Dracula’s Castle Assignment
Did you know Dracula’s castle in Romania was offered for sale in 2007? Like Jonathan Harker, you have been commissioned to help Count Dracula find suitable accommodations while he is away from the homeland. Go to the website below and choose one castle to purchase for the Count.
http://www.castles-for-sale.com/index.htm
· Write a letter to Dracula outlining the features that make this particular property uniquely suited to his needs. The features must actually exist in the advertisement.
· Create a letterhead for a fictitious realty company in London. Explore Microsoft Publisher for ideas and be creative, but remember the Count’s taste: no “Hello Kitty” motifs, please!
· Apply the requirements, in regard to format, salutation, etc. of a formal business letter. Check http://businessletterformat.org/ for format guidelines.
· Your choice of vocabulary and sentence structure should be as formal and “old fashioned” as possible, assuming a “courtly” tone.
· Print a picture of the actual castle, along with a map of the area. For example, if you choose the Weiler Castle near Bessenbach-Keilberg in Germany, I would expect a map of the specific area. I would expect you to do enough research to inform the Count that this is a region of Bavaria, indicate something of the geography, brief references to the history, etc.
· You must attach a Works Cited page to indicate the source(s) of your information, though you do not need to include parenthetical citations within the letter itself (the Count would not expect a research paper).
Former Royal Family Selling ‘Dracula’s Castle’
Romanian heir hopes to secure buyer who will respect property's history
Associated Press July 2, 2007
BUCHAREST, Romania - Romania’s former royal family put “Dracula’s Castle” in Transylvania up for sale Monday, hoping to secure a buyer who will respect “the property and its history,” a U.S.-based investment company said.
The Bran Castle, perched on a cliff near Brasov in mountainous central Romania, is a top tourist attraction because of its ties to Prince Vlad the Impaler, the warlord whose cruelty inspired Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, “Dracula.”
Legend has it that Vlad, who earned his nickname because of the way he tortured his enemies, spent one night in the 1400s at the castle.
Bran Castle was built in the 14th century to serve as a fortress to protect against the invading Ottoman Turks. The royal family moved into the castle in the 1920s, living there until the communist regime confiscated it from Princess Ileana in 1948.
After being restored in the late 1980s and following the end of communist rule in Romania, it gained popularity as a tourist attraction known as “Dracula’s Castle.”
In May 2006, the castle was returned to Princess Ileana’s son, Archduke Dominic Habsburg.
Habsburg, a 69-year-old New York architect, pledged to keep it open as a museum until 2009 and offered to sell the castle last year to local authorities for $80 million, but the offer was rejected.
$135 million price tag
On Monday, he put the castle up for sale “to the right purchaser under the right circumstances,” said Michael Gardner, chief executive of Baytree Capital, the company representing Habsburg. “The Habsburgs are not in the business of managing a museum.”
No price was announced, though Gardner predicted the castle would sell for more than $135 million. He added that Habsburg will only sell it to a buyer “who will treat the property and its history with appropriate respect.”
Habsburg said in a statement: “Aside from the castle’s connection to one of the most famous novels ever written, Bran Castle is steeped in critical events of European history dating from the 14th century to the present.
Accessed on 13 November 2009 at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19563707/