The history fresco
Seventy metres and 25 scenes from Trajan to Ferdinand.
Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bybbisch94, Christian Gebhardt — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rakoon — CC0
Bucharest's loveliest symbol: the Athenaeum is a round concert hall with a dome and Greek columns on Calea Victoriei, built by a French architect in 1888 with money raised from citizens under the slogan "Give a leu for the Athenaeum" when the project's funds ran out — so it became the house the city truly owns. The interior is the marvel: a marble lobby with four spiral stairs and gilded columns, then the circular hall of eight hundred seats under a star-painted dome, ringed by a seventy-metre fresco telling Romania's history from Trajan to King Ferdinand in 25 scenes — read like a film strip as you circle the hall. Here George Enescu conducted the Philharmonic that bears his name, and here his festival plays every second September. Daytime visits take a token ticket when there are no rehearsals; better still, attend an evening concert at prices far below Western Europe's.
Seventy metres and 25 scenes from Trajan to Ferdinand.
Four spiral stairs under gilded columns.
Eight hundred seats under a painted sky.
Strada Benjamin Franklin 1-3, Bucharest
The Cesianu-Racoviță PalaceA late nineteenth-century town palace on Calea Victoriei, built by the Cesianu f1 minute walk4.8
The Theodor Aman MuseumThe painter Theodor Aman's house in central Bucharest is Romania's first art mus2 minutes walk4.8
The National Museum of Romanian LiteratureThe National Museum of Romanian Literature gathers the manuscripts, letters, lib2 minutes walk4.6
The Equestrian Statue of Carol IA bronze equestrian statue of Carol I, Romania's first king, in Revolution Squar2 minutes walk4.8
National Museum of Art of RomaniaThe royal palace itself: the National Museum of Art occupies the palace of Roman2 minutes walk4.5Romania's greatest musician: violinist, composer and conductor, trained in Vienna and Paris and teacher of Yehudi Menuhin; his Romanian Rhapsodies are the country's most famous music.
The Philharmonic's programme is on its website, tickets at the box office or online; Thursday and Friday evenings are the most regular outside summer.