Museum sights in Bucharest
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National Art Museum
Housed in the Royal Palace, the massive, three-part National Art Museum - all signed in English - could take, along with Piaţa Revoluţii and lunch, the bulk of a day. Start at the north door with the Gallery of Romanian Art, a three-floor survey of Romania's art from several hundred icons and jaw-dropping carved wood altars saved from communist-destroyed churches - all laid out on funky purple and crimson walls.
The country's oil masters - from the impasto stokes of Gheorghe Petrascu to Nicolae Grigorescu's arrestingly frank portraits of Roma and peasant folk - are on the top floor. Walking through the chronological collection, note the phase out/in of 'Eastern' Turk-s…
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Jewish History Museum
Once a thriving part of Romania, the Jewish community in the capital dates from the 16th century, when merchants and traders settled here. In 1941 800,000 Jews lived in Romania; today the number is less than 10,000. In Lucian Boia's book Romania he lamented the Jewish exodus from Romania after WWII as losing 'part of the Romanian soul'. There was reason to leave - as many as 400,000 Jews were killed in Romania during the war.
Several sites keep this part of Romanian history in the public memory. Housed in the beautiful former Tailor's synagogue, the well-arranged Jewish History Museum bears testimony to the city's once-thriving Jewish life. Exhibits - in English and Roman…
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History & Art Museum
Housed in a neo-Gothic palace built in the 1830s to host fancy balls, the History & Art Museum, facing Piaţa Universităţii, is a lovely spot with an interesting collection of old artefacts, photos and costumes. A few pieces pre-date the Bronze Era, and some documents hail from the days when Romanians wrote in Cyrillic. Designed by two Austrian architects, the neo-Gothic palace was built in 1832-34 for the Şuţu family, notorious for their high-society parties.
One document upstairs is the first known chronicle of the city (1459), and was issued by the moustached Vlad Ţepeş. A giant Venetian mirror on the stairway reflects a mirrored clock (eternally reading 2.15 these…
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National Museum of Contemporary Art
In the back of the Palace of Parliament is the superb National Museum of Contemporary Art, which opened in 2004. A fully changing four-floor space, with double all-glass elevators built onto the outside of the building, it features eclectic European artists' installation and video art and is easily one of Eastern Europe's most provocative spaces. Past exhibits included collapsed walls lined with large claustrophobic images of Ceauşescu and the communist era. There's a top-floor open-air cafe.
The entry is from the southwestern side of the building - a 20-minute walk from the palace-tour entry! The best way to the palace is walking from Piaţa Unirii (and its metro station…
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Museum of the Romanian Peasant
The Museum of the Romanian Peasant is so good you may want to hug it. Chosen as Europe's best museum in 1996, this museum makes the best of little money. Hand-made cards (in English) personalise exhibits, such as a full 19th-century home upstairs, a heartbreakingly sweet room devoted to grandmas, and 'hidden' rooms that you're ushered to via hand-scrawled directions. Access a gift shop from the back side of the museum.
Don't miss the (rare) communism exhibit downstairs, with Lenin busts, portraits of Romanian leader Gheorghiu-Dej, and heart-rending accounts of those who objected to collectivisation (in Romanian only). An 18th-century Transylvanian church is in the backlot…
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National Military Museum
Only 10 minutes by foot from the train station, the interesting pinky-peach National Military Museum doubles nicely as a Romanian history museum, with its chronological rundown at how the country defended itself. Out front are heroic busts (including one of Vlad Ţepeş), while in the museum entrance note the 1988 communist mural that eerily celebrates the Palace of Parliament (a year before the revolution).
In the back is a superb hangar with Aurel Vlaicu's historic 1911 plane and cosmonaut uniforms. The army's backlash of the 1989 Revolution (unsurprisingly) gets little play.
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George Enescu Museum
National composer George Enescu (1881-1955) lived for a short time in the former Cantacuzino Palace, a few blocks south of Piaţa Victoriei. The lovely building, built in the early 1900s in a seriously French baroque style, features a fantastic clam-shaped porte-cochere above the main entrance. Now called the George Enescu Museum, the palace is home to various manuscripts and belongings from George (Romanian-language only); be sure to see George's little home-studio, with original furnishings, behind the palace.
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National Village Museum
On the shores of Herăstră Lake, the National Village Museum is a terrific open-air collection of several dozen homesteads, churches, mills and windmills relocated from rural Romania. At times in July and August artisans in traditional garb show off various rural trades. Built in 1936 by Royal Decree, it is one of Europe's oldest open-air museums and a must for children. Get here from the centre by taking bus 131 or 331 from B-dul General Magheru or Piaţa Romană to the 'Muzuel Satului' stop.
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National History Museum
On Calea Victoriei, the National History Museum, housed in the neoclassical ex-Post Office Palace (1894) has a dismantled replica of the 2nd-century AD Trajan's Column; its 2500 characters retell the Dacian Wars against Rome (the location of the original column).
Go to panel 18 to see decapitated heads, panel 35 to see Dacian women torture Romans, or panel 116 for Dacian King Decebal's suicide. There's also a gold-crammed treasury with a gold-studded helmet from the 4th century BC.
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Grigore Antipa Natural History Museum
At the start of the Şos Kiseleff boulevard, on the north-western side of Piaţa Victoriei, is the interesting Grigore Antipa Natural History Museum. Children get a kick out of it, despite the dated exhibits. In one room, a display of crude earth suddenly clanks when you walk by and 'lava' flows out. There's lots of ethnographic displays, including eerie decapitated mummy heads and Sioux head-dresses, plus test tubes of various invertebrates and stuffed (smiling) pythons.
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Zambaccian Museum
Tricky to find, the little Zambaccian Museum is in a nicely restored villa between B-dul Aviatorilor and Calea Dorobanţilor (just north of Piaţa Dorobanţilor). The small collection boasts mostly Romanian works from the early 20th century, plus a Matisse, a Cezanne and a couple of Renoirs - all collected by Armenian businessman Krikor Zambaccian (1889-1962).
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Theodor Pallady Museum
The Theodor Pallady Museum is housed inside the exquisite early 18th-century Casa Melik, a former merchant's house. It contains the private art collection of the Raut family (part of the National Art Museum today).
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National Museum of Geology
Across the street from the Museum of the Romanian Peasant is the National Museum of Geology, where you can while away an hour or two among Romania's finest rocks.
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