The Romanian Athenaeum (Ateneul Roman) is the most important concert hall in Bucharest and one of the most beautiful buildings in the city, a domed Neoclassical concert hall on the edge of the historic Revolution Square in the centre of the Romanian capital. The Athenaeum is the home of the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and the principal venue of the celebrated George Enescu International Festival, and is regarded as a symbol of Romanian culture and national identity. The Athenaeum was built between 1886 and 1888 to a design by the French architect Albert Galleron, funded in large part by a remarkable public subscription. When the funds raised proved insufficient to complete the building, a national appeal was launched under the slogan "Give a leu for the Athenaeum" (Dati un leu pentru Ateneu), and the people of Romania contributed the small coins needed to finish the building - a story that gave the Athenaeum a special place in the national affection as a monument built by the people. The building was conceived as a cultural centre for the Romanian Cultural Society. The building combines a circular domed concert hall with an Ionic-columned portico modelled on a Greek temple. The interior is sumptuously decorated: the grand entrance rotunda has a ceiling supported on gilded Ionic columns, and a spiral staircase of Carrara marble leads up to the concert hall. The circular concert hall itself, seating around six hundred and fifty, is encircled by a magnificent fresco seventy metres long and three metres high, painted by Costin Petrescu in the 1930s, which depicts the principal scenes of Romanian history from the Roman conquest of Dacia to the unification of the modern Romanian state. The Athenaeum has been the principal stage of Romanian musical life since its opening, and the great Romanian composer and violinist George Enescu was closely associated with it. It is the central venue of the George Enescu International Festival, one of the most prestigious classical-music festivals in eastern Europe, held every two years. The hall is renowned for its fine acoustics and continues to host the year-round concert season of the George Enescu Philharmonic. The building can also be visited outside concert times, and stands on Revolution Square close to the former Royal Palace.

Type: Bar / Pub

Address: Strada Benjamin Franklin 1-3, Bucharest, Romania

Website: https://www.fge.org.ro

Capacity: 650

Opening Date: 01/01/1888