04 Jul2016
Beautiful Bucharest Cotroceni and Noblesse Palace
There were many things that surprised me about Bucharest and all those beautiful palaces were one of them for sure. The Palace of Parliament is definitely a great place to visit but it’s not the only beautiful building in the Romanian capital.
During our 6-day visit we had a chance to check out the Cotroceni Palace and the Noblesse Palace, both very stylish in a different way.
Cotroceni
What to know about Cotroceni Palatul:
- Palatul means palace in Romanian
- The building is now known as the Presidential Palace and now also the National Museum.
- It was built in 1679 and first served as a monastery.
- Then it was modernised in 1886, the Prince moved in there and it became the official Presidential Palace in 1991.
- For a few years it was used for children between 9 to 14 years.
- In 1977 the 7.2 earthquake destroyed part of Cotroceni so a new wing was built.
- Then in 1991 one wing became National Cotroceni Museum which is open to the public.
- The President of Romania doesn’t live in the palace nowadays, he only works there and accepts guests.
- To enter, you need to go through security and leave all your belongings there, including the cameras. We have just one photo from our visit taken by our local photographer who was part of the organizer team.
- the German dining room in the museum has a portrait of Carol I king who looked like our local friend Toma.
- In 1927 they decorated the hunting room with bear furs added later.
- Golden room is the white room with golden design and with the first Romanian Queen Elizabeth piano.
- Out of the original 6,000 books only 2,500 books are found there now. They are all original and belonged to the King.
- There was a secret door to the king’s room upstairs.
- Romanian style hall has temporary exhibitions, such as paintings.
- Upstairs there is a working desk that belonged to Carol I before the WWI.
- Scottish leaves are decorating one of the rooms.
- All the carpets were made in Romania after the 1977 earthquake.
- There’s a pretty French style room.
- Queen Maria’s bedroom is decorated in English Tudor style. Queen Maria visited her cousin in Norway and so liked the style there she had to decorate her chapel in Norwegian style. The original wooden decoration remained there and it made it to my favorite room in the entire Palace.
- A church is located in the patio. The church was built in 1671, demolished in 1984 and the current church was built there again in 2003 and 2009. You can see many frescos inside with golden altar from older times. Anyone can come inside to the church for the mass on Sundays but have to pass through the security. There’s chairs in the church so people can sit during concerts which are sometimes organised there.
- I loved walking along the red carpet while looking at all the golden designs :)
- Check out Cotroceni Museum website for more information.
Noblesse Palace
What to know about Noblesse Palace:
- Noblesse Palace is a really cute building from 1881 where we had dinner.
- First it was a bank, then a school for kids, then bought by the current owner.
- 5,500 pieces of marble form the palace floor.
- In the entrance hall they sell everything you can see in there. We were the first ones to see the French art Matis there which was in Romania for the first time. It was made out of 83 pieces.
- In the room on the right we saw collages on the wall representing the way how a child sees a dream, i.e. very dynamic and colourful.
- During the restoration they found more than 200 pieces of papers from the communist era. Some of them were put under glass at the wall. Even a paper speaking about a teacher who fled from the country (something like that was not allowed in that era).
- 12 architects and other 13 people are working there in the very cool offices downstairs.
- The walls are from the original bricks.
- Super cool male room with wood built in Luis 15 and 16th style.
- My favourite room ever was the top back one with colorful tapestries with red parrots and trees. All decorated in pink with a stunning female sofa and photographs. Very barbie-like.
- We had two young ladies play and sing for us at the Noblesse Palace while enjoying a dinner.
- Many different events are/can be organized in the Noblesse Palace so please contact them directly via their website.
Thanks to Eventur for making our Bucharest palaces visits possible.
