Foto

Near Peles castle there is Foisorul, a kings' residence with 42 rooms designed in the Swiss style.
It is apt that Romania's most exquisite castle should lie in the "Pearl of the Carpatians. The magnificent royal palace, with its fairytale turrets and pointed towers rising above acres of green meadows sprinkled with haystacks, was built as a summer residence by Romania's longest serving monarch, King Carol I. It was the first castle in Europe to have central heating and electricity. During Ceausescu's era, its 160 rooms were used as a private retreat for leading communists and statesmen from around the globe. US president Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Libyan leader Moamar Gaddafi and PLO leader Yasser Arafat were all entertained by the Romanian dictator in Pele's fanciful rooms, each furnished to reflect a different European country.

Construction started on the 3500sq. metre edifice, built in a predominantly German Renaissance style in 1875. The first part - where Carol lived- was completed eight years later. More than 400 craftsmen labored on the palace which finally completed 39 years later, just months before the king died 1914.