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. |