Cotroceni Palace (Palatul Cotroceni) is a grand former royal palace in the Cotroceni district of western Bucharest, today serving as the official residence of the President of Romania and housing the National Cotroceni Museum. The palace complex occupies the site of a seventeenth-century monastery and combines royal state apartments, a national museum and the working seat of the Romanian presidency within a single historic ensemble set in extensive gardens. The site has a long history. In 1679 the Wallachian prince Serban Cantacuzino founded a monastery on the Cotroceni hill, which became an important religious and royal foundation. In the second half of the nineteenth century, after Romania gained its independence and King Carol I established the modern monarchy, the monastery grounds were chosen as the site for a royal palace. The palace was built in the 1880s and substantially enlarged and remodelled in the early twentieth century by the architect Grigore Cerchez in a Romanian national-revival style, and it became the residence of the heirs to the throne - the future King Ferdinand and Queen Marie. Queen Marie of Romania, the strong-willed British-born granddaughter of Queen Victoria, made Cotroceni her principal home and left a powerful personal stamp on the palace, decorating the interiors in a highly individual blend of Art Nouveau, Byzantine and Celtic-influenced styles, including her celebrated golden bedroom and her Norwegian-style dining room. The state apartments preserve these royal interiors, with their fine furniture, tapestries, silver and works of art, and the palace remained a royal residence until the abolition of the monarchy by the communist regime in 1947. The palace today combines two functions. The northern wing, the modern presidential administration building added in the 1980s, is the working seat of the President of Romania, while the historic royal apartments and the surviving sections of the old monastery house the National Cotroceni Museum, which presents the royal interiors, the history of the site and temporary exhibitions. The museum is visited by guided tour with advance booking and identification required because of the active presidential function, and is open Tuesday to Sunday.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Bulevardul Geniului 1, Bucharest, Romania

Website: https://www.muzeulcotroceni.ro

Opening Date: 01/01/1893