Stretching along the Calea Victoriei with a small yard in front of it, the Royal Palace hosts the National Art Museum. The actual palace lies on the site where Dinicu Golescu built an imposing residence in 1812-1815. In 1832 the voyevode bought it over and Alexandru Ghica Vodă settled his Royal Court here in 1837. The following rulers lived in their own residences, but maintained the palace as a ceremony hall. In 1859 - 1866, the first ruler of the United Romanian Principalities (Alexandru Ioan Cuza) lived here, then King Carol I also settled here in 1866. The building was modified in 1882-1885, but most of it burnt down in 1927 and it was rebuilt between 1930-1937. It however hosted the king for only about 10 years, as in 1948 King Mihai I had to flee the country; in 1949 the museum settled in.
Seriously damaged during the 1989 coup, when it was the stage for shooting, it was closed for a few years, when both the building and some of the paintings on exhibit had to be restored (some of the paintings had been shot / damaged during the fighting). Nowadays open to the public, it hosts two major galleries: the European (with quite many remarkable paintings, including several Rubens, Rembrandt, Manet, Renoir, El Greco) and the Romanian one (with a great medieval religious art hall, a moving Văcărești Memorial Hall, a fine Brâncuși hall, as well as many paintings by Grigorescu, Aman, Baba, Pallady, Luchian or Andreescu).
Whatever people at Sibiu's Bruckenthal or Timișoara's Baroque Palace might say, this is by far the best organized museum in the country, where the colour scheme they employed for the walls, as well as the lighting system greatly emphasize the exhibits and let the visitor fully appreciate them. I do not like the caretakers' following visitors as if one would quickly grab a Rubens, slip it in the pocket and run away; one wonders what those cameras are for. But anyway, this is a top recommendation in Bucharest. It is closed on Mon and Tue. Allow at least 2 hours for either of the galleries.
GPS - N44 26.390 E26 05.790
