First Romanian king; stunning Peles Castle

Romania united in 1859 and became a nation in 1877. First Prus­sian Prince Carol (1839-1914) of Hohenzollern became King Carol I of Romania from 1881. In 1873 when Carol visited the location where the beautiful castle now stands, he loved the stunning Carpathian Mountains scenery. So he quickly bought land in a small vil­lage Sinaia. Why there? Sinaia Monast­ery had been founded by Pr­ince Mich­ael in 1695, used as the roy­al res­id­ence until Peles was built.

                          

Peleş Castle in Sinaia

Under Charles’ control, 300 people laboured endlessly on Peles for two years. In 1875, the impressive castle was fin­ish­ed, spread­ing across 3,200 square ms. Sev­er­al teams of European architects and de­signers had to work throughout the years, including archit­ects Joh­an­nes Schultz (1873-83) and Karel Liman (1896-1924). The summer cas­tle was de­sign­ed in a Neo Ren­ais­­sance style combining features of cl­as­sic European styles - decorated by JD Heymann (Hamburg), August Bembe (Mainz) and Bernhard Ludwig (Vienna).

Carol planned the royal res­idence and hunting pre­serve for summer each year, the name coming from the Peles Creek that passed through the court­yard. Peles sat on a his­t­or­ic medieval road that connected Tran­syl­vania and Wallachia. A rail­way line was soon built to Buch­arest (122 km) and many aristo­cr­atic families moved their summer homes nearby.

He was the first King of Romania, from 1881 until his death. One of the most imp­ortant polit­ical figures in Romania’s his­tory for his successes, Carol refin­ed his passion for archit­ect­­ure. The Sov­ereigns’ Gate opened into the cast­le, and a mon­u­men­t­al marble stair­case went to the Hall of Hon­our, the official recep­tion space with walnut panelling and stat­ues. The ties bet­ween the Rom­anian and other royal families att­racted big names to the cast­le eg Austro–Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph, in 1886. Carols’ wife, Queen Elizab­eth, was a patron of the arts and de­signed rooms sp­ec­ific­ally for artists, mus­icians and writers’ enter­t­ain­ment.

                            

Peles Castle Piano Room

  
The dec­or­ations in each of the 160 rooms were given themes, with the finest examples of Eu­r­opean art, Murano crystal chandeliers, German stained-glass and Cor­doba leather-cov­er­ed walls. Many of the rooms were decorated to resemble the various world cultures eg the 1906 Mus­ic Room’s carved teak Indian furniture was gifted by a Maharajah. It contained a 1621 harpsichord from Antwerp, upright piano and organ

Given his military background, King Carol had a solid knowledge of weapons. The Great Armory Room hosts fine col­lect­ions of 4,000+ arms and ar­mour. Mainly C14th-17th from Western and East­ern Eur­ope and Asia, they were collected in 1903. Note the German armour of the C16th or 17th, and a full armour for the horse and knight.

                               

Welcome inside the front door

Due to its remarkable archit­ecture and exhibits, The Royal Library-Great Salon was special. It impress­ed with ceiling carved from linden wood, gilt, large chandeliers and Italian neo-renaissance decor­ations. See rare books with leath­er covers and gold emboss­ing and look for a secret door behind a bookshelf for the king to hide.

Peles’ architects drew in­sp­iration from classical styles like German and Italian Renais­s­ance, and Fr­ench Baroque eg the German stained glass and painted mur­als on the castle exter­ior. The interior, espec­ially the main hall, is beau­t­if­ully decorated with sculpt­ed wood & stained glass windows, sym­bols of elegance and royalty.

Great Moorish Salon

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Carrara marble was everywhere eg terraces decorated with royal st­at­ues, so the cas­tle could be an imp­res­sive residence fit for its pol­itical and cult­ural functions. Moor Hall was by painter and sculptor Charles Lecompte du Nouy, having Spanish-Moorish elements with a marble fount­ain.

The castle's 60-seat Theatre Hall and royal box were decorated in Louis XIV style, while the ceiling paintings and decorative fre­sc­oes were designed by famous Austrian art­ists Gustav Klimt and Fran­tz Mat­sch. And handmade silk embroideries adorned the ceil­ing and walls of the Turk­ish Salon. The horology exhibition had 50 different clocks from the private royal collection: grand­fathers, pendulum table clocks, fireplace clocks, al­arm clocks, poc­ket wat­ch­es etc. And pieces that belong­ed to Queen Marie, Carol II and King Mich­ael, mostly dating to the C19th. These collections of dispar­ate int­er­ior decorat­ion styles probably reflected King Carol’s eclectic tas­te.

                       

Theatre Hall, Peles Castle

From the start Peles was one of the most tech­nologically adv­an­ced palaces and expensive in Europe. It was the first European cas­tle fully supplied by locally produced el­ectrical po­wer, had its own 1884 power plant, cen­t­ral heating system in 1897, central vacuum sys­t­em, elev­at­or for the royals, hot and cold running water.

Besid­es Peles Castle, other buildings were erected, such as the royal stables and Foisor Hunting Lodge. And King Carol I’s successor, King Ferdinand built a smaller castle, Pelisor, on Peles grounds. Pel­isor was de­s­ign­ed in the art nouveau-style by the Czech architect Karel Liman from 1893-1914.

Peles remained a royal residence until 1947 when, after the forced ab­dication of King Michael I, Peles and the other royal propert­ies were taken by the Communist govern­ment. In 1948 the whole estate was closed, and art works went to Bucharest’s Art Mus­eum. The comm­unist government opened the castle as a tourist attract­ion, decl­ar­ed it the National Peles Museum in 1953 and kept it open until 1975.

Pres Nicolae Ceaușescu closed the entire estate in 1975-90, making it a State Protocol Area, limited to 1] mil­itary per­sonnel and 2] visiting heads of state. Fortun­ately the museum curators fri­ght­en­ed the President, saving Peles from military damage and from the Ceaus­escus. After the 1989 Romanian Revol­ut­ion, the cas­­tle became a heritage site and re-opened as a mus­eum with c400,000 visitors an­nually. Peles Museum has guides for those wanting historic tours.

Passionate about art, King Carol had collections covering c60,000 art objects. Additionally the ceramics collection held tiles and porcel­ain taken from the greatest C19th centres, was established by Queen Marie from 1914-27, and later pieces were purchased by the Museum. The wealth of artwork includes thousands of paintings and scul­ptures.

                              

Peles Castle gardens and statues

All photo credits: effitimonholiday