Tourist attractions in Bucharest

🏛️ Cotroceni Museum in Bucharest

The Cotroceni National Museum is a museum in Bucharest, located in the Cotroceni Palace.

Here you can visit spaces from the former Cotroceni Monastery and the former Cotroceni Royal Palace, where King Ferdinand and Queen Maria lived, as well as the collections of old European decorative art.

The Cotroceni National Museum is a cultural institution, where exceptional cultural events are held periodically.

The museum's specificity is given by the combination of the characteristics of a memorial space, with a history of nearly 350 years, with those of a decorative art museum.

Its salons and apartments have a remarkable evocative power, thanks to the personalities who have lived in these rooms over time.

🚶 Calea Victoriei Bucharest

Calea Victoriei is one of the most important thoroughfares in the center of Bucharest and stretches from Piața Națiunile Unite to Piața Victoriei.

Calea Victoriei was the favorite promenade of the country's elite in bygone times. Over time, the aristocratic class would meet here, and the balls held at the Cantacuzino Palace were well known at the time, while artists, writers, journalists, politicians, or athletes drank their coffee at the Capșa Restaurant.

Nowadays, Calea Victoriei remains the most cosmopolitan street in the capital, with numerous tourist attractions and historic buildings.

Among the main tourist attractions we find: Casa Capșa, the Odeon Theatre, the Telephone Palace, the National Museum of Art of Romania, the Kretzulescu Church, the National Museum of Romanian History, and the National Military Circle.

⛪ Stavropoleos Church Bucharest

The Stavropoleos Church is an Orthodox church, built in the Brâncovenesc style, in the center of Bucharest and is included in the List of Historical Monuments of Romania.

Although small in size, the church has monumentality, being an architectural space specific to the Byzantine tradition. Through its carved decoration and ornamental motifs, it expresses a Baroque sensitivity and an Oriental taste.

Here one can see imperial icons, feast-day icons, icons for the home or for processions, on wood or on glass.

The collection also includes a fragment of an iconostasis from a wooden church in Southern Transylvania, a princely throne with the coat of arms of the Mavrocordat family, a Brâncovenesc candlestick, and a painted memorial list of the church of Berzunți Monastery in Moldavia.

🌳 The Parks of Bucharest

Among the most well-kept and most beautiful green areas of the capital are several parks: IOR, Herăstrău, and Carol Park.

The largest park and one of the most beautiful is Herăstrău Park, which covers an area of 110 hectares. The Japanese Garden, the summer theater, the Ferris wheel, and the Alley of the Caryatids are among the park's well-known attractions.

IOR Park, currently Alexandru Ioan Cuza Park, has an area of approximately 85 ha and is one of the largest parks in Bucharest. In the park is Lake Titan, a lake of natural origin, where there are five islands, named "Pensioners' Island," "Arts Island," "Dogs' Island," "Fishermen's Island," and "Ducks' Island.".

🏙️ Old Town

The Old or Historic Center of Bucharest lies between Calea Victoriei, Bulevardul Regina Elisabeta, Bulevardul Carol I, Bd. Hristo Botev, Bd. Corneliu Coposu, Strada Halelor, and Splaiul Independenței.

This is the area with the greatest historical significance in the capital, both in terms of monuments and historical vestiges, and in terms of the various heritage buildings (Curtea Veche, Hanul lui Manuc, the Stavropoleos and Saint Anthony churches, or the She-Wolf statue).

The Old Town of the capital was the meeting place of merchants from all over the world during the interwar period. Every street and every building represents a part of history.

Buildings decorated with various sculpting techniques are transformed into restaurants and clubs, terraces and boutiques, all ready to welcome partygoers and lovers of music and dance.

⛲ The Fountains in Union Square

The Fountains in Union Square were declared by the World Record Academy as "the longest string of synchronized choreographic fountains in the world". They were built during the communist regime, when Union Boulevard was also laid out, and were rehabilitated in 2018–2019.

The fountains offer Bucharest residents and tourists shows of water, light, and music. The jets spin to the rhythms of the music, adding a dynamic and visual touch during the climax moments of the show.

Another spectacular effect is the water jets launched by compressed air, which appear suddenly, especially during dramatic moments.

🎨 The Kitsch Museum in Bucharest

Located in the old center of Bucharest, the museum includes approximately 200 exhibits that awaken childhood memories and nostalgia.

Whether it's the crystal fish placed on a doily, knick-knacks from the communist era, or carpets featuring the Abduction from the Seraglio, the over 200 exhibits make up an overview of Romanian kitsch.

The museum is spread over two levels and 8 categories. Starting with Dracula, the most famous Romanian brand, religious kitsch, the communist period, interior design, Roma kitsch, modern, the fashion of pitzipoance and cocalari, Make your own kitsch where you can donate kitschy objects, and the Kitsch Art Gallery.

⛪ Cernica Monastery

Cernica Monastery is an Orthodox monastery located near Bucharest, in Ilfov County. Situated only 12 kilometers from the capital, the monastic complex stretches across two of the islands of Lake Cernica.

The construction is built right on the site where Neolithic tribes lived 5,000 years ago. Within the monastic complex, three churches were erected, namely the Great Church, the Church of Saint Lazarus, and the Church of Saint George, as well as three chapels named Saint John, the Dormition of the Mother of God, and the Entry into the Church.

It houses a museum with hundreds of works specific to church arts, a library with over 15,000 volumes, and a Monastic Seminary where Patriarch Teoctist also studied.

The monastery is included in the List of Historical Monuments of Romania.