Peles Castle

Peles Castle sits in the Carpathian foothills above the town of Sinaia in Romania, built between 1873 and 1914 as a summer residence for King Carol I, the first king of modern Romania, who personally oversaw much of its design and construction. Its steeply pitched roofs, half-timbered upper stories and richly carved wooden balconies draw on German and other Central European Neo-Renaissance architectural traditions rather than the Ottoman or Byzantine influences common elsewhere in Romanian building of the period, reflecting Carol's own German royal ancestry. The castle's interiors are lavishly decorated with wood carving, stained glass, imported tapestries and elaborate ceiling frescoes across more than 160 rooms. It was also among the first castles anywhere designed with a self-contained electrical power system, generated locally to supply lighting and an early elevator throughout the building. Peles Castle survived the Communist era largely intact and today operates as a museum.