travel | R. Doug Wicker — Author

About 70 miles/115 kilometers (87 miles/140 kilometers by tour bus) north of Bucharest, 20 miles/30 kilometers south of Brasov, high in the Southern Carpathian Mountains, lies a grand 34,000 square foot/3,200m² palace containing over 170 rooms. This is Peleș Castle, begun in 1873, opened in 1883, and improvements continued into 1914. As you might expect, 170 rooms and the surrounding grounds is a lot to cover, so we’ll be looking at this magnificent palace both this week and next. Exiting the bus we still had a walk to complete before we arrived at the castle, but the small collection of buildings catering to tourists had a charm all their own:

That was especially the case this cold, wintery, snow-covered day:

The trek to the castle was through a virtual winter wonderland:

Looking back toward the buildings we had just left gave us this view:

Peleș Castle was built for King Carol I of Romania, who died at the castle in 1914. As you approach this palatial residence, the immense size overwhelms:

As you can see from this memorial plaque, Peleș Castle was the first structure in Romania with central heating, an electrical system with an electric elevator, and even a central vacuum system:

Yes, snow was everywhere this cold 21st of February:

Let’s take one last look at the Renaissance Revival architecture that defines Peleș Castle before warm up inside:

Now for your first look at the interior of Peleș Castle:

Wednesday’s article will concentrate on the wooden carvings and medieval arms and armor at Peleș Castle, but until then I’ll leave you with this image: