The Associated Press reports today that the Romanian government is returning Castle Dracula to its lawful heir, more than 60 years after it was seized by the Communists.

The castle, dramatically situated on a towering crag, never actually belonged to Prince Vlad the Impaler, who inspired the popular novel by Bram Stoker. But in 1920, it was presented by the people of the local town of Brasov to another royal, Queen Marie of Romania.

Marie, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria (known as “Missy” within the family), was then a fading international beauty with a gushing nature and a misguided sense of art. She fell in love with the romantic ruin and restored it, decorating it in a sort of neo-Byzantine style. When she showed the results to her family, one of her sisters shook her head and declared, “Really, Missy – at your age!”

When Marie died in 1938, she bequeathed the castle to her daughter, Princess Ileana. The current claimant is Ileana’s son, Dominic von Hapsburg, a New York architect.

The castle was extensively repaired between 1987 and 1993, and is worth an estimated $25 million. It is one of Romania’s top tourist attractions.

The new Hapsburg owner says he has fond memories of the castle from his childhood, before Romania’s royals were exiled from the country in 1948.

Perhaps he will welcome visitors to his newly-restored patrimony with the greeting offered to Jonathan Harker by the Dracula of Stoker’s novel: “Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave some of the happiness you bring!”