The Peles Castle in Romania, is one of the world's most beautiful and luxurious
castles in Europe. It's 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.
Peles Castle was commissioned by King Carol I in 1873. It has 170 rooms filled
with European Art, crystal chandeliers, stained-glass windows, procelains, wood
carvings, statues and more. Each room was furnished to reflect a different
European country. It was the first castle in Europe to have central heating
and electricity produced by its own electrical power plant on the bank of
Peles creek!
In her journal, Queen Mary of Romania commented on the long and laborious
construction of the Peles Castle writing: "Italians were masons, Romanians were
building terraces. Albanians and Greeks worked in stone, Germans and Hungarians
were carpenters. Turks were burning brick. Engineers were Polish and the stone
carvers were Czech. The Frenchmen were drawing, the Englishmen were measuring,
and so was then when you could see hundreds of national costumes and fourteen
languages in which they spoke, sang, cursed and quarrelled in all dialects and
tones, a joyful mix of men, horses, cart oxen and domestic buffaloes."
Peles Castle was built as a residence for the Royal Heirs to the throne of Romania,
Prince Ferdinand and Princess Marie. It was the summer home of the Romanian royal
family from 1883 until 1947. Later it was used as a luxury private retreat. Richard
Nixon, Gerald Ford, Moamar Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat are just a few who were
entertained by the Romanian dictator. Peles Castle is also surrounded by seven
terraces and gardens, with statues everywhere.
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