Peles Castle, Sinaia, and Brasov

Today we headed out of Bucharest into the Carpathians up towards Peles Castle. This is the third longest mountain range in Europe and we are in the southern portion of them.

This area is know for having European Bison, black bears, and lynx. It is nicely forested and just getting its spring green color. We transitioned from the flat plains around Bucharest to the mountains of Sinaia, a mountain resort town. Sinaia means Sinai, as in the mountain in the Old Testament. This town is one of 2 stops of the Orient Express in Romania. Just outside of Sinaia is Peles Castle.

Carpathians near Sinaia

Peles Castle was commissioned by King Carol I of Romania and built beginning in 1873. It was the first castle fully powered by electricity. The castle is heated by steam, so all of the fireplaces are solely decorative. The castle had its inauguration ball on October 7, 1883. It has more than 170 rooms and they are decorated in quite eclectic styles! King Carol II was born there in 1893 and it continued to serve as a royal residence. When the communist party took over the country, they seized all royal property and used this castle as a tourist attraction and for celebrities. Nicolae Ceaușescu closed the entire estate between 1975 and 1990, during the last years of the Communist regime. After the 1989 revolution, the castle and its grounds were reestablished as heritage sites. In 2006, the Romanian government announced the restitution of the castle to former monarch Michael I. Michael I died about a year ago and one of his daughters has a figurehead position as princess. The castle is on lease from the royal family to the Romanian state.

Peles Castle

Cool Spiral Staircase

Wooden Statue

Retractable stained glass ceiling

King Carol I

Stained glass windows of Romanian fairy tails

Now, when we went in, our guide said that we could take pictures with our phones, but to use a real camera we had to pay a fee. I’ve paid these fees before, but this wasn’t a castle that I was too interested in inside pictures so I opted to use my phone, as did most of our group. Part way through our tour we all got reprimanded by a castle employee for taking pictures at all. Our guide shrugged it off saying the rules change daily.

Lion outside

Leaving the castle

We had lunch in Sinaia with another couple on the tour. The four of us had 2 medium sized pizzas, a large bowl of soup, 3 sodas, and a bottle of water for just over $20. Seriously.

From there we headed in to Transylvania. The mountains got taller. We had a bit of time in the late afternoon in the old town of Brasov. In the middle ages, this was called the crown city so the coat of arms of the city has a crown with roots coming out of it. We saw this in one of the medieval gates and modernized on some of the flowerbeds. Apparently the current name Brasov came from the Slavs mispronouncing the name of a local river, the Barsa. People have lived here since Neolithic times, but in the more “modern” era this area was deliberately settled by Transylvanian Saxons, who were German colonists sent to protect the area against Ottoman invaders.

Brasov

Brasov has a nice town square with a Gothic cathedral just off of it. It is called the Black Cathedral and is apparently the largest Gothic cathedral in this part of Europe. It has been a Lutheran church for centuries, but was originally Catholic. It was built beginning in the late 1300s and took less than a century to complete, which is quite impressive for that time. There is a legend that a stonemasons was either jealous of a young apprentice or a local child was correcting the stonemasons error and was thrown off the church and died. The stonemason felt guilty and worked him into the masonry of the church and he is looking down to the ground.

Brasov old town square

Black Cathedral

Doors to the Black Cathedral

Young apprentice looking down from the roof

Black Cathedral clock tower

Brasov still has some of the original medieval wall that surrounded the town. There is only one medieval gate remaining, with other gates having been replaced over time. There are portions of the wall remaining with some watchtowers.

Scaffold’s Gate