Temporary exhibition "Peleș Castle". History and Art (1873-1914)”, arranged in the exhibition halls of Peleș Castle, dedicated to the history of the construction of Peleș, the most representative monument of the historical phenomenon in our lands, is also a tribute to King Carol I, the sovereign with the longest reign in the history of Romania. For him, Peleș Castle was the hobby of his life, his great private foundation, and its construction brought him, in the second half of his life, unique moments of happiness and artistic fulfillment. Carol I – the great collector of his era, the connoisseur of decorative arts, the passionate builder – fulfilled his vocation as a builder on the Peleș construction site, as he did, on a national level, with the country that destiny destined him to lead, obtaining its Independence and transforming it into the proud Kingdom of the Danube Mouths, at whose Europeanization has been watching over it incessantly, with its well-known German consistency.
From the very first year of his reign, in August 1866, King Carol I of Romania became attached to Sinaia, in whose “clean air” he would often “refresh himself”, as he confessed to his father, Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Begun in 1873, as a summer residence, the construction that would become the towering “cradle of the Romanian Dynasty” extended its works over more than four decades, with some interruptions (during the years of the War of Independence and, later, after the official inauguration in 1883), the constructions ending with the passing of
in eternity of the founder. For Carol I, Peleș Castle was not only the mountain house – where he retreated in the summer, avoiding the heat of the capital – which over time became a place of political decision, but also the home he loved the most and whose beautification he worked on his entire life.
Passionate about art, which he collected in its most varied forms and with the aim of decorating his castle in Sinaia, our first sovereign had a special love for architecture and construction. The sovereign worked closely with architects who put his dreams and plans into practice. The first architect the ruler called upon for the construction of Peleș Castle was Professor Wilhelm von Doderer from Vienna, who visited Sinaia in August 1872 and discussed the design theme with the prince. This resulted in several series of plans
(dating from 1873-1876), preserved over time in the Plan Archive of the Peleș National Museum. Calculations and financial realities soon led the ruler to give up his first architect and work with his main assistant, the one who had also been the foreman of the Sinait construction site, the architect Johannes Schulz von Strassnitzky from Lemberg, today's Lviv. In fact, he would be the real architect who carried out the Peleș Castle project in its first version (1878-1883), a tribute to the Gründerzeit style, in which – in the decoration
exterior and interior of the building – the specific elements of the German neo-renaissance, so appreciated by the client. Fortunately, the plans made by the architect Schulz, with beautiful details of execution, have been preserved to this day and can outline the architectural image of what was the first royal residence in Sinaia. Two other foreign architects will collaborate with King Carol I on the expansion and remodeling of Peleș Castle in the second period of its construction, between 1890 and 1914, when the residence will take on a completely different appearance, the one we see today. The first was the Frenchman Émile André Lecomte du Noüy, the much admired and contested restorer, at the same time, of the Three Hierarchs Monastery
in Iași and the one in Curtea de Argeș, which also became a royal necropolis. We owe important developments at Peleș Castle to him: the construction of a new heating system for the castle (1897), the apartment of Crown Prince Ferdinand (1889, later inhabited by King Michael I) or the fascinating Moorish Hall (1890-1892).
From 1896, the works on the castle were taken over by the Czech Karel Zdeněk Líman, who would quickly become the chief architect of the Royal House and for whom the Sinaia Architecture Office would be set up, where the king would come almost daily to study the plans made by the team of architects, which included Jean Ernest, the last chief architect of the Royal Domain. Until the end of his days (1929), Líman was the unrivaled collaborator of King Carol I and, later, of Queen Maria, with whom he had collaborated since the time she was crown princess and who was very concerned about the interior decoration of Pelișor Castle. In addition to the architects, an important contribution to the decoration of the interiors of Peleș Castle was made by the great furniture workshops of Germany and Austria: Julius Daniel Heymann from Hamburg, who decorated the Study of King Carol I (1883) and the Library; August Bembé from Mainz to whom we owe the furniture in the Dining Room (1883 and 1906), the Royal Bedroom and the apartments of the ladies-in-waiting Zoe Bengescu, Maria Poenaru and Olga Mavrogheni; Anton Pössenbacher from Munich, who was in charge of furnishing the Great Music Hall and the "painter's apartment", on the second floor of the castle, while the Viennese Bernhard Ludwig created, in addition to the interiors of Pelișor Castle, the furniture of some splendid spaces in Peleș Castle: the Chess and Billiard Room, the Royal Bedroom, the Breakfast Room (1906), the Imperial Apartment (1906), the rooms of the suites or guest apartments (including the "yellow room", decorated in neo-Louis XIV style).
The panels with reproductions of photographs preserved in the heritage of the Peleș National Museum, displayed within the exhibition, present images not only of a castle that has undergone essential transformations over decades, but also depict the passionate work of the first king of Romania, whose labor as a builder enriched our heritage with a unique monument.