Bucharest – the capital of Romania
Of special value in the collection of the museum of arts of the academy is a collection of books consisting of several thousand volumes including editions illustrated by fine prints of XVI, XVII and XVIII centuries and incunabula as well as many books on art.
Museums of folk lore impress one with the riches of exhibits of decorative-applied art created by Romanian craftsmen throughout the centuries.
The Village Museum founded in 1906 is one of the biggest in the world. It is situated near Herastrau Lake in a park. The museum looks like a huge village: more than three hundred buildings and over 22,000 items of peasant household are exhibited here. The establishers of the museum fully recovered interiors of the peasants’ habitations. Carpets, embroideries, carvings on wood, icons, costumes and ceramics can be seen in the peasants’ homes.
Museum of people’s art is located in the former palace of one of the Hospodars of Romania and has more than 40,000 exhibits. The best collection of national costumes in the country is represented here along with carved chests for dowry decorated with various ornaments, spinning wheels, ceramics; a section of folk paintings on wood and glass mostly from Transylvania is also of note; there is a rich collection of icons.
The Romanian history museum was opened in 1972. The exposition of the museum is located in the sections of the pre-historic and ancient periods of Romanian history, the history of the Middle Ages, Modern history, the sections of numismatics and history of culture. Among the exhibits there is the famous Pietro-Asskiy hoard: golden helmet of V- IV centuries B. C., ancient earthen vessels and little statues, for example, so called Thinker of 3200 B. C.
In Bucharest there are a number of theaters, the most famous of which are: the National Theater, the Opera and Ballet Theater, the Theater of Comedy. Bucharest is the biggest scientific center of the country. Along with the Academy of Science and the University there are also a Conservatory, Institute of Fine Arts, Polytechnic and other institutes that are working. The National Library, the libraries of the Academy and the
University have rich funds.