Explore the real-world places that appear in Hunt Me by Kelly deVos. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Bran Castle, Poenari Fortress, Sighișoara Historic Center, Vlad's Birthplace House, Brașov Old Town and 7 more.
Strada General Traian Moșoiu 24, Bran — The iconic Dracula castle
The remote castle in Hunt Me is most directly inspired by Bran Castle, the real-world fortress most associated with the Dracula legend. Alex Rush and her six friends arrive here hoping to film their reimagining of Bram Stoker's story, excited by its menacing silhouette and medieval towers. Instead of a majestic film set, they find weapons lining the walls, twisting corridors designed to disorient, and no cell signal to the outside world. It is within castle walls like these that friends begin to vanish and a cloaked figure is spotted lurking in the shadows.
Bran Castle was built in 1388 by the Teutonic Knights and later served as a royal residence for the Romanian royal family. Though Bram Stoker likely never visited, the castle became permanently linked to Dracula through its Gothic architecture and proximity to Transylvania's darkest legends. Vlad the Impaler — the historical figure who inspired Dracula — is said to have been briefly imprisoned here.
Bran Castle is now a major tourist attraction and museum, open daily to the public. Visitors can tour its 57 rooms, medieval furniture, and royal artifacts. It draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year and hosts Halloween events in the spirit of the Dracula legend.
Visit: Bran Castle Museum (museum)
DN7C, Căpățânenii Pământeni — Vlad the Impaler's actual stronghold
The true historical dread that underlies Hunt Me owes more to Poenari than to any Hollywood castle. Alex and her film crew have researched Dracula obsessively, and Vlad the Impaler's real fortress — built by enslaved boyars and perched above a dizzying cliff — embodies the novel's central horror: that the monster lurking in the dark has real historical roots. The group's fascination with authentic horror filmmaking is what drew them to Romania in the first place, seeking a castle that felt genuinely terrifying rather than merely theatrical.
Poenari Fortress was built in the 13th century and later expanded by Vlad III (Vlad the Impaler) in the 1450s using the forced labor of local noblemen. It sits atop a rocky ridge above the Argeș River and was Vlad's strategic military stronghold. Part of the fortress crumbled into the river during a 15th-century landslide.
Poenari is accessible via a steep climb of approximately 1,480 steps cut into the mountainside. The ruins are open to visitors and remain one of the most atmospheric Dracula-related sites in Romania, far less commercialized than Bran Castle.
Visit: Poenari Fortress Ruins (historic site)
Piața Cetății, Sighișoara — Birthplace of Vlad the Impaler
Sighișoara is the kind of medieval town that Alex and her friends would have passed through on their way deeper into Transylvania, its cobblestoned citadel and ancient clock tower straight out of a horror film mood board. The group's shared love of Dracula lore means they know this is where Vlad Dracul — father of the Impaler — lived, and the knowledge that the monster's mythology has such tangible, cobblestoned roots makes the castle they're headed to feel all the more real and threatening.
Sighișoara is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Europe, with a fortified citadel dating to the 12th century when it was settled by Saxon craftsmen. Vlad Dracul lived here in the early 15th century while serving as military governor of Transylvania, and his son Vlad III — the future Impaler — is believed to have been born in a house on the main square around 1431.
The Sighișoara citadel is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Romania's premier tourist destinations. The house believed to be Vlad's birthplace is now a restaurant. The town's Clock Tower houses a history museum with exhibits on the Dracula legend.
Visit: Sighișoara Citadel & Clock Tower Museum (historic site)
Piața Cetății 5, Sighișoara — Where Dracula's inspiration was born
Among horror-obsessed film students like Alex Rush and her crew, the yellow house on Sighișoara's citadel square is a pilgrimage site. Their Dracula reimagining project demanded that they understand the real history — and the real horror — behind Bram Stoker's invention. This house, where a future monster of history was born, is proof that the darkness they are trying to capture on film has always been real. That blurring of myth and reality is exactly what Hunt Me exploits as their fictional film shoot becomes a genuine fight for survival.
The yellow house on Piața Cetății is traditionally identified as the birthplace of Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, born circa 1431. His father, Vlad II Dracul, was a knight of the Order of the Dragon and served as a military commander. The house is one of the few surviving medieval residential buildings in the citadel.
The ground floor of the building now operates as a restaurant called Casa Vlad Dracul, serving traditional Romanian food in rooms decorated with Dracula imagery. It is a popular stop on Transylvania's Dracula tourism circuit.
Visit: Casa Vlad Dracul Restaurant (restaurant)
Piața Sfatului, Brașov — Gateway to Transylvania
Brașov serves as the last major city through which Alex and her friends would pass before leaving civilization behind and heading into the mountain wilderness toward their remote castle. In Hunt Me, the loss of cell signal and connection to the outside world is a key horror element — and Brașov is the last place where that connection still feels possible. The group's excitement at this stage, still treating the trip as an adventure, makes their subsequent terror all the more devastating.
Brașov is one of the largest cities in Romania and was a major fortified Saxon settlement in medieval Transylvania. Its old town, centered on Piața Sfatului (Council Square), features stunning Gothic and Baroque architecture. The nearby Black Church, built between 1383 and 1477, is the largest Gothic church in Romania.
Brașov is a thriving city and major tourist hub, serving as the base for visits to Bran Castle, Peles Castle, and the Bucegi Mountains. Its historic center is beautifully preserved and filled with restaurants, shops, and cultural attractions.
Visit: Piața Sfatului Historic Center (landmark)
Calea Bucureștilor 224E, Otopeni — Entry point to Romania
Alex Rush and her six friends land in Romania full of filmmaking ambitions and horror-fan excitement. Henri Coandă Airport is where their dream trip begins — where they first step onto Romanian soil and feel the particular electricity of arriving somewhere mythologized in their favorite novel. The novel's horror is rooted in the contrast between this ordinary arrival and the nightmare that follows, the group transitioning from tourists with cameras to survivors fighting for their lives.
Henri Coandă International Airport, named after Romanian aviation pioneer Henri Coandă, is Romania's busiest airport and main international gateway. It opened in 1970 as Otopeni Airport and was renamed in 2004 to honor Coandă, inventor of the Coandă Effect in fluid dynamics. It handles the vast majority of Romania's international air traffic.
The airport operates two terminals and connects Bucharest to destinations across Europe, North America, and the Middle East. It serves over 14 million passengers annually and is managed by Compania Națională Aeroporturi București.
DN17, Tihuța — The mountain pass from Bram Stoker's novel
In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Jonathan Harker passes through the Borgo Pass on his way to Castle Dracula — and this is the exact atmospheric corridor that Alex Rush and her friends are chasing when they go deeper into Romania's wilderness. The drive through Tihuța Pass, with its dense Carpathian forest and plunging mountain roads, is where the outside world begins to feel very far away. For a group of teenagers with cameras and horror-film dreams, this road represents the thrilling edge of the unknown — and in Hunt Me, crossing that edge has deadly consequences.
The Tihuța Pass (Borgo Pass in Stoker's novel) connects the historical regions of Transylvania and Moldavia through the Eastern Carpathians at an elevation of about 1,201 meters. Bram Stoker used the pass as the entry point to Dracula's castle in his 1897 novel, though he likely chose it from maps without ever visiting. The region has a long history of contested borders between Transylvania and Moldavia.
The Tihuța Pass is traversable by road and is a scenic mountain route. Near the pass stands the Hotel Castel Dracula, built in 1974 in the spirit of the novel, which offers themed accommodations and vampire-related tourism experiences.
Visit: Hotel Castel Dracula (landmark)
Eastern Carpathians, Harghita County — The remote landscape
The dense, trackless Carpathian forest is the physical embodiment of isolation in Hunt Me. Once Alex and her group lose cell signal and find themselves cut off from the outside world, it is the looming wall of ancient forest surrounding their castle that makes escape seem impossible. The twisted halls of the castle mirror the twisted paths of the forest — both designed, it seems, to disorient and trap. It is in this wilderness that the cloaked figure Alex spots could disappear without a trace, and where her friends' fates become uncertain.
The Carpathian Mountains contain some of the largest remaining primeval forests in Europe, home to wolves, brown bears, and lynx that have roamed here since prehistoric times. The Eastern Carpathians in particular — stretching through Harghita and Bacău counties — have historically been so remote and difficult to traverse that entire villages remained isolated for centuries. This wilderness directly inspired Stoker's descriptions of the forbidding landscape surrounding Castle Dracula.
Large sections of the Carpathian forest are protected within national parks including the Ceahlău National Park and the Harghita Mountains. The region is a destination for hiking, wildlife watching, and ecotourism, though the forest's vastness and remoteness remain as formidable as ever.
Visit: Ceahlău National Park (park)
Str. Castelului 1-3, Hunedoara — One of Europe's largest Gothic castles
Corvin Castle's dramatic silhouette — all towers and drawbridge and ravens-wing rooflines — represents the archetype of Transylvanian dread that draws Alex and her friends to Romania. While the specific castle in Hunt Me is remote and fictional in placement, Corvin's combination of genuine medieval menace and labyrinthine interior is the real-world reference point that horror-film students would obsessively study. Vlad the Impaler himself was reportedly held prisoner here, adding another layer of Gothic horror history to the location.
Corvin Castle was built in the 14th and 15th centuries by the Hunyadi family and is one of the largest and best-preserved Gothic-Renaissance castles in Europe. Vlad the Impaler is said to have been imprisoned here for twelve years. The castle features a famous drawbridge over a moat and a 15th-century chapel with frescoes.
Corvin Castle is open to the public year-round and is one of Romania's most visited tourist attractions. It hosts medieval festivals, concerts, and themed Halloween events. Visitors can explore its knight's hall, torture chamber, and towers with panoramic views of Hunedoara.
Visit: Corvin Castle (museum)
Strada Lipscani, Bucharest — Romania's capital and cultural heart
Before venturing deep into Transylvania, Alex Rush and her film crew would have touched down in Bucharest and experienced Romania's vibrant, chaotic capital. For a group of American high schoolers on their first international horror-themed adventure, Bucharest's mix of Communist-era grandeur and Ottoman-inflected old town would have felt simultaneously familiar and alien. The city represents civilization — the last place where everything still makes sense before the castle's isolation strips away all safety.
Bucharest has been the capital of Romania since 1862 and has a complex history shaped by Ottoman suzerainty, rapid 19th-century modernization, and Communist-era redevelopment under Nicolae Ceaușescu. The Lipscani district, once a prosperous Ottoman bazaar area, fell into decay in the communist period and has been extensively restored since the 2000s.
Bucharest's Old Town (Centrul Vechi) is now a lively district packed with restaurants, bars, and clubs. Strada Lipscani is a pedestrian street with a thriving nightlife scene and cultural venues. The area also features several historic churches, ruins of the Old Princely Court, and art galleries.
Visit: Bucharest Old Town (Centrul Vechi) (landmark)
Aleea Pelesului 2, Sinaia — Royal castle in the Carpathian foothills
Peles Castle, with its neo-Renaissance grandeur and mountain backdrop, represents the fairy-tale vision of Transylvania that Alex and her crew imagined before they arrived — the romantic, storybook version of Romania that their Dracula research promised. The horrifying contrast between this beautiful ideal and the grim, weapon-lined castle where they actually end up filming is central to the novel's tension. Hunt Me plays on the gap between the postcard version of Gothic romance and its genuinely dark historical roots.
Peles Castle was built between 1873 and 1914 as the summer residence of King Carol I of Romania, designed in a neo-Renaissance style by German architects. It was the first European castle to have central heating, electricity, and a vacuum cleaning system. After the Communist takeover in 1947, it was seized by the state and used for Communist Party functions.
Peles Castle is now a national museum and one of Romania's most popular tourist sites, drawing visitors from across the world. Its 160 rooms are filled with artwork, weapons collections, and Murano glass. The smaller adjacent Pelisor Castle, where Queen Marie lived, is also open to visitors.
Visit: Peles Castle National Museum (museum)
Piața Mare, Sibiu — Medieval Saxon city in the heart of Transylvania
Sibiu, with its famous 'eye' dormer windows that seem to watch every passerby, is the Transylvanian city that most embodies the sensation of being observed — of never quite knowing who is watching from the shadows. For Alex Rush and her horror-obsessed friends, driving through a city where even the rooftops seem to have eyes would have felt both thrillingly on-brand and, in retrospect, like a warning. The feeling of being hunted that gives Hunt Me its title begins here, in a city that has always seemed to be looking back.
Sibiu was founded by Saxon settlers in the 12th century and became one of the most important cities in medieval Transylvania. Its distinctive architecture includes the famous 'eye windows' — triangular attic dormers that give the rooftops an uncanny, watching appearance. The city served as a major cultural and commercial center and was European Capital of Culture in 2007.
Sibiu is considered one of Romania's most beautiful and livable cities. Its Piața Mare (Great Square) is surrounded by magnificent historic buildings, and the city has a thriving arts and restaurant scene. The ASTRA Museum of Traditional Folk Civilization nearby is one of Europe's largest open-air museums.
Visit: Sibiu Historic Center & Piața Mare (landmark)
More by Kelly deVos: All Kelly deVos books