Sinaia
Located in Prahova River Valley, 120 km from Bucharest and 49 km from Brasov, in Prahova County in the region of Muntenia, at the foot of the breathtaking Carpathian mountains – Varful cu Dor, Furnica and Piatra Arsa Mountains, the Sinaia tourist resort makes one of the most popular and the oldest tourist resorts of Romania.
The first inhabitants of this territory were monks who lived at the Medieval Sinaia Monastery. Mihail Cantacuzino built the Sinaia Monastery in 1690. Prior to World War II and the abdication of the royal family, Sinaia was a summer retreat resort for Romania’s aristocracy. A walk up the mountainside reveals many grand summer homes from this period, that look like the fairy tale. The high and steep Carpathian peaks of 2000 meters rise all around the Sinaia tourist center providing exceptional panorama and wonderful conditions for vacations and various treatments throughout the year. Sinaia covers an area from Gura Padurii to the north, to “Vadul Cerbului” inn, to Izvorul Dorului, and to the new quarter called “Platoul Izvor”.
Also called the “Pearl of the Carpathian Mountains”, Sinaia is located at an altitude between 767 m and 860 meters, and besides the wonderful landscapes, it offers the possibility of practicing winter sports. The access to the Sinaia ski slopes in the resort is possible by taking the cable car to Cota 1400 and then to Cota 2000. The Sinaia tourist resort has 5 ski slopes with low difficulty, thus serving medium and large categories of tourists, from the beginners to the very experienced skiers. The Sinaia ski slopes features sizes varying between 600 and 2500 meters, totaling 11,500 m of practicable land for ski.
The Tourist Information and Promotion Center, located in a building in the Mayoralty yard, offers complete information about the touristic activity. The “Salvamont” Mountain Rescue Public Service also has its headquarters here. Among the main attraction points we can enumerate The Peles Castle, Pelisorul, Gara Regala – the Royal train station, Sinaia Monastery, Sinaia Casino, “George Enescu” memorial house, the “Luminis” villa in Cumpatu quarter, Nicolae Iorga’s house (on 1 Ghe. Doja Street), Anastasie Simu’s house, a great lover and collector of Romanian pieces of art.
Sinaia Train Station
The train station in Sinaia was built in 1913, and at the beginning of the 20th century here stopped important international trains, like Orient Express or Arlberg Express. On the platform there is a plaque built in the memory of the Romanian Prime Minister I. Gh. Duca, killed by legionaries in 1933. The second train station, Gara Regala (the Royal train station), was built in 1939 and it was for the trains transporting the Royal family. At that time, the insignias of Carol II were on the building. In the central room there was a square mural painting, with sides of 5.5 meters, presenting o royal hunting, and which had a Latin inscription: Voivode Basarab, the 14th century. The official destination of the Royal train station was kept also during Communism, the American president Gerald Ford passing by in 1975. Nowadays the Sinaia train station is not open to the public.
Sinaia Casino
Built between 1912 and 1913, at Carol I’s wish, Sinaia Casino is located in the “Dimitri Ghica” Park. The first shareholder was Baron of Marcay, shareholder at Monte-Carlo Casino, after whose plans Sinaia Casino was built as well. After a short period of time it entered the circuit of the greatest casinos in the world, special trains bringing the gamblers in the resort. During the ’30s it became the main attraction point of the resort, what brought the economic and social development of the town as well. It is said that, at that time, there were at least 800 persons per day that “visited” the Casino. After 1947 the building became Casa de Cultura (the House of culture), where plays, folkloric performances and concerts were organized. Only in 1975 it was completely renovated and used for international meetings. Nowadays, Sinaia Casino houses the International Conference Center which is in charge of organizing conferences, symposiums, congresses, having all sorts of modern facilities: high speed internet, four international telephone lines, simultaneous translation, interprets, parking lots and so on. Sala Oglinzilor (the Mirrors Room) can shelter a 500 person reception. Salonul Oval (the Oval Salon) has a capacity of 240 places. Salonul cu Struguri (the Grape Salon) is for fewer than 60 person reunions. Sala de teatru (The theater room) has 400 seats, and there are also two protocol rooms and two conference rooms.
Sinaia Monastery
Sinaia Monastery, also called the “Cathedral of Bucegi Mountains”, is the first construction in the area of the present Sinaia resort, built at the end of the 17th century by Mikhail Cantacuzino, after his return from the Sinai Mountain. This is how the name of the monastery came from, as the settlement appeared near the shrine and was named after it. The legend has it that Mikhail Cantacuzino and his family went on a trip to the holy places. One day he reached the Orthodox monastery on Sinai Mountain, with Saint Catherine as its dedication day. Impressed by what he had seen and felt in the holy lands, when he came home he decided to build a monastery with the same name as Sinai Mountain.
The Sinaia Monastery was built between 1690 and 1695, having as goal the protection of the commercial route on the Prahova River Valley as well. In time, more precisely in the 19th century, because of the great number of monks, a new monastery was built, called Curtea Noua (the New Court), thanks to the efforts of priors Ioasafat and Paisie. This was the first electric lighted place of worship in Romania. The museum of Sinaia Monastery was founded in 1895 on the occasion of the monastery’s bicentenary. The Sinaia Monastery Museum is the first religious museum in Romania which houses invaluable Orthodox worshiping items, the first Bible translated in Romanian and printed at Bucharest (in 1688, with the good will of ruler Serban Cantacuzino) and the gorgeous collection of icons. Inside the church there can also be found the epitaph made by Ana Roth, worked on cotton cloth with needle and golden wire and colored silk between 1897 and 1900. The piece of work of world value, is included on the UNESCO list. Tache Ionescu’s tomb, Prime minister during the World War I, who also had an important role in the Unification of 1918, is to be found in the yard of the old Sinaia Monastery. He specified in his will that he wanted to be buried in Sinaia.
