The Rucar Bran Passage(1254m), though reigned by the Bran Castle, which once functioned as a customs house, and today is the incarnation of Dracula’s legend(which yileds big profits from the westen nations), has a variety of interesting aspects.
An important tourist axis, this area is visited for its sensational karst shapes, its occupations, handicraft, traditions and gastronomy of the villages from Piatra Craiului and Bucegi Mountains.
“Mosia Branului”, the border guard between the Kingdom and the Empire, is a whole passage, nowadays scattered with houses and villas built according to the newest needs, but this doesn’t imply the fact that tourism is slowly erasing the authenticity of the area.For those who want an encounter with tradition, villagers and the owners of pensions and hotels make ethnographic trips, presenting the local occupations (sheep farming, washing of the wool, wood carving, manufacture of cheese, painting and decorating eggs, masks/dolls, glass icons, sheepskin works, weaving, knitting).
The invasion of tourism, with its innovations, didn’t reach quite all areas.Even now, on the sheer slopes, they make hay while being tied up to a tree with a rope, with mountaineering skills. And sheep farming also remains present, although not with the support that shepherds would desire.
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