Sinaia railway station

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The Sinaia railway station building
The Sinaia railway station building
Platforms 2 and 3, from platform 1
Platforms 2 and 3, from platform 1
Looking North on platform 1
Looking North on platform 1
Looking South on platform 1
Looking South on platform 1
Platform 1 and the main station building as seen from platform 2
Platform 1 and the main station building as seen from platform 2

The Sinaia train station serves Sinaia in Romania. The first station was built in 1913 by the Demeter Cartner Company, and it was reserved exclusively for the Royal Family and its guests at Peleş Castle, generally foreign leaders. On the station platform, there is a memorial plate that marking the spot where Prime Minister Ion Duca was assassinated by the Iron Guard in 1933.

[edit] Facilities

The newer Royal Train Station is some tens of meters away from the first one, built following the plans of architect Duiliu Marcu in 1939. It is a stone building in Neo-Romanian style, which, at that time, displayed the Hohenzollern coat of arms. The building also featured a depot housing the Royal Train.

In front of the train station there is a large plaza designed with the purpose of holding official welcome ceremonies for various foreign leaders. The main room is decorated with a wall painting (5.50 meters x 5.50 meters) depicting a boar hunt of Wallachian Prince Basarab I (eight life-size characters on horseback, alongside an inscription in Latin reading Basarab Voivode, XIV century).

The train station's purpose was retained during the communist regime. A presidential train brought American President Gerald Ford and Romanian President Nicolae Ceauşescu here on August 6, 1975. It is not open to the public.