Sinaia

Sinaia (Hungarian: Szinaja) is a curort town in Prahova Country, Romania. This town was named after the Sinaia Monastery of 1695. Location The settlement is located in the Prahova Valley, at the eastern foot of the Bucegi Mountains, 60 km north of Ploiești and 50 km south of Brașov, at an altitude of 767–820 meters above sea level. Climate The climate is low mountainous. The average yearly temperature is 8 °C, with June at 15 °C and January at −4 °C. Early summer is rainy. The average annual rainfall is 900 mm. The rainiest month is June (173 mm), while September and February have the least rain (55 mm and 40 mm). Snow cover lasts from November to March or April. Its thickness ranges from 20 cm to 3 m, depending on the altitude. History In the 17th century, the forested area in the Prahova Valley where Sinaia is today was empty. The first people to settle in this virgin forest at the foot of the Bucegi Mountains were monks from the Sinaia Monastery, built between 1690 and 1695 by Mihai Cantacuzino, a high-ranking noble. Some guards and workers who looked after the monastery’s lands also lived there. The town got its name from the monastery, which was named after Cantacuzino’s trip to the Saint Catherine Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula. In the early 19th century, the whole Prahova Valley was one big commune called Podul Neagului, stretching from Predeal to Posada. In 1864, the hamlets of Posada and Podul Neagului joined the commune of Comarnic. On August 5, 1866, Prince Carol I of Romania visited the Sinaia Monastery, which was then part of Podul Neagului. He helped organize the area, and in 1874, the hamlets left outside Comarnic were named Sinaia, with its center in Bușteni. On December 1, 1874, a document confirmed that the center of Podul Neagului moved to Sinaia, taking its name from the monastery, which came from Mount Sinai. On May 9, 1880, Sinaia became an urban commune, including the hamlets of Izvor, Furnica, and Poiana Țapului. The town’s core separated from Podul Neagului, which moved its center back to Comarnic. In 1884, Predeal, Azuga, Bușteni, and Poiana Țapului split off to form the Predeal commune, leaving Sinaia with Izvor and Furnica. Around this time, Romania’s royal family chose Sinaia as their summer home and built the Peleș Castle complex. By the late 19th century, Sinaia had 2,210 people, a school with 103 students in 1899, hotels, a train station on the Ploiești-Brașov line, a hydrotherapy clinic, and the monastery. Sinaia also started to grow industrially. A timber factory owned by businessmen Popovici and Costinescu opened, and Costinescu had a hydraulic lime factory too. In January 1892, a nail factory started, employing 45 Romanian and German workers. At that time, Sinaia was the center of the Peleș region in Prahova County. By 1925, according to the Socec Yearbook, Sinaia had a sewer system and running water from the Peleș and Vânturiș springs, plus a 1,500-horsepower hydroelectric plant for electric street lighting. By the end of the interwar period, Sinaia had 3,906 people and was the center of the Sinaia region in Prahova County. In 1950, it joined the Câmpina district in the Prahova region, and after 1952, the Ploiești region. In 1968, Prahova County was re-established, and Sinaia became part of it again. Population In 2002 the population, Romanians make up 12,218 people, which is 97.65%. Roma people number 134, or 1.07%, and Hungarians are 113, making up 1%. References