20 
Land & Water 
June 20, 191B 
Sinaia Palace : By G. C. Williamson 
BUCHAR1-:ST is one of the hottest cities in Europe, 
and incidentally, one must add, one of the most 
expensive in which to reside. In consequence, its 
more ■ wealthy residents leave their homes and 
])alaccs as soon as the hot weather approaches 
and hasten to the mountains, where nestled amongst the 
peaks of the Carpathians is the .lovely valley of Sinaia. 
Sinaia has grown into its present fashionable position 
during the past fifty /years. Previously it was simply a 
lovely village in a deep valley, surrounded by pine forests, 
hemmed in by huge mountains, well watered and well pas- 
tured, and possessing as its solitary attraction a monastery 
founded on an 
ancient site by 
the Spartan 
Michael Canta- 
cuzene in 1695. 
Visitors occasi- 
onally discovered 
its charm, re- 
joiced in' the 
beauty of its 
scenery, lodged 
with the hospit- 
able monks in 
their convent, 
and either rested 
bv its streams, *^ 
drank its medi- 
cinal waters, or 
pursued the wild 
game on its 
mountains. * 
In 1866, how- 
ever, Prince 
Carol, visiting 
for the first time 
the country over 
which he was to 
rule as king, 
came to Sinaia, 
and was charmed 
with its beauty. 
In 1871 he and 
Princess Eliza- 
beth (afterwards 
so well known 
as Carmen 
Sylva) spent the 
whole summer 
in the place, 
lodging at the 
monastery, and 
then decided to 
erect close to 
the village, on a 
wonderfiil spot 
in the forest, 
a summer resi- 
dence to be at- 
tached to the Crown, 
which, unhappily, has 
German ImperiaJ Staff. 
It was under much happier auspices that I had the 
honour and privilege of being many times the guests of their 
Majesties and of seeing the beauties of their summer home. 
King Carol was a great lover of pictutes, and he had as a 
young man a chance of acquiring en bloc the entire collection 
of a Spanish nobleman. He was told that a few of the 
pictures in it were only copies ; but he knew that some were 
masterpieces of the highast value, and very wisely he secured 
the entire lot, and when he was called to the throne of 
Rumania, enriched the palaces of Bucharest and Sinaia 
with his treasures. 
I had the pleasure of being escorted round the gallery* 
by the King himself, and of advising him respecting some 
of the pictures, and in return for this advice the King pre- 
sented me with copies of his privately issued illustrated 
catalogue. The house stands alone in the midst of pine 
trees, at the foot of a giant mountain. It is unique in style, 
and built under difficulties, for all the material, save 
the native stone, had to be brought into the valley from 
a distance. It is like a fairy * residence which bursts 
Hence arose the Chateau Pelesch, 
lately been in the occupation of the 
upon the view as one suddenly leaves the forest, and it is 
surrounded by green' terraces and flower gardens, with 
numerous fountains of entrancing beauty. 
Its interior decoration owes much to the hands of Carmen 
Sylva. Her wonderful sense of colour is very marked ; the 
frescoes on the walls are from her designs, the chapel decora- 
tion largely her own wor"k, and her own boudoir, with its 
darkened niche in which I had the privilege of hearing that 
gifted Oueen awaken the tones of a fine orgari in a fugue of, 
her own composition, is enfirely arranged to her own scheme 
of design. The stained glass windows throughout the palace 
depict the legends and folk lore of her adopted country. 
The dark oak 
panelling, the 
rich enamel 
ornaments, the 
great white polar 
bear skins which 
cover the flo.ors, 
the rich harmony 
of the furniture, 
glass, and hang- 
ings, all bespeak 
her skill, and the 
effect of the in- 
terior is that 
strange mingling 
of savage, poetic, 
dreamy melody 
which is so 
marked a charac- 
teristic of the 
poetry which 
gave to the 
Oueen her best- 
known name. 
The little theatre 
in the palace is 
also her creation, 
and perfect in 
every detail. 
The decoration 
of the plumage of 
peacocks which 
appears in so 
many rooms is 
her idea, but the 
long gallery in 
which one waits 
before dinner, 
the library, with 
its splendid 
volumes, and the 
pictures which 
crowd the walls 
of passages and 
apartments alike 
are due to the 
tastes of the con- 
queror of Plevna, 
Sinaia : Palace (right) Monastery (left) . 
whose gun-metal crown, with its few rare stones, was so 
modest in its simpUcity. 
At the time of my visit the Crown Princess was at the 
zenith of her exceptional beauty and, surrounded, as she 
was, by a group of her children second to those of no 
reigning family in loveliness, presented a sight of personal 
fascination. 
The children were the Princesses Elizabeth and Mignon and 
Prince Carl (who is now heir to the throne). King Carol was 
profoundly in love with his pictures, and discoursed of them 
in French with glowing enthusiasm and scholarly discretion. 
Alone of all sovereigns, he owns many works by El Greco, 
the strange Creto-Spaniard, in his private gallery, and he is 
almost alone also in appreciating this wayward genius at his 
full value. 
The precursor of Velasquez, the teacher of all modern 
art, the man from whom Sargent learned more than 
from any other painter, and the first profound student of 
colour values, El Greco stands out supreme as one of the 
greatest pamters in the world, and to see him at his best 
stand before his portrait of Covarrubia at Sinaia. 
What now is the condition of Sinaia, one hesitates to 
think. Where now are the famous pictures ? 
