CASTLE BRAN

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 81, 2 October 1931, Page 13

CASTLE BRAN

WONDERFUL GARDENS,

Castle Bran, where Princess Ileana of Rupmania and the Archduke Anton of Hapsburg spent tho first weeks of their honeymoon, is a wonderful old feudal castle, which was given to the bride's mother, Queen Marie of Rumania, by her grateful people when the war was over, and it has become ono of the Queen's very special treasures, .states an English writer. Here sho retires from the* affairs of State, and loses herself in the wonder of, the gardens and the glory of the mountains. Tho Castle of Bran is built on a steeply-wooded hill, and looks over a valley grown thick with orchards, where tho fields in the spring are carpeted with daisies to the snow-capped mountains of Transylvania. There, is a village at,the foot of the hill, but it seems remote from the castle, which is a little world in itselfi A torrent rushes down the mountain side between the dark fir trees, and the waters feed a lake iv the heart of the castle gardens, a still, placid lake, with iris planted round the edge and water lilies thick upon it. Patches of water reflect back the old castle and the green trees. SIX ACRES OF DAHLIAS. There is nothing gloomy and austere —as one might expect from, an old stone castle—about the rooms within. Here Queen Marie has allowod her love of colour and Ruihanian art full play, and the floors are covered with Eumanian rugs, as rich as Persian rugs, and the walls are hung with tapestries., The Queen is an intense lover of flowers, and these are packed almost denselyin every room; tall jars are filled with gladioli and Christmas lilies in summer, and flat brass bowls set about the floor are packed with roses and sweet peas, while in the huge open fireplaces, where great logs blaze in winter, the queen delights to see massed jars of dahlias. She is a lover of dahlias, and when she was planning the new garden of Castle Bran she asked the gardener to, grow plenty of dahlias. He took her word for law—as, of course, one does with a queen—and now six acres of wonderful dahlias grace thq. garden. By night many intricately chased lamps burn in the rooms, and give them a still more Oriental splendour. . -