The top-lit galleries
Complete white with light falling from above.
MARe is a private museum opened in 2018 in the quiet Primăverii district north of Bucharest, and among the most successful pieces of architecture built in the city in the past decade. The building is itself a reason to go: it is a block of dark brick almost without windows to the street, holding white galleries lit from above. The intention is that a visitor is cut off from the city entirely on entering. The collection concentrates on **Romanian art from 1965 to the present** — art made under communist censorship and then after its fall, the most interesting period in Romanian art and the least shown in the national museums. It was assembled as a private collection before the museum opened. **Small and comfortable** — an hour is enough — with a café and a terrace.
Complete white with light falling from above.
The period least shown in the national museums.
Bulevardul Primăverii 15, Bucharest
Ceaușescu House (Primăverii Palace)The house the dictator lived in while his people queued for bread: Primăverii Pa4 minutes walk4.5
The Zambaccian MuseumThe Zambaccian Museum is the house of an Armenian-Romanian merchant, Krikor Zamb10 minutes walk4.9
Arch of Triumph"Little Paris" with an arch of its own: the Arcul de Triumf stands mid-way along11 minutes walk4.6
The Monument to the Heroes of the AirThe Monument to the Heroes of the Air stands at the centre of a roundabout on Bu12 minutes walk4.6
National Village MuseumA whole Romanian village on the shore of Lake Herăstrău: the Dimitrie Gusti muse15 minutes walk4.7The northern district the communist party elite lived in, and still the most expensive part of Bucharest. Its streets are wide and shaded by large trees and its houses are 1930s and 1940s villas behind walls — a scene that looks nothing like the rest of the city. It holds **Ceaușescu's house**, the Primăverii Palace, visited with a ticket and advance booking, and among the most recommendable things in Bucharest: twenty-six rooms left furnished as they were in 1989, with gilded bathrooms and a mosaic swimming pool. This museum is minutes away, and the two make a half day.