BEST 1 DAY TRIP- PRAHOVA VALLEY

Start with Sinaia (Peles castle and Sinaia monastery) , Bran castle and Brasov city tour (Black church ,St. Nicholas church , council square) and back to Bucharest

  optional an extra day visiting Sighisoara

Peles Castle The building of the Peles Castle started in 1873 during the reign of Prince Karol I of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, after the drawings of the Viennese architect Wilhelm Doderer. After 1876, the building site was entrusted to Johann Schultz from Lemberg but the building was finalized by the Czech architect Karel Liman in 1914. The official inauguration took place in October 1883 at the end of the first stage of construction. The main architectural style of the castle is German new-Renaissance, dominated by vertical sharp profiles, fragmented composition of the facades, abundance of carved wood and decorative elements. But you can also find rooms decorated in Italian Renaissance, German Baroque, French Rococo and Spanish-Moorish styles.

Bran Castle Situated 30 kilometers away from Brasov, the Bran Castle is mostly known for its beauty and the beautiful landscapes and for the legend of Count Dracula. Vlad the Impaler (known as Dracula), Wallachia's ruler, kept up the relations with Transylvania, especially with Barsa County and Brasov, but no source mentioned its stay in the castle. The first attestation of the Bran Castle is a document issued on the 19^th of November 1377 by Ludovic I D'Anjou. The castle had a guard made of archers. Between 1419 and 1494 the castle was owned by the king Sigismund. At the and of the 15^th century the fortress is under Szecklers’Comitee authority, in charge with the defense of Transylvania's SE border. The Bran passage was a very important point in the defense against Ottoman expansion.

BRASOV The first documentary attestation dates back from the year 1234 when the town was mentioned as Corona (from this age lasts the oldest church in the city, Saint Bartholomew, built in 1223). Later on, the town was known as Brasco, Brasso, Kronstadt or Brasovia. Due to its geographically, at the crossroads of Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania, beginning with 14^th century, the town becomes one of the most important economical and political centers. In Brasov was established the first romanian school where, around 1540, the first romanian books were printed by deacon Coresi. In 1689, April 21, a big fire destroyed most of the town and killed 3000 people. Most of the houses were damaged and the monument Saint Maria, built between 1384 and 1477 smoked by the fire, will become the Black Church. Here you can find and listen the concerts of the biggest organ in Romania.  

SIGHISOARA Founded by German craftsmen and merchants, known as the Saxons of Transylvania, the historic center of Sighisoara has preserved in an exemplary way the features of a small fortified, medieval town. Sighisoara played an important strategic and commercial role at the edges of central Europe for several centuries. Here you find, in the center of the town, the house of Vlad Dracul, the place where his son, Vlad the Impaler, was born in 1431. In 1999 the fortified center was inscribed as World Heritage Monument by UNESCO.