Things to see and do Southeast

Since 1954, the Craiova Art Museum has been housed in a superb palace in the centre of the city, known as Mihail Palace, named after the family that built it. Built according to the plans of Paul Gottereau, a French architect, it was completed in 1908, one year after the death of its owner, Constantin Mihail. His son Jean, an enlightened businessman, bequeathed it to the Romanian state in 1936. The building displays an eclectic style typical of the period, mixing French academicism with late Baroque elements. While the façade is richly ornamented, the interiors are equally grandiose: the vast halls are richly decorated with Lyonnais silk, golden stuccoes, Carrara marble, Murano crystal and Venetian mirrors. The palace was completely restored in 2014.

The Art Museum is divided into several sections. The National Gallery presents works of Romanian painters and sculptors, such as Aman, Grigorescu or Jalea. The universal gallery exhibits works from French, Italian, Dutch and German schools, from the 17th to the 19th century. Finally, the museum's masterpieces are the eight works by Constantine Brâncuși, exhibited in a cabinet dedicated to the internationally renowned artist. You will be able to see the famous Kiss, but also the Girl's Head, the Boy's Head, Vitellius, the Woman's Torso, Miss Pogany, as well as a flayed sculpture and a carved wooden corner chair, made when Brâncuși was a student at the city's School of Arts and Crafts.

They bear witness to the importance of the site during the Roman period. What remains of the walls of the castrum, which must have been 3 m high and 1.5 m thick, allows us to guess the rooms and the four towers. This fortress was used to control the river and the bridge that spanned it. Of this Trajan Bridge (Podul Traian), named after the Roman Emperor who decided to build it, only one pillar remains. An architectural feat for the time, it was built between 103 and 105 to facilitate the invasion of Dacia by the Romans. Upstream, there are ruins of thermal baths.

In the east of the valley of the Olt, this mountain range with easy access gives you a variety of different rock or forest landscapes. There are many opportunities for hiking.

The central square, piața Mihai Viteazul, houses a statue of the voivode, a native of the city. Bordered by a park, where the Sfânta Treime church stands, this mineral square is dominated by the prefecture, an imposing neo-Romanian building dating from 1913. Calea Unirii, which crosses the town from north to south, also passes through here: here and for 300 m the avenue is pedestrianised. Noteworthy buildings include the Madona Dudu church (1929), in the street of the same name, and the university, which occupies a massive 1890 building at the corner of calea București and strada Arieș.

15 km west of Turnu Severin, in Gura Văii, the 55 m high and 441 m long Iron Gates Dam is a bridge to Serbia, a hydroelectric power plant and a set of locks. It was built in the 1960s in collaboration with the former Yugoslavia. You can visit a small museum retracing the history of this construction, which has totally changed the region: villages, roads, railways have been swallowed up.

The monastery was built in 1645 by the wealthy boyar Danciu Pârâianu. Access is through a large carved wooden portal. A tree-lined driveway leads to the buildings. In the center of the courtyard, surrounded by beautiful white buildings with flowers, is the small monastery church. The interior is particularly rich, with touches of Brâncovenesc architecture, icons and ^18th-century murals. The monastery boasts a rich collection of 600 icons on wood and glass from the ^18th and ^19th centuries.

In the largely concrete-covered city center, there are a few elegant buildings, such as the prefecture. The tiny Sfânții Voievozi cathedral stands along strada Victoriei, in the center of the pedestrian plateau. It was built in 1764 to replace a wooden church. Its paintings date from 1855 and its bell tower from 1792. A sarcophagus-shaped mausoleum in memory of Ecaterina Teodoroiu stands in front. A heroine of the First World War, she died in 1917 at the age of 23, at the battle of Mărășești, while fighting dressed as a man.

The creation of the Iron Gates Dam has disrupted the entire local ecosystem. In order to preserve the fauna and flora of this region, the Iron Gates Natural Park was created in 2000, covering an area of more than 100,000 ha, along the artificial lake. Numerous species then took advantage of the warm and humid climate to settle or develop. More than 5,000 species have been recorded, including the Hermann's tortoise and the dreaded horned viper.

Housed in the former prefecture, a yellow building dating from 1875, its history section will provide you with information on the town's past and the folklore of the region. The Art Museum, on the edge of the central park (strada Traian 2), exhibits ancient icons, works by Corneliu Baba and 17th century paintings from the Flemish and Italian schools. Finally, the Museum of Popular Architecture, located in the village of Curtișoara, a little off the road leading to Petroșani, groups together in the open air about thirty typical houses of the region.

You can start your tour of Brâncuși's works in Central Park, which stretches along the Jiu River immediately west of the city center. Here you can see three sculptures the artist created between 1937 and 1938, in memory of the dead of the First World War. At the entrance to the park, at the end of Calea Eroilor, stands The Kissing Gate(Poarta Sărutului), a kind of triumphal arch, 5.30 meters high by 6.60 wide, which resembles the wooden portals of the region, adorned with folk motifs. On each of the gate's two supporting columns are carved stylized representations of a man and a woman united by a kiss, hence the name. On Saturdays, you'll see many newly-wed couples coming out of church to have their photo taken under the door. You then walk along L'Allée des chaises(Aleea Scăunelor) with its "plots" evoking sections of La Colonne de l'infini. Further on is the Table of Silence(Masa Tăcerii), where each of the twelve "stools" surrounding the 2.18-meter-diameter table represents a month of the year. Its shape is inspired by ancient peasant tables.

Brâncuși's most famous sculpture is The Infinity Column(Coloana Infinitului). It stands to the east of the town center. It's reached from the park's main entrance via Calea Eroilor to its other end. You'll pass a round church, skirt beautiful houses and then cross the railroad line. Finally, it rises straight up a hill. Unimpressive from afar, it becomes even more so as you approach. Constructed of copper-coated cast iron (recently renovated and therefore particularly shiny), 29.35 metres high, it symbolizes the spiritual connection between man and the infinite. The artist was inspired by the pillars of local farmhouses, which you'll quickly recognize on your jaunts through the countryside. The work underwent extensive restoration between 1996 and 2000, after being declared a "public asset of national interest" by the government of the time. Its appearance, texture and color are constantly changing, depending on the weather, the time of day or your mood.

If you'd like to complete your "Brâncuși pilgrimage" in Romania, head for Hobița, his native village, 30 km west of Târgu Jiu. Here you can visit the house where he grew up, now converted into a museum. You can also visit the Craiova Art Museum, where some of his works are on display.

Right next to the Roman ruins, this museum exhibits various collections. The historical collection provides details about the city in Roman times, while the ethnographic section gives an insight into the folklore and peasant interiors of the department of Mehedinţi, of which the city is the capital. The scientific collection provides an insight into the specific flora and fauna of the Danube, especially the birds. Opposite the museum stands a statue of the architect Apollodore of Damascus, who built the Roman bridge.

The Art Museum occupies a beautiful corner building adorned with Baroque stucco, Art Nouveau elements, mosaics and stained glass windows. Here you can admire beautiful nudes by Theodor Pallady, a famous Romanian painter, as well as sculptures and works by female painters such as Rodica Maniu and Magdalena Rădulescu. You'll also see collections of icons and religious art, pieces of Brâncovenesc art and modern and contemporary decorative art. The museum closed in March 2019 for a major renovation project.

It is especially for this magnificent building that one comes to Horezu. It is located 5 km north-east of the village, in Romanii de Jos, in the middle of a beautiful landscape of medium mountains covered with forests. It can be reached by climbing a beautiful tree-lined driveway. Built by the Wallachian voivode Constantine Brâncoveanu between 1690 and 1697, this monastery, the largest religious complex he built, sums up very well the architecture and style desired by the prince, both sober and sumptuous. The exterior galleries with sculpted pillars and white monastic cells surround two courtyards.

In the centre of the second courtyard is the large church (1694), the outer walls of which are decorated with sculptures. The interior is decorated with beautiful, brightly coloured paintings, including religious scenes. In the pronaos there is a portrait gallery, where Brâncoveanu, surrounded by his relatives and ancestors, can be recognised. The prince had planned to turn this church into the family necropolis, as evidenced by his carved marble tomb, also located in the pronaos. Beheaded by the Ottomans, the voivode was finally buried in the new Church of St. George in Bucharest. The monastery also housed a cultural centre in the 17th and 18th centuries, where people came to learn painting and sculpture. It was restored between 1960 and 1975 and more recently after its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995.

The monastery museum exhibits works painted on wood and old books.

Find out all about the history of Craiova and the surrounding region in this section of the Oltenia Museum, housed in a neo-Romanesque building. You'll see clay figurines from Gârla Mare, a Dacian treasure, icons, frescoes from medieval churches, photographs of the city in the ^19th and ^20th centuries and evocations of the 1989 revolution. The Museum of Oltenia also includes a section dedicated to the natural sciences, located in strada Popa Șapcă (no. 8), with models, fossils, stuffed animals, paintings..

This section of the Oltenia Museum is housed in the pretty Casa Băniei, built in 1699 by order of Constantine Brâncoveanu, Prince of Wallachia. The typical style created by Brâncoveanu can be found here in the large balcony with columns. The building, remodelled over the centuries, has been used alternately as a seat for the Austrian administration or for the state archives, as a court of law, etc. The collections are devoted to Oltenia's specific crafts: costumes, wooden objects, icons, carpets... The museum also includes a beautiful souvenir shop.

Located to the south of the city, it's one of the largest and most beautiful in the country, covering more than 90 hectares. Designed by French architect Édouard Redont, it was inaugurated in 1903. Set around a lake, it's a very pleasant place, but it gets crowded on Sundays, when families flock to its paths and small zoo. Among the trees and statues, terraces welcome strollers in summer. The park also boasts a suspension bridge dating from 1901-1902 and the ruins of an "enchanted castle"(Castelul fermecat), built around the same time.

To the north-west of the town center, this university botanical garden, created in 1952, comprises various sections covering a dozen hectares. Entering via strada Iancu Jianu, the first section is dedicated to ornamental plants, with superb beds of colorful flowers beautifully laid out on the lawns. You'll see beautiful collections of dahlias, roses, tulips, water lilies and peonies. Other sections are devoted to Romanian and world flora. The garden also includes greenhouses and a beautiful herbarium for all to consult.

There are few interesting historical monuments, but the bustle around the market and Mircea cel Bâtran square can be enjoyable. There are a few religious buildings of note. In the center, the oldest church is that of the Annunciation(Biserica Buna Vestire), built in 1549. Along calea lui Traian, the main thoroughfare, the Church of All Saints displays a distinctive Brâncovan style. A little further north, the bishop's palace, whose construction began in the ^17th century, is home to beautiful murals by Tattarescu and a collection of religious art.

This unattractive building, constructed in the 2000s, houses a gigantic stained glass window, called The Creation of the World. Completed in May 2004 in Râmnicu Vâlcea by artist Gheorghe Dican, it covers an area of 142^m2, divided into seven concentric circles. To make it, 500 kg of lead and 2,000 kg of glass were used. The giant stained glass window now forms the central dome of the Vâlcea județ library. This superb achievement can be admired free of charge, during the library's opening hours.

Its date of birth is unknown, but probably before 1500. In any case, it's the city's oldest church. It was the church of the great boyar families, and also served as the city's defense tower. After damage caused by the January 1838 earthquake, it was completely rebuilt in 1889 by French architect Lecomte du Nouÿ, who has other church reconstructions to his credit in the country, such as Curtea de Argeș. Byzantine in style, its brick "stripes" make it very elegant.