Bucharest - The National Art Museum
Dearest sweethearts,
I need you to warmly welcome today a friend from my homeland, from Romania: Alexandra Giurgiteanu from Art Mandy came over today and took over the Twisted Red LadyBug posting. I want you to be nice and behave and listen to the story she will tell us. I always go to Bucharest with mixed feelings as I have dear friends there but sometimes people can be quite in a rush with their busy life and their busy bee style of living. Alexandra is one of a kind and I found her on a Facebook blogging group - she kindly accepted my request for her to write a bit about a place in Bucharest that she likes. I must admit I never been there, but now it's on my TO DO LIST ;)
Dear travelers, if you're ever visiting Romania...Bucharest, to be more precise, The National Art Museum is a 'must see'! And I'm not talking only about the grandiose art galleries, or about the amazing events organized there. Something that is not as well known (or at least I didn't know) is that the gorgeous building of the museum was once the Romanian Royal Palace.
The building itself has a pretty interesting history. I'll try not to bore you with years (you might not remember them after reading anyway) so, I'll just mention a few important names and interesting facts.
After being built as a simple house by Dinicu Golescu, it was a few years later turned into a ceremony palace by that time's emperor, Alexandru Ghica.
Carol the First was the one who hired two great architects, Paul Gottereau and Karel Liman (the last one, also working for building the well known Peleș Castle) to extend the building. It then served as the Romanian Royal Palace. After that, it was burned, rebuilt, almost destroyed during WWII and then rebuilt again, turned into The National Art Museum and restored several times, until it became what it is today.
Unfortunately, these days the Throne Room and the Royal Living Room can only be visited during the weekend, in guided tours, at certain hours. However, in April this year, I managed to visit it for free, during a special event organized by the members of ARCEN (Asociația Română pentru Cultură, Educație și Normalitate).
What I found there is a building which speaks for itself. Amazing intricate details beautify every single corner of those rooms. And all this made me question today's minimalist architecture: we have so many tools compared to that time still, most of our buildings are simpler and less thoroughly build and, the worst of all, they have no soul, they're just replicas of each other. But that's another story.
Well I realy hope one day to visit this museum, I must admit that Bucharest is still quite a "virgin land"even though I have visited it a couple of times. It is big and it has many places one could get lost into, so it was a pleasure having Alexandra Giurgiteanu from Art Mandy over today :) Make sure you check more about her art, fashion and design entries over at her Facebook Page and her blog ;) Also, just so you know, the pictures were also provided by this lovely lady and she is open to collaborations!
Yours truly,
The Twisted Red LadyBug that still has to discover Bucharest!