Vlad Tepes, who was undoubtedly aware of it. Despite this, the current owners of Bran Castle continue to promote it as "Dracula's Castle." In reality, Dracula visited several castles, occasionally ruling over them as the master, other times as a guest, and yet other times as a prisoner.

Targoviste Fortress is the only structure that legitimately qualifies as "Dracula's Castle." Tepes resided in this area before becoming an Ottoman hostage and then once more after becoming the voivode of Wallachia. After assuming the hotly contested Wallachian throne in 1436, Vlad Dracul reconstructed the originally wooden bastion in stone, transforming it into a home fit for a great voivode. Tepes built the Chindia Tower, which is still 27 meters tall and serves as a castle reinforcement and viewpoint over the surrounding area. When not in prison or engaged in battle, Tepes spent much of his time at Targoviste.