The ghosts of the past
The Carpathian mountains in Romania are mainly known for Dracula. It is a novel written in 1897 by Bram Stoker. On a business trip, the protagonist, Jonathan Harker, stays in the castle of a Transylvanian noble man, Dracula. After discovering that Dracula is a vampire, he escapes from the castle and returns to England, where he plagues the seaside town of Whitby.
Brasov
The model for Dracula’ s castle is Bran castle near the town of Brasov in Romania. Brasov is a well preserved fortified town at the edge of the Carpathian mountains. From there, the train takes you up into a world of endless forests, one of the few areas in Europe where bears still roam. The line is badly in need of reconstruction. Short pieces of rail are still lashed together with screws and the tok-tok… tok-tok accompanies the shrieking sound of wheels protesting in narrow turns. After an hour of ride the train arrives in the town of Sinaia.
Main square Brasov
In Sinaia, an enormous station building greets the arriving traveller. Even for a mountain resort such an enormous building seems to be out of place for a town of merely around 10000 inhabitants.
Station, Sinaia
Sinaia came into existence in 1695. It is said that, in 1672, Mihail Cantacuzino, being persecuted by the ruler Grigdre Ghica. fled on horseback from Bucarest and travelled the lonely paths in the Prahova Valley. When he arrived in the evening in the Bucegi mountain area, he was hidden by monks in a small hermitage called Molomof. He promised to build a monastery on the place when he would survive.
The old monastery from the 17th century
The Monastery was dedicated to the Assumption and called Sinaia, coming from Mount Sinai, in Egypt. Originally, it also acted as a stronghold for travellers across the mountains and therefore looked like a fortress with high and thick stone walls arranged on four sides around a simple little church built inside. In 1842-1846 the bigger holy trinity church outside the original walls and a second courtyard were added.
Entrance to the monastery and 19th century church
There are still a number of orthodox monks living in the monastery. They also guard the oldest Romanian translation of the bible of 1668. Until 1850 Sinaia was little more than the monastery and a couple of huts.
Street in Sinaia
Until the mid of the 19th century big parts of the Balkan were still under rule of the Ottoman empire. During the Europe-wide revolutions of 1848, Moldavia and Wallachia fell into revolt. One of the revolutionaries was young Alexandru Ioan Cuza. Eventually he was first elected as Prince of Moldavia in 1859 and, shortly afterwards, also in Wallachia. For the first time a union of the two principalities, which would become the state of Romania, was achieved. However, Cuza’s role was not approved by Austria and he still ruled under his nominal suzerain, Abdülaziz, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The new county with the name of Romania, with Bucarest as its capital city, only was accepted for as long as Cuza’s ruled.
Cuza was liberal and began reforms to modernize Romanian society. One of the reforms involved the expropriation of land of orthodox monasteries, who so far were not liable to pay taxes. This raised the suspicion of a conservative alliance and eventually Cuza was overthrown in 1866.
Since the unified country was accepted by the Ottoman empire only for the time of Cuza’s rule, his abdication threatened to disintegrate the young state. The Romanian politicians had to find a replacement who was acceptable for the European powers and the Ottomans. At first they invited Philip of Flanders, the brother of the Belgian king Leopold II in the hope that he would turn Romania into a little Belgium. But Philipp already had refused the thrown of Greece and also turned down the offer to rule over Romania.
Prince Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was born on April, 20th 1839 in Sigmaringen. He was the second son of Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Princess Josephine of Baden. His father had been the prime minister of Prussia, but his family was also related to the Bonaparte family and therefore enjoyed good relations with the emperor Napoleon III of France. Karl also was the brother in law of the Belgian Philip.
France and Prussia were supporting Karl’s installation on the Romanian throne. However, Prussia was almost at war with Austria, and therefore Karl had to secretly travel to Romania. In 1866 he was first installed as Domnitor (prince reigning for the Ottoman Sultan) and in 1878, as a consequence of the participation of Romanian troops under his command against the Turks in the Turkish Russian war, he became Carol I, the king of independent Romania.
Carol I ruled for 48 years. He was married to Elizabeth, princess of Wied. Romania therefore was ruled by an entirely German couple. Carol never forgot his German roots. In 1866 he had visited the magnificent mountain scenery at Sinaia and in 1873 the construction of his summer residence, Peles Castle, began outside the town on 5 square km of land called the Royal estate of Sinaia.
Peles Castle
The idea of the castle has a lot in common with Bavarian king Ludwig II’s fairy tale castle Neuschwanstein near Füssen in the Bavarian Alps. Both are examples of Neo Renaissance or Gothic Revival. However Neuschwanstein was never finished whereas the construction of Peles castle went on quickly. It was the world’s first castle fully powered by electricity produced in a power station built for that purpose on the premises. Another new feature was its central heating.
Courtyard, Peles Castle
During the construction the royal family lived in Foisor Villa closeby. Today the villa is the Romanian presidential residence. For Carols successor, Ferdinand and his wife Marie, Pelisor castle was built next door in 1883.
Pelisor Castle
The Romanian dictator Ceaucescu was not interested in Peles castle. After it had been open for visitors for many years, it was closed for the public between 1975 and 1990. After the revolution it was restored to the heirs of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family in 2007, who lease it back to the Romanian state.
One of the additional buildings, now a hotel
During my time of visit a long caravan of blinded black cars of official visitors leaves the premises. In the time of King Carol the railway was the fastest connection between the capital Bucarest and Sinaia. As was common at the time, a suitable station was built to accommodate the important visitors such as the Austrian emperor Franz-Josef but also artists like Sarah Bernhardt. The first station was finished in 1913 by the Demeter Cartner Company and was exclusively used by the Royal family and their guests. It now is the station serving the ordinary traveller. Next door, a new ceremonial station was built for the Royal family in 1939. Maybe the royal family did not want to use the other station any more after Prime minister I.G.Duca was murdered here in 1933. As late as 1975 dictator Ceaucescu arrived at the later ceremonial station with American President Gerald Ford. Other visiting politicians were Richard Nixon, Muammar al-Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat.
Entrance hall, Sinaia station
The new Sinaia station built exclusively for the king
On December 29th 1933, only 45 days after he became prime minister, Mr. Duca was summoned to meet the king in Peleș Castle. On the return trip, at night, Duca was shot to death on the platform of the Sinaia train station. This was done in revenge for the actions taken by Duca against the Iron Guard, a fascist organisation, and because he had allowed for increased Jewish immigration while blocking that of Aromanians to Dobrudja. Duca’s assassination was the first major political assassination in Romania since 1862.
A line inspection car
Next to the station is a little railway exhibit. The steam engine on display, 230-039, is a copy of the Prussian class P8 built after 1906. The material used in these times by the Romanian railroad reflects the close relation of Romania with Germany: many of the engines were either built in Germany or were copies of a German design.
Prussian P8 steam engine
The presence of the royal court attracted many people and adequate accommodation had to be built. The town of Sinaia became a popular resort with big hotels, a casino, and numerous chalet style alpine villas. A cable car brings tourists to the top of the mountain towering above the town and to neighbouring ski areas. The royal castles see half a million visitors a year.
Hotel Stavilar, where the bears roam
I stay in hotel Stavilar, very close to the Royal estate of Sinaia. It is a beautiful, old wood frame building next to a creek splashing down a narrow valley. Even in the main season it is not full. Maybe people are scared of the chance of the odd bear roaming the parking lot in search of food in the garbage bins. I keep my ears open during the night, but maybe, now in summer, the bears retreat from the crowds into the remote parts of the rugged mountains. Or, the owners have had too much of the local beer. It is called “ursus”. The label shows a bear.
The grand hotel of Sinaia
Many of the magnificent old buildings of Sinaia today are in disrepair, empty or for sale. The big old restaurant and hotel next to mine is empty. Like in similar old resort towns like Semmering in Austria the attention of the tourists has turned to other destinations which became accessible by cheap and fast transport. The grand time of Sinaia has lasted not much longer than 50 years, from the construction of Peles castle to the begin of WW II.
Sinaia Casino
Sources
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