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History of Peleș Castle

Carol I
King Carol I, in the uniform of a cavalry general, on the north terrace of Peleş Castle, next to the statue of Saint George, work by the German artist, Rottermun, circa 1912

Urban context: Peleş Castle was built at the initiative of the first King of Romania, Carol I, outside the perimeter of the Podul Neagului commune, a locality with an area of 24 km in 1874, the year in which, at the initiative of the sovereign, the commune was named Sinaia. A year later, the first boyar houses were built in the center of the locality, and in 1876 the construction of the Ploieşti - Predeal railway, which also crosses Sinaia, began. At the same time, between 1873 and 1875, the foundation of Peleş Castle was built. The ceremony of laying the cornerstone of the residence took place in a festive setting on August 10/22, 1875.

Epoch: 1873 – 1914, on a 1000-hectare plot of land called Piatra Arsă or the Sinaia estate, purchased by King Carol I from the Hospitals Ephorate in 1871.

Authors: architects: Wilhelm von Doderer (1872–1876), professor at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna, Johannes Schultz (1873, construction site manager, Doderer's assistant, and from 1876 to 1883, chief architect), Émile André Lecomte du Noüy (1890 – 1892), Karel Liman (1896 – 1924); Jean Ernest, entrepreneurs, builders and owners of building materials warehouses.

Legal situation: former royal residence (1883 – 1947), nationalized in 1948, museum from 1953 to 1975 and from 1990 until today, property since 2007 of His Majesty, King Michael I of Romania and public institution administered by the Romanian State, under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Proiect Doderer
One of the three projects presented in 1873 to Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen by the first architect of Peleş Castle, Wilhelm von Doderer (1825-1900), and rejected by the client

The historical context of the building: Peleş Castle was built at the initiative of King Carol I, to serve as his summer residence, invested with political, cultural and symbolic functions. After 1914, Peleş Castle continued to exercise its representational and museum functions, without however being inhabited for 6 months a year, as the founding sovereign used to do. Until 1947, it became a court space for official visits or hosted military ceremonies. The most important event organized in Sinaia and hosted by Peleş Castle until the abdication of King Michael, in December 1947, was linked to the celebration of the castle's semicentennial in 1933 by King Carol II (1930-1940). Between January and March 1948, the castle was closed by order of the communist authorities, and the heritage assets were inventoried. Most of the collections of paintings, furniture, textiles, decorative art and books were transferred to the Art Museum in the capital. Since May of the same year, other pieces have entered the custody of various cultural institutions in the major cities of Romania, Bucharest, Braşov, Sibiu, etc. Since 1953, the castle becomes a National Museum, open to the general public, while the other buildings located on the Peleş estate, such as the Pelişor castles, the private residence of the second royal couple, Ferdinand I, Maria and Foişor, the former hunting lodge of the first King of Romania and the residence of Kings Carol II and Michael I, will become creative and rest homes for writers, musicologists and visual artists approved by the communist regime. Two decades later, in 1975, the increasingly critical state of preservation of the building led to its closure and the evacuation of a significant part of the museum's heritage to storage facilities set up in an old boyar mansion of the Bibescu family in Posada, a town located about 20 km south of Sinaia. Between 1966 and 1982, in a former annex of the royal castle, located near it, the Museum of Decorative Art (Ceramics) was set up, which showcased representative pieces from the old royal collections. Concurrently with the massive restoration works, the castle hosted a series of visits by heads of state until 1989, the year of the overthrow of the communist regime in Romania. From 1990, respectively 1993 and until today, the Peleş and Pelişor castles have been reopened for visits. In 2007, after five years of negotiations between the Romanian State and the Royal House, an agreement was reached, by which Peleș Castle, Pelișor Castle, as well as the entire Peleș domain consisting of the former royal dependencies, returned to the ownership of King Michael I (1927-1930, 1940-1947), but continued to be administered by the Romanian State. The exception is Foișor Castle, a building inaugurated in 1881. The agreement with the Royal House, which expired in 2009, in the case of Pelișor Castle, and in 2010, in the case of Peleș Castle, was extended again.

In 1932, the Foişorul fell victim to a devastating fire. It was rebuilt a year later during the reign of King Carol II (1930-1940). In the 1970s, a new wing was added to the original building and the interiors underwent significant changes. After 1989, the building became the protocol villa of the Romanian presidency, a status it continues to retain.

Vedere Aer

Panoramic view of Peleş Castle, today

Project, construction period, manufacturers, materials: The initial plans for Peleș Castle were entrusted to the architect Wilhelm von Doderer (1825-1900), professor at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna. Doderer submitted three architectural project proposals to the sovereign, inspired by the architecture of the French Renaissance castles in the Loire Valley, as well as the style of the Viennese buildings on the Ringstrasse. The projects were rejected by Carol I in 1876, and the management of the works was entrusted to the German architect, Johannes Schultz, who drew up the plans for the castle in its first phase of construction (1879 – 1883). The two-storey building, with the appearance of a Swiss chalet, proposed by Schultz, was decorated on the outside in the German style, Fachwerk.

In 1890, it was built on the site of the covered terrace on the south wing, the Moorish Hall, according to designs attributed to the French architect, Émile André Lecomte du Noüy, a disciple of the famous French architect, Violet Le Duc.

In 1894, the Czech architect Karel Liman (1860? – 1928) was appointed to lead the works. Under his supervision, between 1895-1897, the Chapel of Queen Elisabeth on the first floor, the Apartments of the Princesses of Wied and Hohenzollern on the north side, and the Mezzanine were designed.

In 1884, the electrical network was installed, the castle having its own generator, and in 1897 the power plant was built.

Apartament Imperial

The Great Hall of the Imperial Apartment

Between 1903 and 1906, Liman designed the Marble Gallery, the Concert Hall, the Small Music Hall and the Queen's Bath and arranged rooms on the second level, corresponding to the first Attic: Mrs. Mavrogheni's room, the great lady of the Palace and the guest apartments in the north wing of the castle.

Between 1906 and 1914, work was undertaken to arrange the exterior terraces. In 1906, the central tower of the castle was erected, where a year later the three-dial clock, created by Tower clock factories of the Royal Court of Bavaria, Johann Mannhardt.At the same time, the Old Music Hall, the Florentine Hall and the Hall of Columns are arranged, on the site of the first Chess Room, and the Royal Dining Room is expanded. Upstairs, in the north wing, the Prime Minister's Apartment is built.

Between 1905 and 1906, the vast Imperial Apartment was designed, consisting of the Large Salon, Small Salon, Bedroom, Boudoir, Bathroom and Valet Room, and the Apartment of the Crown Princes, Ferdinand and Maria.

In 1906, modifications were made to the Theatre Hall on the Ground Floor. Also at this time, the hall was adapted for cinematographic screenings, by installing a projection booth. The cinematographic equipment was modernized in 1939, by the Concordia Society of Bucharest, at the express request of King Carol II.

Between 1908 and 1911, the construction of the Armory Halls was completed, as was the decoration of the Florentine Hall, according to the plans of architects Karel Liman and Ferdinand de Tiersch, the latter an advisor to King Ludwig II of Bavaria.

Between 1907 and 1911, the Hall of Honor was built on the site of the second inner courtyard, the main reception hall of the castle. The hall was decorated in the German Renaissance style, with subtle Baroque accents, by Bernhard Ludwig from Vienna, who collaborated closely with the architect Liman. The hall was inspired by the Fredenhagen Hall of the Chamber of Commerce Palace in Lübeck. At the same time, the Chess Hall and the Billiards Hall were built on the ground floor, as a continuation of the Moorish Hall.

Finally, between 1911 and 1914, the terrace was decorated with busts of Roman emperors, and on the southeast wing, the Council Hall was designed by the architect Liman and the Viennese decorator, Bernhard Ludwig. The death of King Carol I on September 27, 1914, marked the end of the vast architectural project coordinated by the sovereign.

Bernhard Ludwig

The most important decorator
of Peles Castle, the Viennese
Bernhard Ludwig – the son, in
The Hall of Honor, his work, circa 1910

Art object suppliers: Among the main suppliers, for the first stage of construction, we mention the Heymann house in Hamburg and the workshop led by August Bembé in Cologne-Mainz. Among those who constantly worked on the decoration and supply of decorative art pieces for the castle, from 1883 to 1914, we mention Joseph Dollitschek, architect and decorator from Vienna, Anton Pössenbacher from Munich, creator of decorations and pieces of furniture and L. Bernheimer, from the same city, supplier of interior decorations, furniture, oriental carpets, Habie&Polako, from Vienna, suppliers of carpets like Smyrna, the Zettler workshops in Munich, 1882, creators of stained glass windows. These were worked by forty artists and technicians for three years after the color sketches executed by professors E. Widmann and Julius Juers. FX Barth. The other author of stained glass windows for Peleş Castle was A. Zwölfer, owner of a famous Viennese workshop, with a branch in Bucharest. The decorative art collections were formed by co-opting famous Western firms of the time: Odiot, from Paris, Eduard Wollenweber, Munich and Paul Telge, from Berlin, creators and suppliers of goldsmith products. They were joined by Josef Resch, a famous jewelry store in Paris, and JA Eysser, a famous furniture manufacturer in Nuremberg.

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