NATIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM

VISIT THE HISTORY OF ROMANIA MUSEUM IN THE OLD CITY

BUCHAREST

The Romanian National History Museum in Bucharest is to be visited near Stavropoleos Church in the OLD CITY and a few steps from Victory Avenue and CEC PALACE. There are two stories for you to remember about the Romanian National History Museum: how it did came into being as a museum and the history of the building itself in the middle of the Romanian capital.

ROMANIAN HISTORY AND BUCHAREST

It was in 1690 when the lord Constantin Brancoveanu decided that one of his boyars did incredible mistakes and sentenced him to death. All this boyar’s houses were demolished and his head was brought to Bucharest and put on a spear right in the middle of his proprieties. This is the land where the ROMANIA NATIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM can be visited today in BUCHAREST.

THE MUSEUM FROM EARLY PERIOD OR ROMANIA HISTORY TO NOWADAYS

Brancoveanu decided to build here an inn which was destroyed in the great fire of 1847. A few years later, the remains of this inn were also put to the ground and in 1857 a concert hall is built and then a modest building was to house many circuses. More than 20 years after that the area will become a market and in 1894, authorities started the works for a special building for the National Post, or the central Post. The Romanian National History Museum was still far from what you can see today here. This building is the architect Alexandru Savulescu’s masterpiece who made it since 1894 to 1900.

It will be the headquarters of the National Post until 1970 when it will house the new Romanian National History Museum.

COLLECTIONS DONATED FOR ROMANIA NATIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM BUCHAREST

This institution came into being after the wish of a mid 19th century boyar. It was Mihalcea Ghica who signed a decree for founding the museum in 1834. All ancient artifacts, sculptures, paintings and old writings from Byzantium to Greek and Roman culture found on the Romanian territory he had, he donated to the museum in the beginning. In 1864, another Romanian scholar, Alexandru Odobescu, founded the National Museum for Antiquities, part of the University of Bucharest and then of the Romanian Academy. It will be closed and the exhibitions will be taken by the Romanian National History Museum in 1970. An interesting piece of history you will not find here is the story of maps made about this territory and which can be found at OLD MAPS MUSEUM BUCHAREST!

THE ROMAN COLUMN AND THE CROWNS OF THE KINGS AT ROMANIA HISTORY MUSEUM IN BUCHAREST

There are 60 rooms in the museum, not always all of them available for tourists, where you can see about 600,000 pieces of history, from Antiquity, to Middle Ages, modern history.

You will see how people used to live in the Roman period, before 300 A.D. here in Romania, but also the weapons used in the dark middle ages or in World War I or II. Don’t forget there is a first level of the museum, underground, where you can see ancient golden pieces like the Pietroasa treasure, like the hen with the golden chickens or the golden skull discovered at Cotofanesti. Also at this level, underground, you can see the Lapidarium, a copy of Emperor Traian’s column in Rome, one of the best copies ever made and also burial stones carved since ancient times. It was made in the Italian Capital between 1939 and 1943. From time to time, some of the collection kept here are sent to BUCHAREST MUSEUM for different exhibitions or cultural events. The crowns of the Romanian kings and queens are also to be seen here at the Romanian History Museum in Bucharest and also the amazing golden bracelets from the Ist century AD or even older which were stolen and sold abroad but found and brought back by secret service from Romania, Germany and other European Countries.

You will need a few hours to visit the entire Romanian National History Museum in Bucharest, or maybe more but it will be an interesting journey. Don’t forget to take pictures and make selfies with the Emperor and the wolf in front of the monumental stairs and columns at the entrance of the museum. You can also visit the TOYS MUSEUM BUCHAREST, an exhibition with toys from 1950 to 1980 from Eastern Europe but also from China or Japan. About the period 1947 – 2007, an interesting collection is to be seen, at least now in 2019, at the Contemporary Art Museum in Bucharest inside the Palace of Parliament.
SEE MAP…