Things to Do in Bucharest

Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest is the headquarters and residence of the Romanian president, as well as home to the National Cotroceni Museum. The original palace served as the residence of Romanian rulers until the end of the 19th century, at which time a larger palace was commissioned by King Carol I. Most of the palace had to be rebuilt after an earthquake struck in 1977. Adjacent to the palace is the Cotroceni Garden, one of the major public gardens in the city which dates back to the 1850s.

The National Cotroceni Museum collection features more than 20,000 objects, divided into several different collections. Highlights include 18th and 19th century religious arts; a collection of Romanian paintings from the 19th century to the present; 18th and 19th century paintings from German, Austrian, French and Belgian artists; sculptures from both Romanian and European sculptors; drawings, watercolors and engravings from the 19th and 20th centuries; and decorative arts, including ceramics, glass, metals and textiles.

First built in 1878 as a wooden monument to mark Romania’s Independence, Bucharest’s Arch of Triumph (Arcul de Triumf) has long been one of the city’s most memorable landmarks. Although rebuilt again after WWI, the current Arch of Triumph is the work of architect Petru Antonesc, reconstructed in granite in 1936, and decorated with sculptures by Romanian artists like Constantin Medrea, Constantin Baraschi and Ion Jalea.

Towering 27-meters over the intersection of Kiseleff road, Mareșal Alexandru boulevard and Alexandru Constantinescu street, the monumental arch now marks the entrance to Bucharest’s Herăstrău Park. Still a poignant reminder of Romania’s independence, it’s the site of military parades and celebrations on Romania's National Day (Dec 1st), and an internal staircase also allows visitors to climb to the top, looking out over the busy boulevards below.

Also called the Brancovan Palace, the Mogosoaia Palace was built at the end of the 17th century by Constantin Brancoveanu. The building combines elements of both Venetian and Ottoman architecture, creating a style often referred to as “Brancovenesc.” Located just 10 kilometers from Bucharest in the village of Mogosoaia, it has been a museum since 1957 and is one of the most important tourist sites in the area. The palace is part of a vast complex that includes a guesthouse, watchtower, kitchen, vault, ice house, green house, church, and beautiful gardens.

Today, visitors can tour parts of the palace or visit a museum featuring Brancoveanu style art. Exhibitions of paintings or textiles are often staged in the palace as well.

A natural oasis of lush wetlands, ancient forests and sprawling marshes, just 30 km from Bucharest, the Comana Nature Park offers a tranquil retreat from the city, with almost 25,000 hectares of land. Designated a national reserve in 2004, Comana is one of Romania’s most bio-diverse areas, home to around 141 bird species, including the endemic glossy ibis, and a startling array of flora, including wild pear trees and a rainbow of wild peonies that bloom in the spring and summer months.

 

Along with wildlife spotting, popular activities in the park include hiking, horse riding, biking and canoeing, while nearby attractions include the 16th-century Comana Monastery, built by the real-life ‘Dracula’ - Vlad the Impaler.

Finally inaugurated in 2009 after a long (and somewhat controversial) wait, Bucharest’s Holocaust Memorial serves as a stark reminder of the thousands of Romanian Jews affected by the Holocaust. The memorial holds great significance not only for Romania’s Jewish community, but as a symbol that the country recognizes its role in events (a fact often denied by the post-war communist government). 

The memorial itself is a simple yet poignant monument, designed by artist Peter Jacobi and featuring a plaque dedicated to the estimated 280,000 Jews and 25,000 Roma who lost their lives during the Holocaust. The memorial includes a ‘Column of Memory’, inlaid with the Hebrew word for ‘Remember’, and a Roma wheel, dedicated to the Romani people.

The district of Lipscani is the lively, beating heart of Bucharest and virtually the only part of the city that remains following the aerial bombardments of World War II and moves to flatten the city and rebuild it to Nicolae Ceaușescu’s grandiose designs under Communism. Fringed by the great thoroughfare of Calea Victoriei, the River Dambovita to the south and the Piata Universitatiei to the north, the district was historically Bucharest’s commercial center, with its origins in medieval times; it has transformed in the last 15 years from a tawdry, run-down backwater into action-central. Today its faded mix of Neo-Classical, Baroque and Art Nouveau architecture draws overseas visitors in to explore narrow streets lined with art galleries, vintage shops, scores of restaurants, open-air cafés and late-night clubs. However, the major nightclub fire in October 2015 saw many clubs forced to close as their premises are considered unsafe, so the future of Lipscani’s hard-edged, fabled nightlife is once more unsure.

Romania’s most controversial building sits like a megalith in the middle of Bucharest, a monument to the folly and ego of fallen Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, who conceived his grandiose idea after visiting another dictator, Kim II-sung, in North Korea. Started in 1984 and designed by young Romanian architect Anca Petrescu, the palace was conceived from Ceaușescu’s wish for it to be the biggest office building in the world – and he almost got his way, with only the Pentagon being larger. Churches, synagogues and 30,000 private homes were demolished to make way for this awesome monstrosity, and its mammoth proportions include 12 stories (with four underground), 1,100 rooms and state apartments, a brutal Soviet Realist façade of 270 meters (886 feet) in length and a vast subterranean nuclear bunker. Around 20,000 builders worked for six years to complete the palace, working seven days a week and using only materials available in Romania. The austere exterior belies the fanciful interior, full of gleaming crystal chandeliers, plush auditoriums, gold leaf, hand-woven carpets, marble halls, bronze doors and carved wooden staircases.

Ceaușescu never saw his palace completed, although by the time he met his end by firing squad in 1989, it was virtually finished. After his death, it fell empty but is now the home of the Romanian Parliament, an international conference center and the National Museum of Contemporary Art – and still much of it lies empty and slowly decaying. 

The Macca Villacrosse Passage, also known as the Pasajul Macca-Vilacrosse, is a fork-shaped arcaded street in central Bucharest. Covered with yellow glass to allow natural light to shine through, the passage was built at the end of the 19th century to connect the Calea Victoriei and the National Bank. Today, the Macca side of the passage opens on to Calea Victoriei, one of Bucharest’s main avenues, while the Villacrosse side opens to the National Bank and Strada Eugeniu Carada. The passage has a French look to it and is similar to other covered passages built in Milan and Paris during the same period. During Communist times, it was known as the Jewelry Passage due to the presence of the city’s largest jewelry shops, but the original name was restored in 1990. 

Today, the passage is still home to a few jewelry shops, but also features several restaurants, cafes, boutiques and hookah bars.

Built in the late 1890s and opened at the turn of the 20th century on one of Bucharest’s main boulevards, the CEC Palace was designed by French architect Paul Gottereau and the construction of this fine Beaux Arts masterpiece was overseen by Romanian architect Ion Socolescu. Designated to be the HQ of Romania’s oldest savings bank, Casa de Economii și Consemnațiuni (CEC) and located opposite the National History Museum of Romania, it is a monumental mansion topped with five cupolas; the central one stands over the grandiose, colonnaded entrance and is made of glass and steel. The palace is slated for transformation into an art museum and was sold to the city council for more than €17.75 million in 2006; while plans are drawn up the CEC Bank rents it back from the council but its sumptuous, marble-clad interior – much of which was covered over in Ceaușescu’s time – is no longer open to the public.

Bucharest’s Jewish History Museum was founded in 1978 by Moses Rosen, who was the city’s chief rabbi between 1964 and 1994; it is found in the ornate Holy Union Temple synagogue, which was built in 1836 by the wealthy Jewish Tailors Guild and is in Moorish style, with layers of brickwork alternating with white plaster fronted by an extravagant rose window. Among all the gold and silver religious ephemera inside, displays detail Jewish history in Romania and mark the community’s contribution to Bucharest society. The somber memorial room at the back of the synagogue is dedicated to victims of the Holocaust, when thousands of Romanian Jews lost their lives in Transnistria. However, star prize probably goes to the startlingly colorful interior of the three-tiered, galleried synagogue, which is liberally ornamented with Byzantine and Moorish tiling, marble floors and decorative walls and ceilings.

Please note: The National Museum of Romanian History is partially closed for renovations. Exhibits may move to a temporary location in the interim. The reopening is scheduled for 2021.

Founded in 1471 by Vlad the Impaler (the real-life ‘Count Dracula’ who inspired Bram Stoker’s fictional character of the same name), the Comana Monastery has long been an intriguing site for fans. Legend has it that the headless body of Vlad the Impaler was even found during excavations of the site.

The monastery was originally located on an island in the middle of a swamp and accessible only by a wooden bridge. Rebuilt in the 16th century by Romanian ruler Radu Serban and restored by Serban Cantacuzino at the turn of the 18th century, it remains a striking sight and makes a popular diversion for those visiting the nearby Comana Nature Park.

One of the first synagogues in Bucharest was the Choral Temple, which was completed in 1857 by architects Enderle and Freiwald; it is a copy of the Leopoldstadt-Tempelgasse Great Synagogue in Vienna and has a façade decorated in Moorish style with yellow-and-red patterned brickwork. A wealthy Jewish community was established in the city by the mid-16th century but never lived in complete harmony with its Romanian neighbors. In 1593, many were killed during a rebellion against the city’s Ottoman overlords and unrest continued to rumble for several centuries.

Several years after the Choral Temple was built, it was destroyed in a pogrom and rebuilt in 1866. Even with the destruction, the city’s Jewish population continued to grow. By 1930, it numbered 74,480 while the pogroms and indiscriminate killings continued. During World War II, all Bucharest’s synagogues were closed down and many thousands of Romanian Jews were sent to their deaths in Transnistria and Bessarabia. Following the war, Jewish numbers in the city swelled with refugees from other eastern European countries but uncertainty under the autocratic rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu led to mass immigration to Israel.

With the collapse of Communism, a memorial was erected outside the synagogue in 1991 to commemorate the thousands of Romanian Jews who died in the Holocaust, and in 2006, a painstaking restoration of its interior was undertaken; the synagogue finally reopened in December 2014 with its Moorish tiles, carved wooden balconies and heavy chandeliers gleaming once more. 

With a history dating back to the early 1900s, Carol Park (Liberty Park) is one of Bucharest’s oldest parks, built by French designer Eduard Redont to mark the Jubilee of King Carol I. With its glittering lake, tree-lined esplanade and landscaped gardens sprawling over 30 hectares in South Budapest, the park offers an idyllic retreat from the city, with ample space for walking, cycling and sports.  

The park is also home to a number of important monuments and has been listed as a National Historic monument since 2004. Most notable is the Mausoleum, originally built as a communist monument and later transformed into a WWI memorial, fronted by the Monument of the Unknown Soldier. Additional highlights include the early 20th-century Tepes Castle and a series of statues, including Filip Marin’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and the ‘Giant’s’ by Dumitru Paciurea and Frederic Storck.

Located in the center of Bucharest, the Museum of the Romanian Peasant is one of the leading museums in Europe dedicated to popular arts and traditions. Named the European Museum of the Year in 1996, it boasts a collection of more than 100,000 objects, including textiles, costumes, religious icons, handpainted Easter eggs, terra cotta pottery and other items telling the story of life in the Romanian countryside over four centuries.The museum was originally founded in 1906, but during Communist times, the building houses a museum of the Communist party instead. It reopened as the Museum of the Romanian Peasant after the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu, but the basement still contains remnants of the Communist museum.

The museum’s red brick building dates back to 1912 and features traditional Romanian architecture, including large windows under the arches and a main tower that is reminiscent of old bell towers. Considered one of the most enjoyable museums in Bucharest, it was expanded significantly in 2002. Visitors can buy replicas of many of the items on display from the museum gift shop.

Hidden away in Bucharest’s old Jewish quarter, the Great Synagogue (or the Great Polish Synagogue) was built by the city’s Polish-Jewish community in 1845 and is an impressively preserved tribute to Romania’s rich Jewish heritage. Don’t be put-off by the synagogue’s simple façade – inside, the main hall is lavishly decorated, painted in Rococo style by Ghershon Horowitz in 1936 and hung with beautiful chandeliers.

Today, the Great Synagogue remains active as a place of worship, but it’s also home to a small, but fascinating Jewish museum. Focusing on Romania’s Jewish history and heritage, the most moving exhibition details the horrors of the Holocaust and includes the poignant Memorial for Jewish Martyrs.

The European Paintings and Sculpture galleries include mighty Old Master treasures from the private collection of King Charles I – the likes of Rembrandt, Rubens, El Greco and the Impressionists – while the Romanian Medieval collections feature glittering silver icons, rare manuscripts and stone sculptures in the Lapidarium, found in the restored cellars of the palace. The Romanian Modern galleries are jam-packed with works such as modernist sculptures by Constantin Brancuşi, the best-known of Romania’s 20th-century artists.

An ever-changing selection of temporary exhibitions highlights the best of contemporary Romanian art, from installations to photography, drawings and prints. The museum is currently in the process of handing back artwork stolen from Romanian nationals in the Soviet-era late 1940s, and guided tours of the palace’s sumptuous royal apartments are now available, at a cost of 20 lei.

Founded in the early 16th century, the Curtea de Arges Monastery is one of the most important pilgrimage and prayer sites in Romania. A Romanian Orthodox cathedral sits on the grounds of the monastery that also dates to the 16th century. Built with pale gray limestone in a Byzantine style, it features Moorish arabesques and an interior covered with murals by French painters Nicolle and Renouard and Romanian painter Constantinescu. The monastery is also home to numerous relics and a gospel written in gold by Queen Elizabeth of Romania, as well as the graves of Kings Ferdinand and Carol I and Queens Elizabeth and Maria.

The monastery is tied to several local legends, including the legend of Master Manole, who is said to have sacrificed his wife and his own life to complete the building of the monastery. Another legend relates to the holy relics of Saint Filofteea, a 12-year-old girl who was killed by her father after giving food to beggars.

The George Enescu Museum in Bucharest is a memorial to Romania’s most important musician. Enescu was a composer, violinist, pianist and conductor who passed away in 1955. After his death, the museum was established in the Cantacuzino Palace, widely considered one of the most beautiful buildings in Bucharest. Designed in a French academic style with art nouveau elements, the palace features a remarkable glass awning above the entrance and an interior adorned with murals and sculptures.

The permanent collection of the museum includes three rooms of the palace and is devoted to the life of Enescu, as well as the history of Romanian music. Displays include photographs, manuscripts, medals, drawings, musical instruments, furniture and personal items, as well as a casting of Enescu’s hands and his mortuary mask. The museum also has two other branches: the George Enescu Memorial House in Sinaia and the Dumitru and Alice Rosetti-Tescanu George Enescu section in Bacau.

High up in the mountainous Bucegi Natural Park just south of Brasov, the tiny white Orthodox monastery of Ialomicioara sits underneath a sheer cliff face; it was built in the early 16th century by Wallachian ruler Mihnea cel Rau, who was the son of Vlad the Impaler. Made of wood and guarding an enormous cave complex, the monastery repeatedly burnt down over the centuries and its last refurbishment came in 1993 after another fire. Its exterior is gleaming white and adorned with simple biblical figures; the interior is awash with frescoes and icons.

 

The caves themselves extend deep under ground through limestone caverns and galleries and recent investment has seen them transformed with new lighting, staircases and bridges. More than 1,300 ft (396.25 m) of accessible paths lead through grottoes and chambers adorned with stalactites and stalagmites; the most ethereal are the St Mary Grotto, named after limestone formations that resemble the Virgin Mary, and the enormous Bear Hall, which was full of 10,000 year-old bones of cave bears when it was first discovered in 1870. Ialomicioara caves are accessed by guided tour; there’s a lot of walking involved and they quickly get cold, so wear sturdy shoes and warm clothes.

Bucegi Natural Park itself is a popular destination for hikers, climbers and — in winter — skiers. It’s also close to the mysterious castles and fortified towns of Transylvania.