The Princess and the Pea arrived in Efteling Fairytale Forest

This morning in the south of the Netherlands, a festive welcoming ceremony took place in Efteling's Fairytale Forest in honour of The Princess and the Pea. Enthusiastic Fairytale Forest residents turned out to welcome the new Princess into their midst. In front of media and the first visitors, they unveiled the pavilion and watched the King's daughter sleeping on a huge pile of mattresses with a pea hidden underneath. After the ceremony, everyone could see for the first time who was staying overnight in the fairytale cottage. Veronique (22), who came to Efteling with her mother especially for the fairy tale: “What a beautiful and warm addition to the Fairytale Forest. Enchantingly small and intimate with lots of details and an international feel.’

Poetic song

‘The choice of this fairy tale, in which a sleeping princess plays the leading role, was obvious due to the pavilion’s location at the foot of the Efteling Grand Hotel,’ says Koen Sanders, director Product, Marketing & Image. ‘The pavilion forms a true fairytale scene in the tradition of the Fairytale Forest but this time replacing the spoken narration with a poetic song. This makes the moral of The Princess and the Pea even more apparent: real beauty is inside. It is clear that the princess's sensitivity turns out to be her strength. And so, Efteling connects through the power of stories, also with its 31st fairy tale.’

The story

Once upon a time, there was a prince who wanted to marry a real princess. On a stormy evening in the pouring rain, a princess from a distant land knocked on the palace's door. The queen, intrigued by the girl, welcomed the ‘princess’ into her home and gave her a pea test to decipher whether she was a true princess fit for her son. Before the princess went to bed, the queen hid a pea under twenty mattresses and twenty down blankets. After all, only a real princess would be sensitive enough to feel the pea and, therefore, be unable to sleep.