Sinaia Monastery

Mihail Cantacuzino founded the monastery in 1695 after a pilgrimage to Mount Sinai, and named it for the mountain, which is why the town that grew up around it two centuries later is called Sinaia. Two churches stand in the complex. The old church, in the first courtyard, is small, painted inside and still has the intimate scale of the original foundation. The great church, built in the 1840s, is larger and holds a mixture of neo-Byzantine and Brâncovenesc detail, with a portico of carved stone. The monastery was the first building of any substance in this valley, and when King Carol I chose the site for Peleș in the 1870s, the court initially lodged here. A museum in the complex holds the first Romanian-language Bible printed in 1688 and other religious treasures. It sits directly on the walk from the town centre up to Peleș, which is how most visitors encounter it.

History

Mihail Cantacuzino founded the monastery on his return from a pilgrimage to Mount Sinai, its first buildings going up between 1690 and 1695, as a monastery and a fortified stop on the road from Brașov to Bucharest, planned for 12 monks after the Twelve Apostles. Until 1850 Sinaia was little more than the monastery and some huts; in 1864 the estate passed to the Board of Civil Hospitals, which opened a hospital and baths, and the buildings were restored between 1951 and 1957 (Wikipedia, Sinaia Monastery).

What you'll find

• The old church - the 1695 foundation with its painted interior.
• The great church - the larger nineteenth-century church with a carved portico.
• The museum - religious art and the 1688 Bible.
• The courtyards - monastic ranges and cells around two enclosed courts.

When to go

Year-round, with services and feast days bringing larger congregations. It is on the Peleș route so it inherits that traffic in summer; mornings are calmer. Winter with snow in the courtyards is particularly good.

Good to know

It is compact and a visit takes under an hour, and it can feel like a stop on the way to Peleș rather than a destination. Modest dress is expected and photography inside the churches is restricted. Summer crowds funnel through the narrow courtyards. The museum is small.

Nearby

Peleș and Pelișor castles are a short walk uphill; the Bucegi cable car leaves from town.

Key facts