Peleș Castel

I visited this uniquely beautiful castle throughout my childhood with my ski team during a ski competition period and now after years I returned and I have the honour to show also to my love Alex this great place. Any trip to Romania would be incomplete without visiting this place. He was very happy to discover Romania together with me and my mum and he was very impressed of this amazing castle.

Peleș Castle is a Neo-Renaissance castle in the Carpathian Mountains, near Sinaia, in Prahova County, Romania, on an existing medieval route linking Transylvania and Wallachia, built between 1873 and 1914. Its inauguration was held in 1883. It was constructed for King Carol I.

When King Carol I of Romania (1839–1914), under whose reign the country gained its independence, first visited the site of the future castle in 1866, he fell in love with the magnificent mountain scenery. In 1872, the Crown purchased 5 square kilometres (1.9 sq mi) of land near the Piatra Arsă River. The estate was named the Royal Estate of Sinaia. The King commissioned the construction of a royal hunting preserve and summer retreat on the property, and the foundation was laid for Peleș Castle on 22 August 1873. Several auxiliary buildings were built simultaneously with the castle: the guards’ chambers, the Economat Building, the Foișor hunting lodge, the royal stables, and a power plant. Peleș became the world’s first castle fully powered by locally produced electricity.

The cost of the work on the castle undertaken between 1875 and 1914 was estimated to be 16,000,000 Romanian lei in gold (approx. US$ 120 million today). Between three and four hundred men worked on the construction.

We traveled from Brasov to Sinaia city by train (which is very close) and after we visiting the Peles we had time to visit the city (Sinaia) were we had lunch and tested the traditional Romanian food “Ciorba de Bruta” (soupe) and Sarmale.