The union of Wallachia and Moldova principalities in the second half of the 19th century was the starting point of modern Romania. A German prince was elected as head of state, who would later be crowned king of Romania as Carol I. He decided to build a palace in Carpathian mountains, close to Sinaia town, where he used to stay in a nearby monastery. Apart from being his residence, the palace would establish his new power and functions, being equipped with the latest luxury and innovations of that time (centralized heating, lifts, hot water) and become a gathering place for Romanian intellectuals and artists. Carol I commissioned a German architect, who managed to mix German style with local, vernacular Romanian features. The result surely did not disappoint, and would still be used after the end of the monarchy as reward residence place during Communism period, and even as a secured and private residence for the last dictator until 1989.

Today the place is still very popular with visitors – both Romanian and foreigners. It is conveniently located on the way from Bucharest to Brasov and Bran (“Dracula”) castle (it could even probably be visited as a day trip from the capital city despite the heavy traffic and delays on the road during summer and winter high seasons). Sinaia town offers various hotels and restaurants options, while altitude relieves from the high temperatures during summer time. It was the very first place we visited in Romania, having arrived the day before from Bucharest airport by rental car.

In summertime, it is highly recommended to book your ticket and a timeslot for your visit (I think you can book up to two weeks before your desired date). The timeslots however are quite wide, like “between 9 and 11 in the morning”, and as people are allowed inside by batch of 20 to 30 persons every 10 minutes or so, the result is a quite confusing queue in front of the door, with visitors from Hungary, Bulgaria etc all trying to jump the queue, explaining in their own language they have a timed ticket – which is actually not different from the other visitors’ ticket. Next to that growing queue was an empty line marked “guided tour in English – 10:30”. At the said time a guide came to that line and asked for anybody interested for such a tour. It turned out there is no extra charge for that : we joined immediately, just like some other 30 persons, and could enter without further waiting. The tour was excellent : our guide spoke very good English and was very learned, she managed our group very well in the middle of the “free flowing” individual visitors and although a bit nervous at the beginning, she ended up being fun and making jokes.

Art and craft lovers will for sure enjoy the visit. Wood is the main material and is present everywhere. Rooms are decorated with different styles (mainly Central Europe and Carpathian, but there are as well “Italian-style” rooms, “Orient-style” room etc), all made with a lot of care. It is a total work of art, combining architecture, design and furniture. Sometimes you may feel a bit overwhelmed by the profusion of elements. The most striking place of the tour was, in my opinion, the staircase and main hall.

The tour lasted about 90 minutes. After that, we could walk through the garden and enjoy a light lunch (the Commons are now housing a restaurant and even an hotel). It is also possible to visit the smaller and more recent Pelisor castle (more a big house than a palace), a 5-minute walk from Peles castle, but we did not. This ensemble of buildings and park is still very homogenous, well-kept and worth a visit. It is sometimes compared to Louis II’s castles in Bavaria (same time, same idea to build something new that looks like something from the past). The main achievement in Peles is that past and present were successfully combined to create something new, while the result in Bavaria, for being bigger buildings, is more “copying” existing ones.