There are many things to see in Sinaia. The monastery is the very first building of the area, built in 1695 by the Count Mihai Cantacuzino.
Later, at the beginning of the 20th century, a casino had been built in Sinaia. Guests were enough – Sinaia was not only the king’s summer residence, but also an elegant meeting point for Bucharest’s smart set, as it is nowadays with Monte Carlo or St. Moritz for Western Europe. After World War II, with the advent of the communist takeover, most people became equally poor. Moreover, the new moral branded casinos as a sign of capitalistic decay, so it was turned into a socialistic house of culture. Some years later, Ceauşescu found that it was a pity, that the nice building should be henceforth a wretched house of culture, so he turned it into his own residence. Fortunately, he brought very few modifications to its inner outlook.
A paved road leads from the casino to the Peleş Castle. The building’s works began in 1875 and ended in 1914 – it belongs to the newest castles of Europe. The castle had, from the very beginning, electric light, running water, and central heating.
The main staircase of massive oak wood leads to the Reception Hall. The latter is as high as the castle, and on sunny days, it is lit by natural daylight, both its ceiling and the roof being made of glass. It can be closed in bad weather, as it has an opening mechanism operated by an electrical engine. On the walls, wooden mosaics depict castles in Germany belonging to the Hohenzollern, King Carol’s ancestors. A statue of a medieval knight wearing a beard recalls of one of the ancestors. The knight should have taken the part of the emperor in a war against the pope. He should have been sentenced by the victorious pope to wear beard and an iron chain around his neck as a sign of his obedience towards the pope and the church. The Reception Hall is an art museum in itself.
The Room of Weapons shows European weapons from the 15th to the 19th centuries, most of them made in German workshops. Here one can see among so many weapons a beautifully decorated sword of execution with the calligraphic inscription, "To the one executed with this sword is the entry in Paradise guaranteed."
Stained glass with themes from German and Romanian legends; paintings after the tales of Carmen Silva, Queen Elisabeth’s penname (she was a poet); and some beautiful, barely known paintings of Gustav Klimt decorate the inside of the castle.