--- title: Romanians Can Receive COVID-19 Vaccines at 'Dracula's Castle' description: May visitors to Bran Castle in Romania now have the option of getting vaccinated at a legendary location in horror history. canonical: https://time.com/6047169/bran-castle-dracula-romania-transylvania-vaccine/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-05-10T20:40:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:55:10.222Z article:section: Health og:title: Romanians Can Receive COVID-19 Vaccines at 'Dracula's Castle' og:description: The legendary location is now home to a no-appointment-needed vaccination center og:url: https://time.com/6047169/bran-castle-dracula-romania-transylvania-vaccine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3a8b3c8d64a53ef/698a1978096a9480046a95c4/Dracula-Castle-Vaccine.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Dracula-Castle-Vaccine og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Romanians Can Receive COVID-19 Vaccines at 'Dracula's Castle' twitter:description: The legendary location is now home to a no-appointment-needed vaccination center twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3a8b3c8d64a53ef/698a1978096a9480046a95c4/Dracula-Castle-Vaccine.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Free COVID-19 Vaccines Are Luring Visitors to Dracula's Castle in Transylvania > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer May 10, 2021 8:40 PM UTC  A banner reading "Who's afraid of the vaccine?" in Romanian and depicting syringes as vampire fangs advertises the vaccination marathon organized at "Bran Castle" in Bran village in the central Transylvania region of Romania on May 8, 2021. A banner reading "Who's afraid of the vaccine?" in Romanian and depicting syringes as vampire fangs advertises the vaccination marathon organized at "Bran Castle" in Bran village in the central Transylvania region of Romania on May 8, 2021. Daniel Mihailescu—AFP/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer May 10, 2021 8:40 PM UTC Residents of Romania who find themselves in central Transylvania this May now have the option of [getting vaccinated](https://time.com/collection/coronavirus-vaccines-updates/) at a legendary location from horror history: [Bran Castle](http://www.bran-castle.com/events.html). Every weekend this month, the fortress that’s believed to be the inspiration behind [Count Dracula’s](https://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/14/human-bones-unearthed-in-graveyard-made-famous-by-bram-stokers-dracula/) lair in [Bram Stoker’s 19th-century gothic novel ](https://time.com/5411826/bram-stoker-dracula-history/)[_Dracula_](https://time.com/5411826/bram-stoker-dracula-history/)will be home to a free COVID-19 vaccination center where Romanians can get a [Pfizer-BioNTech shot](https://time.com/6046658/pfizer-biontech-fda-approval-covid-vaccine/) without making an appointment—or, as a [Facebook post](https://www.facebook.com/BranDraculasCastle/posts/5469050989833729) announcing the event put it, “another kind of sting.”  A banner reading "Who's afraid of the vaccine?" in Romanian and depicting syringes as vampire fangs advertises the vaccination marathon organized at "Bran Castle" in Bran village in the central Transylvania region of Romania on May 8, 2021. Daniel Mihailescu—AFP/Getty Images The first of the castle’s weekly “vaccination marathons” began on May 7, [reportedly](https://apnews.com/article/europe-entertainment-coronavirus-pandemic-arts-and-entertainment-oddities-366088a94bfe6b69f2f9fe6dce662540?utm%5Fsource=Twitter&utm%5Fmedium=AP%5FEurope&utm%5Fcampaign=SocialFlow) resulting in nearly 400 people receiving a dose from Friday to Sunday. “We wanted to show people a different way to get the \[vaccine\] needle,” Alexandru Priscu, the marketing manager at Bran Castle, told the [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/europe-entertainment-coronavirus-pandemic-arts-and-entertainment-oddities-366088a94bfe6b69f2f9fe6dce662540?utm%5Fsource=Twitter&utm%5Fmedium=AP%5FEurope&utm%5Fcampaign=SocialFlow), noting that people who get the shot also receive a fanged “vaccine diploma” and free entry to the castle’s medieval torture exhibit. The Pfizer-BoiNTech vaccine is a two-dose vaccine, and was authorized for emergency use in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration [last December](https://time.com/5920134/first-authorized-covid-19-vaccine-us/). Despite numerous requests from foreigners, only Romanian residents are eligible to be jabbed at the gothic site, Priscu said. The so-called vaccination marathons are part of a series of initiatives implemented by the Romanian government [in an effort to vaccinate 5 million](https://www.romania-insider.com/citu-vaccination-target-five-mln-apr-2021) people by June 1\. Romania has recorded more than a million coronavirus cases and over 29,000 deaths since the pandemic began, according to [data from Johns Hopkins University](https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html). 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