World City Guide

Sightseeing

Sightseeing Overview
Bucharest has a number of exquisite galleries, museums, churches and architectural wonders but its political legacy also provides a wealth of sights, where visitors can relive the events of the 1989 revolution and the emotions leading up to it. The city offers a moving series of time capsules, from Ceausescu’s Centru Civic, evoking mixed feelings of awe and outrage, to his highly publicised downfall in Piata Revolutiei, as well as the memorials on Piata Universitatii, where revolutionaries fell.

For a cultural romp, Bucharest offers some superb museums – from those that celebrate peasant art’s contribution to modern masters such as Brancusi, in the Romanian Peasant Museum, to those that celebrate Romania’s contact with European master work, such as the National Art Museum, KH Zambaccian’s Museum, and the former home and now dedicated museum of painter Theodor Aman. Most museums are closed on Monday and some on Tuesday as well. Exquisite churches, such as Patriarchal Cathedral, Stavropoleos Church, and the Russian-style St Nicholas Students’ Church, sit like precious jewels in the crown of the city’s skyline.

Visitors should note that Romanians are extremely religious and devoted to the healing powers of icons – these beliefs should always be respected. After hours of sightseeing, there are few places more pleasant to relax in than one of Bucharest’s beautiful parks.

Tourist Information
There is no tourism office in Bucharest and neither hotels nor travel agents can help much either, since there are scarcely any brochures published in foreign languages. The government office listed below can be visited by appointment only.

Romanian Tourism Ministry
Strada Apolodor 17
Tel: (01) 410 0422. Fax: (01) 410 0820.
E-mail: turism@kappa.ro
Website: http://mtromania.ro
Opening hours: Daily 0800-1630.

Passes
There are no tourist passes currently available in Bucharest.