The only elevator in the world that goes up into history and down into the future
Once a secret passage, today a gallery of history and fantasy
The Time Tunnel, Bran Castle’s child, was born today from the entrails of the impressive building. The journey was long and started almost 641 years ago, in 1377. As the fortress was being built, a traditional well was dug into the stone. Then, centuries later, in 1930, Queen Marie of Romania became the owner, she and architect Karel Liman decided that the well’s shaft could be transformed into an electric elevator. Thus, the horizontal gallery was dug, in order to link it with the Royal Park at the foot of the castle. Soon after the Royal Family left in 1948 the two galleries were forgotten and were engulfed by darkness and silence.
The Time Tunnel in numbers:
- 100% Romanian project
- 100 specialists: architects and construction engineers
- 7000 hours of work on the project
- 29,000 hours of work on execution
- 330m3 of rock manually displaced underground by 12 miners
- 1900m3 total volume displaced by excavations, equivalent to 100 shots
- 420m3 of special poured concrete, the equivalent of 100 concrete mixers
- 20 km of cable and 150 sensors
- 60 servers and control systems
- 5 independent audio systems with 80 sound channels
- 120 programs and software applications
All the resources used for the Time Tunnel are original Romanian creations, including the music
and the fragrance, specially designed to complement the sensory visual and auditory experience of the light and image show.
For its unique character and outstanding technical performance, the Stone elevator, built by the Brașov company, received the title of „Best special elevator in the world” in 2019.
At present
Today, through creativity and state-of-the-art multimedia technologies, the Time Tunnel lives on and continues to develop, to tell visitors the stories of the people and myths of Bran Castle.
And to create unforgettable sensations and memories.