The best museums Romania

The Village Museum (Muzeul satului), founded in 1936, offers a plunge into the countryside, right in the heart of the capital. Just like the Romanian Peasant Museum (the two are really complementary), it allows you to discover the richness of the peasant world, but this time in the open air. Typical houses from different parts of the country are gathered in a 14-hectare park, which stretches along the shores of the lake Herăstrău. Apuseni thatched roofs, Transylvanian and Maramureș wooden portals, carved columns from the Târgu Jiu region, Lipovene house covered with reeds, shepherds' huts... it's all there. You will also see mills, wells, presses and wooden churches. All these constructions (no less than 380!) were transported from their respective regions. The oldest date back to the 17th century, the most recent to the beginning of the 20th century. The place is a bit frozen, but it is pleasant to stroll in this beautiful park and very interesting to be able to penetrate in these old houses (we wish you to know this same pleasure in the countryside, the real one). Fairs, traditional celebrations, folk dances and music performances take place there very frequently. You may even have the opportunity to watch clips being shot by specialist TV channels such as Etno TV or Favorit. Good to know: the beautiful souvenir shop at the entrance offers a paying audio guide. There is also a mobile application to download.

This is one of the best museums in Bucharest. Designed by the painter and photographer Horia Bernea after the revolution, it was consecrated "European Museum of the Year" in 1996. Housed in an imposing neo-Romanian-style building, it previously housed the museum of the Romanian Communist Party during the forty years of its regime. A room, containing paintings and sculptures typical of this period, recalls this former function. But the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant (Muzeul național al țaranului român) has above all the vocation to reveal all the richness of the village world of yesterday and today. Crafts, folklore and architecture of the different regions are presented there. We discover the daily life of the peasants, the classroom, the costumes, the religious icons, the tools, the painted eggs, the carpets... A visit is essential, especially if your stay in Romania is limited to a few days in the capital. Unfortunately, the permanent exhibition has been closed for works since 2016 and its reopening date is not known. However, the temporary exhibitions, which are often very interesting, as well as the shop and the good restaurant with traditional specialities, remain accessible.

Beautiful craft markets are held several times a year, at Easter and Christmas in particular. In addition, the museum shop is one of the best-stocked in the city. There are some remarkable CDs of folk music.

An excellent museum, recently modernized and very popular with families. You'll meet the country's main species (bear, wolf, sturgeon, pelican, lynx...), stuffed and inserted in dioramas recreating their natural environment. Others are preserved in formalin. One section is dedicated to the world's fauna. There is also a large collection of insects, as well as imposing skeletons of prehistoric pachyderms, including that of a deinotherium, the only one of its kind in the world.

It took ten years (1778-1788) to build this palace, now considered one of the finest museums in Eastern Europe. In addition to its rich collections, the palace itself is well worth a visit. This Baroque masterpiece, the city's landmark, was designed by Baron Samuel von Brukenthal, Governor of Transylvania from 1777 to 1787, and a favorite of Empress Maria Theresa. Brukenthal, who was also a great art lover, asked in his will that the palace and his personal collections be made accessible to the public after his death. Opened in 1817, the museum is renowned throughout Europe for the richness and diversity of its collections, including the 1,090 paintings that belonged to the baron. These include 450 works by the Flemish school (Rubens, Van Dyck...), 500 German paintings illustrating the transition between the Gothic and Baroque styles, as well as works by Italian painters of various currents. Not to mention works by Romanian artists, Transylvanian drawings and engravings from the ^17th to ^19th centuries, and exceptional silverware.

The Baron's library has also been preserved, supplemented by the collection of Sibiu's medieval libraries. It contains 280,000 volumes, including a collection of incunabula (works printed before 1500) and the Brukenthal Breviary, written on parchment with superb miniatures by Flemish painters of the ^15th and ^16th centuries. It is no longer open to the public and is reserved for students.

This remarkable museum will allow you to familiarize yourself with the history of the city and its region, from the Paleolithic to the present day. It occupies a building with an architecture of the purest neo-Romanian style, dating from 1921. You will discover exceptional remains, reflecting the archaeological wealth of Dobrogea: terracotta or bone objects, coloured glasses, jewellery, tools, weapons, bronze helmets, Greek and Roman statues... Among the valuable pieces is the Glycon (2nd century A.D.), a serpent deity carved in marble, which has become the emblem of the city. We can also mention the ceramics of the Neolithic civilizations of Hamangia and Gumelnița, notably the moving Thinker of Hamangia and the Seated Woman two terracotta statuettes discovered in the necropolis of Cernavodă.

Next to the museum is a gallery where a Roman mosaic dating from the 4th century AD is kept. Discovered during work in 1959, it is unique in Europe by its size (about 400 square metres preserved, out of the 2,000 of the original surface area). The harmony of its colours - dominated by red, white, green and beige - and the beauty of its plant and geometric patterns have not been altered by time. At the time, the mosaic occupied one of the terraces of a large commercial building, which served as a junction between the city and the port. From the gallery, you will enjoy a magnificent view of the port.

Situated on Cotroceni hill, surrounded by a beautiful park, this palace has been the residence of the President of the Republic since the 1990s. Neoclassical in style, it was built in the 1890s for Prince Ferdinand, to plans by French architect Paul Gottereau. Neo-Romanesque elements were added later. The full tour takes in the hall of honor, the kitchens, the basement, the king's library, various salons... Queen Marie's bedroom and the Oriental Room are the two highlights of this beautiful visit.

Opened in 2016, twenty-seven years after the dictator's fall, the Spring Palace(Palatul Primăverii) was his private residence for a quarter of a century. Located in a district reserved for the nomenklatura, it was built in the mid-1960s, then enlarged in the 1970s. It has some 80 rooms, and the 45-minute guided tour takes you through fifteen of them. The interiors, decorated in Renaissance and Rococo style, are luxurious and comfortable, furnished with paintings by local masters, handmade silk tapestries, sumptuous crystal chandeliers, objets d'art of all kinds and beautiful mosaics, such as those adorning the indoor swimming pool. You'll stroll through the offices, salons, dining room, winter garden... A marble staircase leads upstairs, where each of the Ceaușescu's three children had their own little apartment, with a bedroom, study and bathroom. The spouses also had their own private suite, as well as a gold-plated bathroom that had particularly scandalized, just after the revolution. You'll also see the cinema room, the couple's vast dressing room and, by the pool, the whirlpool, sauna and tanning booth. Outside, peacocks roam the garden: they are the descendants of those who lived there in Ceaușescu's time! For a tidy sum, you can opt for the full tour, which also includes the trophy room, the bunker and the underground tunnel.

The illustrious American Jewish writer and philosopher Elie Wiesel, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, was born in Sighetu Marmației in 1928. At that time, almost half the town's population was Jewish, and there were numerous synagogues. World War II decimated the community, which was massively deported to concentration camps. The only survivor of his family, Elie Wiesel devoted his life to bearing witness to the horror of these camps, leaving an abundant body of work until his death in 2016. Today, you can visit his birthplace, transformed into the Museum of Jewish Culture in Maramureș. Documents, objects and testimonies tell of their ancient roots in the region. One room recounts the tragedy experienced by the Jews of Maramureș, after the region's incorporation into Horthist Hungary in 1940 (ghettos, massacres, deportations...). Another room is dedicated to Elie Wiesel, his work and his visits to his hometown.

Located in the city's old Jewish quarter, the house is close to the only surviving Sephardic synagogue (strada Basarabiei, 8). Built in 1904, its interiors are richly decorated. The town also boasts a number of memorials, such as the one on Gheorghe Doja Street, erected in memory of the 38,000 Jews from Maramureș arrested by the Hungarian police and deported in 1944. The Jewish cemetery is located south of Mihai Eminescu Street, not far from Grădina Morii Park.

The National Art Museum (Muzeul național from artă) is housed in the former royal palace, with richly decorated interiors. Built in the 1930s by Carol II, after the fire of the previous palace, it was damaged by the bombings of 1944. It also saw the arrest of Antonescu in the same year and the abdication of King Mihai in 1947. During the revolution, the palace suffered considerable damage and many works were destroyed, including several master paintings. It was fully restored in the 1990s, along with some of the works. It is possible to visit certain areas outside the museum, such as the throne room or the royal dining room. The Art Museum is divided into several sections. The European gallery presents works of painters such as Greco (The Adoration of the Shepherds), Rubens (Portrait of a Lady), Delacroix, Bruegel (The Massacre of the Innocents), Monet (Camille), Rembrandt, Renoir, Sisley... In the section of Romanian medieval art, where religious art dominates, you can admire pieces of great value : iconostases, icons, cult objects... Moldavian, Transylvanian or Wallachian, they come from the monasteries of Horezu, Curtea of Argeş, Snagov... The National Gallery of Modern Art exhibits works by Romanian artists such as Brâncuşi (including the superb Sleep), Baba, Grigorescu, Aman, Pallady or Brauner. Even if you don't know much about Romanian artists, hurry up! The museum also hosts prestigious temporary exhibitions.

This superb open-air ethnographic museum is the best of its kind in the country. A visit is a must for anyone wishing to learn more about the riches of the Transylvanian and Romanian rural world. More than 400 houses are on display, in a magnificent park of almost 100 hectares, complete with lake, in the heart of the Dumbrava Sibiului nature reserve. Along the 10 km of paths, you'll discover the homes of the fishermen of the delta and the peasants of Maramureș... These houses with their preserved interiors will plunge you into the daily life and past traditions of peasants from all over the country. You'll also see a multitude of technical installations from all eras: wine presses, weaving looms, ovens, distilleries, farming equipment and more. You can also admire wooden churches. Finally, there's an impressive area devoted to mills of all types: water, wind, hand and horse-powered... The walk is as enjoyable as it is instructive. You can even take a boat or horse-drawn carriage ride. In addition to the open-air museum, the Astra complex includes a section dedicated to the heritage of Transylvania's ethnic minorities. The pavilion also houses a folk art gallery (perfect for buying souvenirs), a cafeteria and a tourist information center.

Numerous events and traditional festivals are held here, particularly in summer: the National Festival of Folk Traditions in mid-August, the Taraf and Brass Band Festival at the end of the same month..

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.

10 km south of Târgu Neamț, in the village of Târpești, here's a lively, colorful museum well worth a stop. In a superb traditional carved wooden house, a variety of objects are on display: New Year masks, sculptures, naive paintings and also a few archaeological pieces, objects produced or collected by Neculai Popa, an artist and collector with a passion for folklore. Passed away in 2010, this much-loved local figure shared his passion with his son, himself an artist, and his daughter, who can give you a tour in French.

The salt mine(salina) was modernized in 2008-2010 and now offers excellent conditions for visits and treatments. Mining ceased in 1932, and today it's possible to visit the galleries and chambers where salt has been mined since 1690. We recommend visiting the Franz Joseph transport gallery, the Joseph (currently under construction), Thérèse, Gisèle and Rudolf mines. The impressive Rudolf and Thérèse mines are the largest man-made underground cavities in Europe, almost surreal in their dimensions. Treatments include halotherapy(halos means salt in Greek), known since Antiquity as a natural remedy that is highly effective and has no side effects. A session in a salt mine helps you recover, revitalize and boost your body's immunity. Sessions last from 30 to 60 minutes, and there's plenty to do: a sports field, miniature golf course, two bowling lanes, billiard and table tennis tables, Ferris wheel, children's play area and rowing boats for strolling on the underground lake are all at your disposal. In summer, two natural lakes with high concentrations of salt and healing properties are open to the public. In the ^16th century, the town of Turda was one of the most prosperous in the principality of Transylvania, thanks to the trade in this commodity so precious in the Middle Ages. In fact, it seems that salt mining in Turda predates the Roman conquest.

It is divided into four historical sections: ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary. You'll see old amphorae, all kinds of weapons, medals, uniforms, navigational instruments, old maps... Not forgetting the hundred or so ship models from all eras: ancient merchant ships, Ottoman galleys, Moldavian warships, ^20th-century boats and submarines. The park offers a breathtaking view of the harbour.

It occupies the former Sibiu Town Hall (1545-1948), also known as Casa Altemberger, the family whose coat of arms adorns the façade. This 15th-century building and its pretty courtyard are Gothic in style. It is one of the last remaining civil buildings from this period. The small bell at the top of the tower is known as the "condemned man's bell", because it was used to announce the execution of a prisoner. The exhibition traces local history back to the Paleolithic period.

Located at the southern exit of the city, about 3 km from the center, this open-air museum which spreads out on the hill of Dobăieș benefits from a very pretty wooded setting, which provides superb panoramas of the surroundings. It mainly presents different types of village buildings, farms, houses, carved doors, but also mills, oil presses, traditional washhouses ... The oldest pieces date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. You will also see a wooden church dating from 1621, brought back from the village of Oncești.

Just on the outskirts of the town, this open-air museum, created in 1971, exhibits typical 19th century farm buildings and houses, but also tools from all corners of Banat, as well as a farm and water and windmills. The complex, organised in accordance with the layout of the villages at the time, includes all the traditional institutions: town hall, school, church... To get there, take bus n° 46 from the Bastion station.

In a pleasant neighborhood off boulevard Lascăr Catargiu, this striking 1911 red house houses a fine collection by sculptor Frédéric Storck, a leading figure in Romanian modern art, as well as paintings by his wife Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck and works by Storck's father and grandfather, both sculptors as well. The collection also includes ink and charcoal drawings, pastels, watercolors, gouaches and bronze plaques, as well as collectibles such as icons and antique coins.

The Princely Court(Curtea domnească) is a large complex of buildings with orange brick walls, set in a very pleasant park. It was built in the ^14th century by Mircea cel Bătrân (Mircea the Elder) and became the residence of the princes and the capital of Wallachia from 1415 to 1659. Vlad Ţepeş, who inspired the character of Dracula, lived here. His bust can be seen not far from the entrance to the complex. All that remains of the princely residence are the high ruins, where the square-shaped cellars are clearly visible. Resting on a pyramidal base, the Chindiei tower, 27 metres high and 9 metres in diameter, is the emblem of the city it dominates. It was from here that the closing of the city gates was announced at sunset, hence its name, which means "twilight tower". Later, it was used as an observation tower and then as a prison. Its current form (notably its windows) and neo-Gothic style date back to the ^19th century. You can climb to the top via a narrow staircase. On each floor, a small exhibition presents the history of the building and its princely dynasties. The view of the city and region from the roof is remarkable, but above all it allows you to appreciate the structure of the residence and imagine it as it was when it housed the princes. The complex also boasts two churches. The large princely church was built in 1583, and its Greek cross plan is a fine example of ^15th-century Byzantine architecture. The carved limewood iconostasis dates from 1697. The western wall features portraits of the greatest princes of the time. Although their names are written in Cyrillic, you may recognize Matei Basarab, Constantin Brâncoveanu or Mihai Viteazul. The large church bell dating from 1669 is on display in the gallery. The little princely church (Sfânta Vineri), further away, dates back to the ^15th century and is characterized by its cloverleaf shape. The Bălaşa house (^17th century) opposite takes its name from a princess, wife of Prince Constantin Şerban. At first, it housed the most destitute, then became a school. The site is particularly popular with Romanian tourists and schools, as the residence represents a symbol of the country's glorious past. For French-speaking visitors, a short guide in French is on sale at the ticket office. A map and text, displayed after the entrance, also provide some explanations.

Housed in the splendid Post Palace, this museum traces the country's history back to prehistoric times. The various sections house rich collections. In the lapidarium, you'll see a replica of Rome's Trajan column, as well as numerous frescoes and statues. The most interesting room is undoubtedly the Treasure Room, featuring the famous Poule aux poussins d'or, a set of gold coins in a highly refined style, said to have belonged to the Visigoth king Athanaric.