Explore Bucharest

The Romanian Patriarchal Cathedral, dedicated to Saints Constantine and Helena, stands on Metropolitan Hill in central Bucharest. Prince Constantin Șerban had it built as a monastery church, consecrated in 1658; it became the seat of the metropolitans in 1668 and is now the cathedral of the Romanian Orthodox Patriarch. Its interior frescoes date from 1923.

The Old Princely Court is the archaeological site of the first princely residence of Bucharest, in the Old Town. Vlad III is recorded here in 1459; later rulers rebuilt the palace until it fell out of use in the 18th century. Brick walls, vaulted cellars and a stone column can be seen from the street, beside the Old Court Church of 1559.

The National Museum of Romanian History occupies the former Postal Palace on Calea Victoriei, an eclectic building by Alexandru Săvulescu from the 1890s. Much of it is closed for restoration; open are the Historical Treasury with the Romanian crown jewels and the Pietroasele hoard, a plaster cast of Trajan's Column, the Lapidarium and temporary exhibitions.

Stavropoleos Monastery is a small convent of Orthodox nuns in Bucharest's Old Town; its church was built in 1724 by the Greek archimandrite Ioannikios in the Brâncovenesc style, with carved stone columns and painted façades. An early 20th-century building by Ion Mincu holds a library and icons, and the nuns' choir sings Byzantine chant.

The Choral Temple is a synagogue in the Moorish Revival style on Sfânta Vineri Street, built in 1864–1866 to designs by Enderle and Freiwald after the Leopoldstadt Temple in Vienna. Devastated by the Iron Guard in January 1941 and restored after the war, it still holds services; its main hall reopened in 2015 after refurbishment.

Cișmigiu Gardens is the oldest public park in central Bucharest, laid out from 1847 by the landscape gardener Wilhelm Mayer on the site of a marshy lake. Its 14 hectares surround an artificial lake with rowing boats in summer, shaded alleys, and the Writers' Rotunda, a circle of stone busts of twelve Romanian writers.

Revolution Square, called Palace Square until 1989, lies on Calea Victoriei between the former Royal Palace, the Romanian Athenaeum and the Central University Library. Ceaușescu's last speech on 21 December 1989 turned into the revolt that ended his regime; the next day he fled by helicopter from the former Central Committee building here.

The Romanian Athenaeum is a domed, circular concert hall designed by the French architect Albert Galleron and opened in 1888, partly paid for by a public subscription. It is home to the George Enescu Philharmonic; the auditorium is ringed by a 75-metre fresco by Costin Petrescu showing scenes from Romanian history.

Cotroceni Palace was built in 1893–1895 for the heirs to the Romanian throne by the French architect Paul Gottereau, on the site of a 17th-century monastery; Grigore Cerchez later added Neo-Romanian halls for Queen Marie. It is the seat of the Romanian Presidency, and its old wing houses the National Cotroceni Museum.

The Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History was founded in 1834 and moved in 1908 into a building by Grigore Cerchez on Kiseleff Road; it bears the name of the zoologist who ran it for 51 years. Its collections hold about two million specimens, and the halls show dioramas of animals in their habitats and the skeleton of a Deinotherium.

The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant shows rural Romania through textiles, costumes, icons, ceramics and a whole wooden house brought from Gorj County. It was founded in 1906 by Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș; its red-brick building in the Neo-Romanian style, designed by Nicolae Ghica-Budești, was built between 1912 and 1941.

The Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum is an open-air museum on the shore of Lake Herăstrău in King Michael I Park. Founded in 1936 by the sociologist Dimitrie Gusti, it brings together farmhouses, wooden churches, windmills and workshops moved from villages across Romania, dating from the 17th to the 20th century.