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Romania gives Dracula's castle to owners

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  • Romania gives Dracula's castle to owners

    Romania gives Dracula's castle to owners
    Thu May 25, 8:04 PM ET



    More than 60 years after it was seized by communists, the Romanian government is to hand back one of the country's most popular tourist sites, the fabled Dracula Castle, to its former owner, the culture minister said Tuesday.

    The castle, worth an estimated $25 million, was owned by the late Queen Marie and bequeathed to her daughter Princess Ileana in 1938. It was confiscated by communists in 1948 and fell into disrepair. It will be transferred on Friday to Dominic van Hapsburg, a New York architect who inherited the castle from Princess Ileana decades after the communists seized it, minister Adrian Iorgulescu told a news conference.

    Van Hapsburg is a descendant of the Hapsburg dynasty which ruled Romania for a period starting in the late 17th century.

    The hand-over ceremony will take place Friday at noon in the 14th century castle's museum deep within the fortress in Transylvania, Iorgulescu said.

    Restoration work began in the late 1980s and was partially completed in 1993. It is now one of Romania's top tourist destinations. Under the agreement, the owner will not be allowed to make any changes to the castle for the next three years, Iorgulescu said.

    While known and marketed as "Dracula's Castle," it never belonged to Prince Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Bram Stoker's Count Dracula character. But the prince is thought to have visited the medieval fortress.

    The Gothic fortress, perched on a rock, has appeared in numerous Dracula movies.

    At the gates of Bran Castle, peasants sell Dracula sweaters hand-knitted from the thick wool of local sheep, cheesecloth blouses, and Vampire wine. The castle is the most famous of 15 citadels and fortresses in the area, which were built by peasants to keep out marauding armies of Turks and Tartars and cruel local medieval lords.

    Another former royal property, the Peles Castle, built in the late 19th century in the mountain town of Sinaia, will be returned to former King Michael. He owned it before it was confiscated by the communist regime in 1948.

    Romania passed legislation earlier this year to return property to its former owners and establish a "property fund" to pay damages for assets that cannot be returned. The fund includes stock in state-owned companies that are being privatized.

  • #2
    Turkish Interior Ministry Working on Draconian Bill

    By Cihan News Agency
    Published: Thursday, June 22, 2006
    zaman.com


    Individuals or groups planning to hold meeting or demonstrations in public places in Turkey will be required to pay a fee for the right to do so, according to a new bill being drafted by the Turkish Interior Ministry.

    The Turkish Interior Ministry is working on a bill that will supposedly update meeting and demonstration regulations in Turkey in order to bring them into line with EU standards and fill a legal vacuum.

    According to the new bill, protestors will have to pay a fee to the municipality if the protest takes place in a public place. Those who violate the law will have to pay fines ranging from 1000 to 5000 Turkish liras.

    If any material damages are caused during a protest, the protestors or protest organizers will have to pay compensation.

    The new bill bans protests on highways or bridges, and at terminals, railways and airports, while the venue of the demonstrations should be held at least 100 meters from any public buildings, hospitals, diplomatic representative offices, political policy centers and places of faith.

    The Interior Ministry may delay demonstrations for one month if it finds that they threaten the state order and national security, according to the same bill.

    Videos, photos and sound recordings of protestors will be recorded. The bill also bans slogans, placards or marching during protest press announcements.


    For further information please visit http://www.cihannews.com
    "All truth passes through three stages:
    First, it is ridiculed;
    Second, it is violently opposed; and
    Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

    Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

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