Sinaia
Sinaia is a fabulous resort, located in the Upper Valley of the Prahova River, in a mountain area (Bucegi massif), at the foot of the Mountains Vârful cu Dor and Piatra Arsă. Sinaia is situated at a 130km distance from Bucharest.
The smart villas, with a very original architecture, as well as the many modern hotels, render the place the air of a tourist resort of national and international importance.
Because of its splendid landscape, Sinaia is a very good vacation destination both in summer, for the persons who love the fresh air, and in winter – for the fans of skiing. But, the season does not matter: when you arrive in Sinaia, you have to make yourself some time to visit The Peles Castle, Sinaia Monastery and the Casino building.
The Peles Castle was built between 1875 and 1883, at the express wish of King Carol I of Hohenzollern. The king called his summer residence from Sinaia “Collection of all collections”, he himself being a famous collector of old guns or precious art objects. The castle was, at the moment of its inauguration, the most modern in Europe, with electric power from the beginning, its own heating source, elevator and telephone. A person who can say that he knows something about culture will be impressed by the dovetail of the best known architecture styles, from the German Renaissance to the Italian one or Rococo. The building itself is impressive, having 160 rooms, only a part of them being open to the public for visitation.
Most times, you get very proud of your Romanian origin when you hear the foreign tourists saying: “I have seen so many castles in my life, but I sincerely can’t remember having ever seen something like this!” In fact, only when you come to visit it, you get the exact dimension of its beauties.
Near the Peles Castle, there is the Pelişor Castle. Of smaller dimensions, it was built in the style of the German Renaissance and it represented a wedding present from the king Ferdinand to Maria, the Queen of Romania. She loved this place so much, that she said that her heart would always be there. And so it happened; Queen Maria’s heart was brought and buried in the chapel of her castle, in the country whom she loved so much: Romania.
The Sinaia Monastery is, in fact, the monument that gave the name to the locality were it is situated. And all started in 1695, when Mihail Cantacuzino, returning from a travel to the Sinai Mountain, decides to foundate a monks monastery, to remind him of those sacred places.
The Casino, built in 1912, had the goal of reminding the passer-by of the Monte Carlo Casino. The last but not the list, there is something that could give this place, called Sinaia, an even more powerful air of mystery and romanticism: here stops, every year, at the same date, The Orient Express. |
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