Castelul Peleș

Description

"Peleș Castle", a majestic neo-renaissance palace in Romania's Carpathian Mountains near #Sinaia, was built from 1873 to 1914 as King Carol I's summer residence and royal retreat. Captivated by the stunning scenery in 1866, he bought the land in 1872. Rejecting copies of Western palaces, Carol selected German architect Johannes Schultz's original plan, blending Italian Renaissance with German aesthetics. Czech architect Karel Liman later added the soaring 66-meter central tower and other features. Construction involved a colorful international workforce, Italians as masons, Romanians on terraces, Germans and Hungarians as carpenters, Turks burning bricks, Czech stone carvers, and more, speaking 14 languages amid the alpine site. Inaugurated in 1883, it became the world's first castle fully powered by local electricity.