Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest is the headquarters of Romanian presidency. It is near Bucharest Botanical Garden and not far from Dambovita River and the Military Academy. Bucharest Cotroceni Palace is located on Geniului Boulevard No. 1-3. Since 2025, everybody may visit the Romanian presidency headquarters. The palace and its gardens are opened every Saturday and Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM. Pay attention, it is free tot visit the palace, but you can enter only from Doctor Gheorghe Marinescu Gate. This entrance is near Cotroceni Bridge bus station. You can get there by bus, lines 137 and 122 from University. Other buses are 136, 138, 236, 385. 

WHERE THE ROMANIAN PRESIDENT WORKS

If you travel to Bucharest, you can see the office of the most important person in Romania. But this only on special events. Since we live in Bucharest, we had the chance once to visit the palace. The pictures are from that moment. Otherwise, on week-ends, you can see the Ceremonial Stage, the garden of Cotroceni palace. There are also free to visit the Baroque stage, the church and the gardens. If you want to visit the Cotroceni Museum, you might need to pay a 70 RON fee. This is about 12 Euros.

COTROCENI PALACE SHORT STORY

Inside the palace, there are a theater, a garden and the president’s library. Cotroceni Palace has been the main reference point in Romanian political life for more than 300 years. It has also seen much destruction caused by natural disasters or by wars. 

In 1679, Lord Serban Cantacuzino decided to build a palace around Cotroceni Monastery. There was also a village near the hill whose name was Cotroceni. An official document from the 17the century mentioned it. And Lord Mihai Viteazu, the firts lord who united the Romanian kingdoms in 1600, signed it.

WHAT COTROCENI MEANS

But where does the name Cotroceni comes from, you may ask. Well, Cotroceni comes from the verb a cotroci which means to hide, to keep something secret, out of sight.

COTROCENI PALACE BUCHAREST STORIES

In 1660, the Cotroceni village became the property of Serban Cantacuzino. This boyar built Cotroceni Monastery. Then, ten years later, he also built the lordly houses. It was the residence for the rulers of the country in summer time. A printing house functioned here in the late 17th century.

COTROCENI AND THE ROMANIAN ROYAL FAMILY

The Cotroceni Monastery almost vanished after a massive earthquake in 1800. The Greeks monks managed to repair it. In the late 19th century, these monks lost their properties after the so-called secularization law. In fact, the Church lost a lot of lands and buildings in that moment. Anyway, Bucharest became the capital of Romania in 1862. It was soon after the unification of Romania County and Moldova. Four years later, in 1866, King Carol the First became principe. And the lordly house near Cotroceni Monastery became the Lord’s residence. The houses had been oficial residence for King Ferdinand, Carol’s son, and his wife, Maria until 1893. It was the moment when the Government decided to demolish it. It was time for a news palace for the King.

WHO BUILT CONTROCENI PALACE

The French architect Paul Gottereau made the plan for Cotroceni Palace. In only two years, the building was ready to welcome the Romanian Royal Family, in 1896.
Queen Maria loved the French eclecticism, but also the Romanian art and the Byzantine architecture. So, at her will, the architects added new halls between 1915 and 1926. The architect Grigore Cerchez also built the White Hall for receptions. He also changed the Silver Bedroom, adding Byzantine and Celtic items.

COTROCENI PALACE AND THE ROMANIAN MODERN HISTORY

In 1918, King Carol met the leaders of the Romanian provinces to announce the Great Unification. Here they also decided the initial neutrality of Romania in World War I. Cotroceni Palace is also the last stop of the kings’ funeral convoys in their way to Curtea de Arges. Carol II and Mihai I, the last kings of Romania used only for a while Cotroceni as oficial residence. They moved to the Royal Palace on Victory Avenue or at Sinaia during the war. The south-west part of the building was destoyed in 1944 by both German and American bombs. Mihai I had to abdicate and leave the country in 1947. It was the moment when the communists took the power in Romania for 50 years.

THE PALACE AND THE COMMUNISTS

The state seized all the royal family’s properties. So, until 1989, Cotroceni Palace became the headquarters of Ministry of Interior Affairs. Then, the Ministry of Arts and Information used it and, finally,  the Union of the Communist Youth. This is a short story about Cotroceni Palace you should know when travel to Bucharest…Don’t forget there are a lot of things TO DO IN BOTANICAL GARDEN, near Cotroceni.

COTROCENI PALACE IN BUCHAREST AND THE COMMUNISTS

King Ferdinand’s library at Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest, more than 6000 very valuable volumes, is said to have been destroyed or burnt by the new authorities who took the power after the war. The earthquake in 1977 damaged again part of the palace. Thus, together with repairing works, a new part of Cotroceni palace is built for the presidential family. The works will be ended in 1988, one year before the Great Revolution in 1989. Meanwhile, in 1984, the church built by Serban Cantacuzino in the mid-17th century will be demolished in only one night at Nicolae Ceausescu’s order. It will be rebuilt after the Communists fall.

Also, after 1990, in the old part of the building, Cotroceni Museum is founded, while in the new side will be the headquarters of the Romanian Presidency. Cotroceni Museum is part of the palace. You can visit it usually, from Tuesday to Sunday from 9 AM. Cotroceni might be a valuable stop in your journey from the Opera House in Bucharest to BOTANICAL GARDEN and back to the center of the capital, CISMIGIU or, near this famous garden, to The Royal Palace, for a cultural escape from history. So many reasons to travel to Bucharest, right?
SEE MAP…