Halfway between Peleş and the centre, the Sinaia Monastery, home to about 20 monks, is well worth a look. Inside the gate, the large Orthodox church (biserica mare) before you dates from 1846; two icons inside were presented by Russia’s Tsar Nicholas II in 1903. Outside are prayer candles.
Included in the admission price is a small History Museum (Muzeul de Istorie) in which some of the monastery’s treasures are displayed, including the first translation of the Bible into Romanian (in the Cyrillic alphabet), dating from 1668.
The tomb of Tache Ionescu, the head of a transitional government for a few months in 1921–22, is in the building next to the small church. Quotations from his speeches are carved in stone on the mausoleum’s interior walls.
