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 Sinaia

Building Peleş Staying overnight at the Sinaia Monastery in 1866, Romania’s future King Carol I fell in love with the peaceful valley, which reminded him very much of his homeland (Carol was Prince Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen at the time).  He never forgot the site, and in 1872 bought and commissioned a German architect, Wilhelm Doderer, to design his future summer palace in the mountains. Peleşor Today

All on the Royal Domain: Barracks, mess and administrative offices for the Royal Guards were built nearby as were the Royal Mews for the dozens of horses needed for the estate.  A commissary store (“economat”)  was stocked to provision estate workers with dry goods and personal requisites.   The castle continued to grow and change between it’s first official completion date in 1883, and it’s final form as today which was largely realised by 1914, by then under the auspices of the Czech architect Karel Liman.  The charming little “Spout House” (“Vila Şipot”) was also designed and built by Karel Liman, the Czech architect, after the main castle and outbuildings were completed.  Once the site of a forceful little natural spring found to proudly spout out year-round, Spout House is today a hotel, offering reasonable rates to travellers wanting a slice of history with their stay in Sinaia.

Romania's Royal Domain

It looks like a castle from a book your grandmother would have read you, and the fabulously ornate fairy-tale castle looks very much like Disney designed it!

Frankly, on your first view as you come through the Royal Domain (the estate and parklands), it’s impossible not to grin as you realise that this castle is for-real, and you are here to witness this spectacle which speaks far more to the Saxon ancestry of nearby Transilvania than the more Romanian styles of the nearby monastery.

Nonetheless, Peleş is still a Romanian Royal castle, and features wide Italian Renaissance-style terraces, studded with fountains, statues, decorated columns, and more rococo features which hint at the far more diverse styles used in the interior.

The Rooms of Queen Elizabeth

Romania’s first Queen, Elisabeta, wife of King Carol I was responsible for the ornate and lavish décor across 160 rooms.   Favouring split walnut veneers, crystal, ivory and ebony, leathers, fine silks, and a myriad of inlays and trim work, to say the interiors of her castle Peleş are lush is an understatement.

Whilst largely under the umbrella of the German Renaissance movement, the interiors borrow heavily here and there from English, Rococo and Baroque styles, resulting in a deliriously fun and sometimes whimsical effect, reflecting the diverse tastes of the Queen.

Your English-speaking guide will host your tour through 16 of the best rooms in the palace.

If you think you can guess what is around the corner at Peleş, you’d be sorely mistaken, for a left turn can mean stepping into an Alhambra-like Moorish grand hall, and a right can mean falling into one of two rooms dedicated to Venice, complete with fairly outlandish chandeliers and furnishings.

Amongst the don’t-miss rooms include the Hall of Honour, with it’s rich walnut panelling, complete with the requisite family coats of arms and regalia.   The Arms Galleries, Council Chamber, and Old Music Room offer interesting insights into court life in the early 1900s.    Delight too in the Turkish Room, the Banqueting Hall, the Theatre, Concert Hall, and the Stairway of Honour, amongst some great passageways, views and endless antiques and furniture.

Little Pelişor Castle

King Carol and Queen Elisabeta lived in Peleş and their heir, the Prince Ferdinand and his English-born consort, the Princess Marie, lived in Peleşor castle (“Little Peleş”), just up the hill in the Royal Domain. 

Really, it’s not that little, and having been built a couple of decades later (ground broke in 1899), it had a few more of the modern conveniences and a more cohesive interior design scheme, with Tiffany and Lalique dotting the largely art nouveau and arts and crafts interior, despite the more staid German Renaissance exteriors (to better match it’s bigger namesake down the hill presumably). 

Peleşor is destined to remain open until 2010, although it is now the Royal Residence of King Mihai I of Romania. 

The Foişor Hunting Lodge

Indeed a bit more cosy than the castle, Foişor was first a hunting lodge for the royals but quickly became a residence for relatives. 

In 1914, because home to Queen Elisabeta and her children when her son Ferdinand moved down to Peleş when he ascended the throne.  

Queen Elena was already pregnant when she first decorated Foişor  in the 1920s as she and Ferdinand’s son Carol too moved into the little chateau, where they remained until he ascended the throne in 1930.  Today’s gardens and parkland around Foişor are at least partly due to Queen Elena’s fine efforts to redesign and remodel the grounds. 

The current King of the Romanians, Mihai I was born at Foişor to his mother the Crown Princess Elena (of Greece) and his father, Prince Carol, at the time son of King Ferdinand I.  

You can admire the lodge from the surrounding parklands on the Royal Domain, which are open to the public Wednesdays to Sundays until 4pm. 

 The Royal Peleş Domain

The Royal Peleş Domain, comprised of the Peleş, Peleşor, and Foişor castles, were returned to the Royal House in early March 2007, after being "looked after" for 60 years by the Romanian government.

In fact, the entire Domain was appropriated by the then-Communist government in 1947 when they forced His Majesty King Mihai I to leave the country. 

These old castles are monuments to Romania's regal history, testaments to the 140 years since Carol I ascended the throne of Romania, proclaiming a sovereign state on May 10, 1866; and 125 years since the declaration of the Kingdom of Romania by King Carol I on May 10, 1881.

The Royal House of Romania has Peleşor castle as it's official residence.  

The King formally offered return the main tourist draw, Peleş castle to the state (the government had the right of first refusal anyways according to their 2001 legislation).   The older part of Foişor remains a protocol residence (used by the Government for state events and accommodation of visiting dignitaries). 

Additional areas at Ceramica and Stavilari under the auspices of the board of Sinaia European Culture Centre were also returned in early 2007.   Following the wishes of His Majesty, most of both Peleş and Peleşor will remain functioning museums through 2010. 

The Royal House Today

The Royal House of Romania, through it's visits, agenda, and participation in events domestically and throughout Europe, actively embodies and symbolizes Romania's obligation to Europe as well as the nation's traditions, stability and continuity.

 Princess Margarita

First as Her Serene Highness Margarita, Princess of Hohenzollern, and now Her Royal Highness The Princess Margarita of Romania, she is the eldest daughter of The King and of the Queen Consort, Anne of Bourbon-Parma (Ana). HRH The Princess Margarita is 82nd in line of succession for the British throne and, by Royal House Law, heir to the leadership of the Royal Family.  With no children, her sister Princess Elena of Romania is next in line for the throne.  

However, since the royal constitution of 1923 only provided for male heirs, the Romanian Parliament will eventually need to amend that law to codify the King's decision for his eldest daughter to assume the Romanian throne when the monarchy is formally restored by Parliament.

The Restoration

HRH Radu, Prince of Romania HRH The Princess Margarita of Romania The fifth generation of Romanian royalty continue to serve all Romanians as special representatives.

The Enescu Memorial House Home to Enescu and Yehudi Menuhin, one of his many famous pupils at his Sinaia home.

Photo: The Sinaia Mayoralty

Family Fun in the Sinaia Snow

The photo immediately preceding this notice is Copyright (c)2005 - 2008 Rest Romania SRL, All rights reserved. Photo: © REST ROMÂNIA

The View from Cota 2000

The photo immediately preceding this notice is Copyright (c)2005 - 2008 Rest Romania SRL, All rights reserved. Photo: © REST ROMÂNIA

The Old Women This famous formation, the "Babele" feature prominently on the escarpment slopes above Sinaia.

The photo immediately preceding this notice is Copyright (c)2005 - 2008 Rest Romania SRL, All rights reserved. Photo: © REST ROMÂNIA

As with so many of the royal houses of Europe, Romania's Royal House had it's share of challenges through two world wars, occupation by both Nazi and communist governments, as well as the instability of multi-party coalition governments. 

It should be noted that King Mihai is one of only two surviving European monarchs still alive, who reigned during WWII.  Whilst the king was forced to leave Romania, there was never an official abdication, as no heir and successor was ever crowned.

Romania's Royalty, Popular and Reserved

Whilst the monarchy in Romania is universally popular from a standpoint of national pride -- the Royal House did after all manage to survive in exile through the sad communist years -- the in-built mistrust of any form of authority makes a full-fledged resumption of traditional royal institutions and habits less appealing to the populace in general.

With ambivalence on many matters, the Royal House has taken a steady and cautious approach to regaining stature, respect and even adoration from the Romanian population, which likewise is recovering from decades (some say centuries) of abuse by it's own rulers.

The current heir to throne (King Mihai's supposed abdication under the communists was well outside the Romanian constitution; even if Mihai had abdicated legally, a succession legally should have taken place), HRH Radu, Prince of Romania, was born in 1960 in Iasi, and is husband of HRH The Princess Margarita of Romania. 

More on the Royal Family Here

Romania's Violinist

Americans are surprised sometimes to learn their primo violinist, Yehudi Menuhin once had a rather famous Romanian tutor!

Menuhin studied in Sinaia, and refined much of his art under the kind tutelage of Romania's George Enescu, who conducted at the New York Philharmonic orchestra in the late 1930s.  

The Enescu Memorial House, the Villa "Luminis", is just north of Sinaia, and well worth a look.  The comfortable villa has great views of the mountains, and is crammed full of fabulous furniture, his piano and countless photos and artifacts from his great career. 

The house itself was built in the 1920s and is a real gem of Romania architecture of the period, with Turkish and Brâncovean influences. 

You'll fall in love with the man and his music as you tour this time capsule of culture!  Enesecu was a keen friend of Romania's Queen Marie, and he married a friend of hers, Maria  Rosetti, who had married into the Cantacuzino dynasty, gaining Enescu the use of the city palace in Bucharest as well.   Lucky guy!

The house itself is north from the train station about 5 minutes, in the Campetu quarter, the only part of Sinaia which is on the eastern side of the Prahova River. 

SKI TIME!

Romania’s Aspen

The reason Americans refer to Sinaia as Romania’s Aspen is mostly due to the celebrity factor here. 

With it’s proximity to Bucharest (and hence, the international airport), as well as it’s stunning beauty and royal residence, Sinaia is a natural choice for the discerning fun-seeker.

A uniform layer of snow is deposited usually in November and it melts from March to April, sometimes at the beginning of May. The thickness of the snow layer varies between 20 centimeters and 3 meters in higher elevations.

Apres-ski is it’s own little industry in Sinaia, which puts quality before quantity in the overall experience.

Due to the annual winter influx of Germans, quite a few restaurants offer reasonable German fare on top of the myriad of Romanian cuisine restaurants.  Romania actually does sport it’s own “whole” cuisine, see our Food and Dining section for more information.

And of course, where you have Germans, you have beer, so there are good German pubs catering to this crowd, along with bars, the Blue Angel and Black Horse discos, as well as games places with billards, table tennis, video games, internet cafes, and all the requisites a resort town normally offers. 

If you would like to play roulette, blackjack, stud poker, or feel the need to have a go with a slot machine (or “pokie” as Australians say), head to the Casino Maxim, which has table gaming rooms open evenings (6pm – 3am, 5am Fri/Sat) for Euro players and local Lei players.

The Slopes of Sinaia

South from the train station and park, just up the hill from the market and town hall is the Hotel Montana, behind which you can catch the cable car up the mountain. 

The view from the end of this line (which is about 2/3 of the way up) is stupendous, and you can either continue on up, or take the very scenic trail back down (about 2 hours).

The looming Furnica Peak to the west of town has most of the runs and lifts on it, with 3 telecabinas (gondolas) going up to the level first, and then continuing on up to .   With total of pistes, and one run, Sinaia is well-developed and every bit as good as most of the resorts at Tahoe or Breckenridge, with an annual metre of snow on average. 

With mostly intermediate runs, Sinaia does have 3 difficult runs, “Carp”, “Papagal – Târle, and “1500” (using the Cota 1500 chair lift).   The Carp slope from Furnica Peak and Cota 1400 runs a cool down a healthy drop, great fun for experienced skiers. 

For a bit of fun, Sinaia also offers bobsledding runs (over a drop) complete with graded turns, running for .  

Even if you’re not up for a walk in the mountains, a stroll around some of the back streets of Sinaia show off the villas of the aristocracy from the early 1900s, and worth a few photos too. 

Read more about Skiing and Hiking in our Special Bucegi Natural Park Section

For more great things to do, see also County Prahova and the Muntenia region

Listed below are some local agents who can help you with bookings and organize local tours in the Sinaia area.

Mervani Travel, B-dul Ferdinand Hotel Paltinis, cam.506 - 507 in Sinaia

+40 (244) 311200  FAX: +40 (244) 311211 

Mervani Travel, B-dul Ferdinand nr.4 in Sinaia

+40 (244) 312763  FAX: +40 (244) 311211 

Sinaia, Bd. Carol I, nr.8 (Hotel Sinaia) in Sinaia

+40 (244) 430290  FAX: +40 (244) 311898 

Sinaia, Bd. Carol I, nr.8 (Hotel Sinaia) in Sinaia

+40 (244) 430290  FAX: +40 (244) 311898 

International, Str. Avram Iancu nr.1 in Sinaia

+40 (244) 311399  FAX: +40 (244) 310470 

Cladis Tour, Bd Republicii nr.29 in Sinaia

+40 (244) 311896  FAX: +40 (244) 311896 

Sipesin Turism, Str. Avram Iancu, nr.14 in Sinaia

 +40 (244) 312667  FAX: +40 (244) 312667 

Palace, Str. Octavian Goga nr.11 in Sinaia

 +40 (244) 311542  FAX: +40 (244) 310625 

Alca Tour, Bd Carol I, Nr. 27 in Sinaia

 +40 (244) 311 910  FAX: +40 (244) 311 910 

Artmedia Group Travel, Str. Octavian Goga nr.11 in Sinaia

 +40 (244) 310692  FAX: +40 (244) 310692 

Artmedia Group Travel, Str. Octavian Goga nr.11 in Sinaia

 +40 (244) 310692  FAX: +40 (244) 310692 

Luxor, Bd. Carol I, nr.22 in Sinaia

 +40 (244) 314124  FAX: +40 (244) 314051

 
    See a Road Map of the Sinaia Area

See an Area Map of County Prahova

See a Street Map of Sinaia

Geography

See maps of Sinaia above

Wallachia or Transylvania?  

Since the 1300s, the administrative capitals of Romania have migrated from the mountains, to the foothills and slowly down to the great Wallachian plain, where Bucharest is today.

Sinaia, nestled firmly on the southern edge of the mountains, perches high enough to avoid the worst of the summer heat, and low down enough to avoid the heaviest snowfalls in winter.  

 Whilst administratively part of Wallachia, and the last northern outpost of Wallachian culture and history, Sinaia cannot help but be influenced the equally rich Transilvanian culture just up the valley.  

Without the dramatic mountain passes further up the mountains, Sinaia was not a heavily fortified town and never had a functional castle such as Bran or Poienari controlling trade at this wider area of the Prahova valley, although in the early Sinaia monastery church did serve to protect the main trade route. 

Transportation

Train

Getting to Sinaia is made easy by train, since it is on the main line between Bucharest and Brasov. All trains that go to Hungary pass Sinaia, as to those that service Oradea, Brasov and Cluj-Napoca.   There are also many trains to and from Sighisoara, Timisoara, Iasi and Arad.

From Mike Ormsby's new must-read book 'NEVER MIND THE BALKANS, HERE'S ROMANIA!', with a laconic English perspective on life in Romania and the Romanian people Read More Here

The Mystery Train

I walk through Gara de Nord feeling older and wiser.  The big railway station looks so different today – modern, revamped. Shiny kiosks bulge with glossy mags, rows of chocolate and stacks of snacks.  Men in suits chat on mobile phones.   Glamorous girls laugh and joke, swig Fanta.   Ticket collectors amble in smart uniforms, hats perched at a rakish angle. 

I can hardly believe my eyes.  It seems a so modern.  The steel body shines with immaculate paintwork; the windows are wide, slightly convex and made of thick tinted glass.  Rugged steps and chrome handrails gleam invitingly in the early morning sun. 

I board the train in Bucharest's main railway station.   Inside, the pale grey vinyl floor is surprisingly free of chewing gum.  I choose a seat by the window.  It feels well-designed, covered in bright blue fabric, firm but comfortable.  I watch passengers walking along the platform outside. 

Soon the carriage begins to fill up.   A middle-aged woman sits down opposite me, hair frosted like a cake, fingers dripping gold.  I can almost hear the wheels grinding at her head: he's not Romanian.  It must be my green rubbery skin, bulbous purple eye and furry antennae. 

The train pulls out of the Gara de Nord, slowly picking up speed, clickety-clack.  I watch as dilapidated apartment blocks sail pass; a kid leans perilously from a rusty balcony.  A skinny woman in a headscarf pins sagging sheets to a washing line. 

It still looks like Romania out there, apart from the snarling yellow diggers and new roads with sleek cars.  But in here, I feel shot forward in time.  I fold my arms and marvel.  It's a bit of a mystery, progress.

-- from the tales "Not so Lucky" and "Mystery Train"

 

Maxi-Taxi and Busses

Sinaia is also accessible by intercity coach from Brasov, but train is the better option.  

By Air

The closest airport to Sinaia is Bucharest, alhtough there are plans to open an international-capable airport at Braşov at some point in the future.

Weather

Milder than Most in Sinaia

The climate is a characteristic of low-altitude mountain passes. Annual average temperature: 8°C; Average temperature in June: 15°C; Average temperature in January: -4°C.

Summers are bracing and very rainy in the beginning of the season. Winters are relatively mild, with heavy snow. Average annual rainfall is 900 mm. The maximum registered rainfall was in June (173 mm/m˛). The minimum rainfall was recorded in September (55 mm/m˛) and February (40mm/m˛).

A uniform layer of snow is deposited usually in November and it melts from March to April, sometimes at the beginning of May. The thickness of the snow layer varies between 20 centimeters and 3 meters in higher elevations.

In recent years, Sinaia has felt the effects of global climate change – change that has meant shorter summers, with temperatures frequently over 30°C, a slight reduction in the length of spring and autumn, and relatively longer winters (end of October – beginning of May), colder winters with entire weeks dominated by frost ( -19°C to -25°C) and numerous blizzards.

See Other Towns in County Prahova Here

It's Rich, It's Stunning, It's Sinaia!

A lot of the hotels in Sinaia are ridiculously sumptuous for the average Romanian, a clear signal that there is a lot of European and even American traffic through this increasingly cosmopolitan and always trendy little resort town.  

There are also a fair few mid-line rooms in the town, although you can get the same thing for a lot cheaper at Buşteni, which is more favoured by Romania’s booming middle class.  In addition to being top of the line, many of the hotels are really quite huge, although most blend fairly well thanks to being dwarfed by the mountains, or clad in the period facades of the older sprawling hotels.

Listed below are some local hotels, B&Bs and other accommodation in the Sinaia area.

Vila Tudor, Cartier Cumpatul in Sinaia

The villa is perfect for those who love nature, being placed in the middle of the forest.

See also County Prahova for accommodation in other nearby towns

The area code for County Prahova is (2AA) or (3AA)

Early Sinaia History

Once only known as the Prahovan Fields, the area was once just meadows, which stretched lazily from the Spring River, up to Predeal. 

 Due to restrictions getting into the fields, the area was uninhabited.

The St. Nicholas hermitage was the first permanent settlement of any size in Sinaia, around Molomot just north of the Furnica quarter today.    It was mentioned by Prince Mihnea in 1581 and the monastery workers built the first road by widening the existing path to take oxcarts from Posada through the narrows and into the monastery compound.

The road network through Sinaia was further improved by the Austrian army from their Transilvanian province to the north. 

The Austrians realised they needed a well maintained route to supply and quickly transport their troops from Braşov to fight the Turks on the wide Wallachian plains below.    With the main route established by the late 1690, the road was fully operationally by the 1736 campaigns.  

The road quickly gained fame as being the shortest route between Bucharest and Braşov, even though it was not as easy to traverse as the more traditional route through the Rucăr pass to the north-west. 

Just north of Sinaia, the Stony Porch Inn at Buşteni, and the Râşnov Gap Inn at Predeal were open in the 1750s (see more in Buşteni History here).

With increasingly more valley inhabitants, by the late 1800s, Sinaia had it’s established it’s own wayside inns, from the Forest Clearing Inn (Hanul de la Gura Padurii), the Iancu Valley Inn, and later on, the Setu Inn, which is the Coldspring (Hanul la Izvorul Rece) Inn today. 

The hamlet of Springville (Catunul Izvor) appeared in 1783 when Mihai Sutu, the local lord, took some of the serfs and their families from the Sinaia monastery settlement up into the foothills along the Goldspring river valley (valea raului Izvorul Dorului). 

Sinaia was included in the newly created township of eagu’s Bridge (Podu Neagului) in 1852.

This new administrative commune unified the area from the Lespezi hermitage at Comarnic, with the villages of Posada, Springville, Buşteni, and up the Prahova Valley to Predeal.  

If you’ve read our section on the charming seaside village of Eforie Nord, you’ll know the name comes from the Eforia Spitalelor Civile, a medical trust established by two of Romania’s aristocratic families, the Cantacuzinos and the Ghicas, in 1864.   

Bringing affordable or free medical care to hundreds of thousands of Romanians, the foundation, and in addition to their coastal spa properties at Eforie Nord, they also held the Furnica estate including today’s Sinaia Monastery.

 However, it was not until 1874 that the estate and growing community was giving the name Sinaia, presumably at the prompting of Prince Carol, the future King of the Romanians. 

As with their resort work down on the coast, the Eforia foundation realised the potential for its Sinaia estate to become a deluxe resort town, especially since Sinaia was already the summer residence of the Royal House.   

Eforia pushed ahead to provide 10 hotels, 55 large villas, 50 medium sized villas and 60 peasant houses, 2 casinos, spa baths, a zoo, walking trails, three equestrian centres including dressage schools, restaurants, ale houses, coffee shops and seasonal stores, a park with promenade, with the resort nicknamed  “The Pearl of the Carpathians”. 

The development or the Sinaia township as a tourist destination boomed starting in the second half of the 19th century, timed with the construction of the Sinaia to Braşov roadway in 1847, the railroad from Bucharest in 1879, and moreover, the Peleş Castle , which transformed Sinaia into a centre of political life with a privileged residential neighbourhoods, each with their own distinct and diverse architectures inside and out.

Sinaia was declared a town in 1880, making it one of the earliest official urban zones anywhere in the new Romanian nation.  Read more on the Sinaia website (if you read Romanian).
  

Growing up in Sinaia The favoured residence, Peleşor, where the young Prince Mihai spent his early years.

Americans Bomb Romania A thankful King Mihai I congratulated the Americans for only targeting the Nazi controlled refineries and not the civilian popluations.  See the American War Memorial in Sinaia below

Photo: America in WWII

The Soviet Order of Victory Awarded by Stalin to the Young King Mihai I

Sinaia, Home to a Prince

Born in Sinaia, the young Prince Mihai was raised in the Prahova Valley, living at Peleş castle and going to school in Sinaia. 

His mother,  the Princess Elena of Greece, and father King Carol II did not get on well, and when his father left to live with his mistress, young Mihai acceded the Romanian throne at the age of six.

The Royal prerogative was formulated by a Regency, a troika of his uncle, Prince Nicolae, the leader of the Romanian Orthodox church, and the High Court president.   Then the first Court president on the Board of Regents died, Mihai's Grandmother, the Queen Marie (born Marie of Edinburgh), vied for the position, only to be rather rudely thwarted by the Peasant Party Prime Minister Iuliu Maniu. 

The young king attended the Sinaia elementary school, and showed an early aptitude for mechanical and electrical  skills.

These would come in handy later during the war years and as a pilot in the 1950s and 1960s. 

Mihai had firm European royalty roots, being the great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria.   His reign was interrupted by the return of his father to the throne in the 1930s, and resumed again a decade later. 

Sinaia and the Nazis

Being just north of the industrial powerhouse and oil refineries at Ploieşti, Sinaia had the further attraction of being the seat of Romania's royalty.

This made the Prahova valley, itself a fairly easily defended region, a magnate for the Nazis, who forever loved lore and any hint of Saxon ancestry.

King Mihai I himself had strong Saxon roots, which made his retention undoutedly more attractive in some ways to Hitler and his nutter cronies.

King Mihai was hardly alone in hosting wounded American airmen at Castle Peleş. 

Many in Romania's upper classes applied for visas for Spain, Turkey and Switzerland as the peasants began to pour in from Bessarabia and the Transilvanian plateau.  But those who weren't able to get out, or preferred to stay for the duration, huddled together in their villas and estates in the Prahova valley.

The Americans Arrive from the Skies

The low-level precision bombing raids about an hour south on the Nazi-run oil refineries at Ploieşti had meant very high numbers of American planes going down from anti-aircraft ordinance. 

The very low altitude bombing runs by the Americans also meant that many of the aviators survived the crashes, and were transported up to Sinaia for their medical care at the Sinaia Military Hospital.  

This influx of Americans was indeed a novelty for Romania's high society at Sinaia, and Americans were sought out to decorate dinner parties with their tales of life in their bases in Africa and life in America too.  Many from the 93rd were also buried in Sinaia.

King Carol II had to make a quick exit under pressure from Antonescu, who then installed his son, Mihai I in the top royal positon.

Mihai rightly distrusted Antonescu, and the two never had an honest relationship, with Mihai barely able to contain his enduring hatred for Antonescu.  The young king perfromed the assigned duties of his office perfunctorily, smiling in the face of the Nazi ugliness.

King Mihai finally couldn't take it any longer, and once Russian troops arrived in numbers, the King promptly had the revoltingly blithe Antonescu arrested, removed the puppet government, and quickly sided with America and the Allied Forces to rid Romanian soil of the Nazi scourge.

King Mihai was awarded the American Legion of Merit medal to show America's deep appreciation of the king's efforts to oust the Nazis.  

Not to be outdone, the main Allied force in the region, Soviet Russia, awarded Mihai the Order of Victory.  With Russia as their closest ally and neighbour at the end of the war, it was no surprise that a pro-Russian government was appointed in 1945, which began the long road to communism.  

The Puppet King

For two years, the puppet King has tried doggedly to curb the Communists, but he is their virtual prisoner in his gilt & gingerbread palace at Sinaia. Any contact between sovereign and subjects is rigorously discouraged by the Communists. His own two aunts are little better than Russian agents.

His Speech from the Throne last week, at the opening of Rumania's Parliament, was plainly dictated by Communist Petru Groza, the King's first minister and Rumania's real boss. "Friendship and cooperation in all fields with the U.S.S.R.," read Michael, "remain the very basis of Rumanian foreign policy. Rumania will seek sincere cooperation with the nations respecting the independence, sovereignty and freedom of peoples."

Newsmen reported that the King had been forced to delete a reference to cooperation with the U.S. and Britain. Michael's effective resistance seemed just about over.

   --  From Time Magazine

King Mihai attended the wedding of his third cousin, the Princess Elizabeth, soon to be Queen of England in 1947, and was thereafter forced to leave his beloved Sinaia, Peleş Castle, and his Romanian people by the incoming communist regime.

AAfter 42 long years in exile in London and Switzerland, Mihai has once again returned to the Royal Peleş Domain, settling into the delightful Little Peleş Lodge (Peleşor), taking up informal diplomatic duties and once again serving his Romanian people.

Read More about Sinaia at:/h6> p>TThe Sinaia town hall

Official Site of HSH Radu, Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen  

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