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 days). Changing art exhibits are held downstairs.