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SINAIA, A PLAYGROUND FOR KINGS In the summer season when folks like to visit the mountains, the fashionable world of Rumania then meets at Sinaia, about seventy miles north of Bucuresti, in the heart of the Transylvanian or Carpathian Alps. Sinaia is a lively hill resort in Wallachia and after King Charles built this palace, about 1880, many handsome villas were built in its vicinity. These house the diplomatic and social world of Bucuresti. For several decades the kings of Rumania have summered in the beautiful health resort of Sinaia and with them Rumanian society disports itself for months on end. The summer palace is a rather homelike structure, set in a wooded park reached by a winding driveway. It is several stories high and topped by slender spires and gables. In the palace there is a costly collection of paintings by EI Greco, Rubens, Rembrandt, Titian, Van Dyck and others. One of the imposing sights is the famous dining hall where a fountain rises in the center of the dining table. There is also an Italian colonnade and a Moorish hall with an "Arabian Nights" fountain. The Sinaia Valley affords opportunity for innumerable excursions. All about are the most glorious forests of the mountainside. The temperamental Rumanian people enjoy the beauty of these beautiful pine forests and of the mountains. About Sinaia are to be found picturesque caves and grottos and in the mountains Alpine shelters so that one can at all times get in close touch with nature. In the vicinity of the castle are to be found fabulously luxurious hotels where thousands of people socially prominent find recreation. Copyright by Keystone View Company |