Castles and palaces

A medieval fortress built by the people of Brașov on a rock in the Bran Pass, later Queen Marie's summer residence and known around the world as “Dracula's Castle”.

John Hunyadi's Gothic residence, on a rock above the Zlaști river and reached by a long bridge on stone piers; inside, vaulted halls and towers from the 15th century.

King Carol I's summer residence, built between 1873 and 1914 at the foot of the Bucegi Mountains in Sinaia, with carved wooden interiors, armouries and stained glass.

The Baroque palace of Governor Samuel von Brukenthal on Sibiu's Great Square has housed Romania's oldest museum since 1817: a gallery of European painting with van Eyck, Titian and Bruegel.

The heaviest building in the world, raised by Ceaușescu in the 1980s on Spirii Hill; the guided tour passes through marble-clad state rooms hung with crystal chandeliers weighing several tonnes.

The Neo-Romanian summer residence of the 'Nabob' Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino, with a ballroom lined with coats of arms, a terrace facing the Bucegi Mountains and the Nevermore Academy exterior from Wednesday.

The most complete Renaissance residence left in Transylvania, seat of the Bethlen family: a tower with soldier reliefs, an arcaded loggia and bastioned walls, now under restoration.

Eclectic castle with towers and a moat, rebuilt in 1894–1896 by the Károlyi family in the middle of a three-century-old dendrological park; inside, period interiors, wax figures and African trophies.

Transylvania's largest Baroque aristocratic residence, gutted in 1944 and being brought back to life by an award-winning training site; neo-Gothic façade, lapidarium and an exhibition on Miklós Bánffy.

A Renaissance castle with four round towers, built by the Bethlen family on a hill above the Târnava Mică; today it is the emblem of Jidvei wines and is visited on hourly guided tours.

The royal residence of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie, today the seat of the Romanian Presidency and the National Cotroceni Museum: period salons, the king's library, the queen's apartments and Șerban Cantacuzino's rebuilt church.

The Brâncovenesc palace built by Constantin Brâncoveanu in 1702, with its carved stone loggia, the old kitchen, a church from 1688 and a large lakeside park, 15 km from the centre of Bucharest.

The Neo-Gothic palace with a clock tower and carillon in the centre of Iași, built in 1906–1925 as a Palace of Justice; today it houses four national museums of art, history, ethnography and science.

A Neo-Gothic palace built by George and Maria Sturdza between 1880 and 1904, its façades covered in coats of arms and stone tracery, set in an old park with ponds; reopened in 2026 after a major restoration.

The finest Baroque palace in Transylvania, built between 1774 and 1785 on Cluj's Union Square, with classical statues along its attic; it houses the Art Museum, with five centuries of Romanian and Transylvanian painting.