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This entry covers the ground floor of Peleș Castle, located in Sinaia, Romania. It was the summer residence of Romanian King Carol I.
Tours of Peleș Castle start on the ground floor. Every single room is decorated to the finest detail. It’s a display of great excess and opulence that rivals all of the other great castles in Europe. Everything I saw in the castle was jaw dropping and simply magnificent.
Hall of Honour
Just inside the entrance is the Hall of Honour (Holul de Onuare). It’s the biggest room in the castle and wasn’t completed until 1911. It spreads over three floors and is 16 meters high.
Czech architect Karel Liman (1855-1929) decorated the Hall of Honour with fine woodwork, mostly European walnut. The panels were made in Vienna. Busts representing King Carol I and Queen Elisabeth sit behind a 500 year old Florentine table. There are also alabaster sculptures and bas-reliefs.
Retractable stained glass windows on the ceiling impressed the guests of King Carol I by allowing them to stargaze on clear summer nights. The ceiling can be opened both manually and electrically. Also impressive is the finely carved wooden spiral staircase leading from the first to the second floor.
Armory
The Armory (Sala de Arme) is next. It’s spread out over two rooms, the Grand Armory (Sala Mare de Arme) and the Small Armory (Sala Mică de Arme). It was set up between 1903 and 1906. The entire collection contains over 4,000 pieces of weapons and armor and is one of the finest collections in Europe. Only about 1,000 weapons are on display in the room.
The weapons in the Grand Armory date from the 14th through 19th centuries. Most pieces are German, but there are also Italian, Spanish, and French weapons. On display are swords, crossbows, shields, firearms, and much more. A 16th century executioner’s sword sits above the decorative fireplace.
The most important piece in the collection is a complete set of German armor for a horse and rider, which is unique in Romania. It weighs about 120 kilograms and was only used in parades or ceremonies.
Decorating one wall of the Grand Armory is a relief of the Battle of Nicopolis, which took place at present-day Nikopol, Bulgaria, on September 25, 1396. It resulted in a huge victory for the Ottomans.
There’s also a replica of the Romanian crown. The original is at the National History Museum in Bucharest. The crown, which was made of steel from an Ottoman cannon captured during the Romanian War of Independence in 1878, is a symbol of independence from the Ottoman Empire.
The Small Armory contains Oriental weapons. They’re mostly Ottoman, Arab, Indian, Japanese, and Persian. Many are made of gold and silver and contain precious stones. The most impressive are ceremonial weapons displayed in glass cases.
King’s Office
The Armory leads to the King’s Office, which has a beautiful desk and a wooden lectern used during audiences. There’s also a small private area for meetings and a magnificent porcelain fireplace. The office is illuminated by German and Swiss stained glass windows.
Royal Library
The Royal Library (Biblioteca Regală) contains rare books with leather covers and engraved gold letters. The books were written in German, English, French, and Romanian, which were the four languages spoken by King Carol I. There were originally 40,000 books in the library but now only about 400 are on display. The rest have been moved to Bucharest. There’s also a secret door behind a bookshelf allowing the King to access his private apartments on the first floor.
Audience Room
Next is the Audience Room, which was the last room decorated in at Peleș Castle. It was completed in May 1914 and previously served as the Music Room.
Music Room
The Music Room contains Queen Elisabeth’s piano as well as an Italian harp. A Romanian violin is displayed on the table. The room is lit with German stained glass windows inspired by Romanian poems by Vasile Alecsandri (1821-1890). Panels around the room are made of walnut and ash.
Florentine Room
The Florentine Room (Sala Florentină) is one of the most spectacular rooms at Peleș Castle. It was used as a reception room and was decorated in an Italian Renaissance style. The ceiling is made of gilded linden wood and contains a painting of the muse Calliope in the center. The two chandeliers and the mirror are decorated with Murano glass.
The room features a fireplace made out of Italian Carrara marble. It’s flanked by two cabinets made of ebony and inlaid with semi-precious stones. The cabinets, as well as the two thrones on the other side of the room, were for decorative purposes only.
Royal Dining Room
The Royal Dining Room was where members of the royal family and their guests would eat lunch and dinner. The table is extendable from 12 to 36 seats. The tablecloth as well as the porcelain, silverware, and Bohemian crystal are all original. The cupboard at the back of the room contains an electric dumbwaiter to bring the food up from the kitchen in the basement of Peleș Castle.
Moorish Hall
The Moorish Hall (Salonul Maur) was designed by French architect André Lecomte du Noüy (1844-1914) in 1890. It was inspired by the Alhambra and incorporates Spanish and North African Moorish designs. The room features a Carrara marble fountain copied from an original in Cairo. The furniture is inlaid with mother-of-pearl, Ottoman carpets from Isparta cover the floor, and the walls are decorated with Oriental weapons.
Turkish Room
The Turkish Room (Salonul Turcesc) is decorated with silk embroidered in gold. It contains the King’s hookah, or water pipe, and an original Smyrna carpet on the floor. The room is accessed through a French-style reception hall.
Theatre
The final room on the tour of the ground floor at Peleș Castle is the Theatre (Sala de Teatru). It has 60 seats and was decorated in the Louis XIV style. One of the highlights is a mural painting signed by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt (1862-1918).
Central Vacuum
Before finishing the tour of the ground floor, we walked through a corridor back to the Hall of Honour. The guide pointed out a connection to the central vacuum system. Peleș Castle was one of the first palaces in the world to have one. The original vacuum pump, which was made in Vienna in 1901, is still in the basement.
