National Museum of Romanian History — Attraction in Bucharest

This museum is renowned for both its replica of Trajan’s Column (the original is in Rome) and its stunning collection of Dacian/Greek/Roman jewelry and artifacts. Honestly, I read some of the other reviews in disbelief - did they bother to read anything while visiting?

The history museum is located in a former post office, a historically listed building that is stunning in itself. But as Romania becomes economically able, buildings are being restored - and that is why only part of the museum’s vast holdings are on display. They are currently packing up about 700,000 artifacts for a building restoration that will take several years.

The “old column,” as some reviewers call it, is a history of the war Roman Emperor Trajan waged against the Dacians, the tribe living in this area during his reign. The Dacian King Decebalus fought so well, Trajan allowed him the option of suicide rather than being paraded in chains in Rome. The column is an important history of that war, including visual info on Dacian dress, architecture, etc., and is a major sight in Rome.,

This museum has reproduced each and every panel of the column and displayed them at eye level, allowing you close access. The large display room also includes stela from Ancient Greek sites on the coast, and Roman sites across the country.

The other major exhibit is Historical Treasures, a stunning collection of money, jewelry, armor, crowns, etc from ancient history up through the recent Royal Family. It is a “must see” when in Bucharest!

Because only a small portion of the museum’s holdings are on display, even a slow visit will take about two hours. Well worth your time! Lockers are available for belongings with toilets at...

Born and lived in Romania for 36 years and I've seen this museum at least twice. If during your stay in Bucharest you have time for two museums this would be one of my recommendations to you. Cheap tickets and you can buy memorabilia.

This summer was the most recent visit because we took our children there in our short stay in Romania. When you are like me, raised with contradicting history lessons you want to see the artifacts, go to the source, find who wrote about what and look at originals. The copy of Traian's column inside the museum is huge and split into pieces which is a lot of work. It doesn't compare to look at it in a museum but you can take time to see every detail. (I've been to Rome in 2007 and saw the original but it was hard to enjoy the details; what a sight!)

The museum's staff did a wonderful job at sharing perspectives, laying the timeline of Romanian history along with maps. This is way better than I learnt in school - easy to learn, remember, compare, based on color coding, bilingual.

Take your time, especially if you love artifacts and can trace back symbols or are into mythology, spirituality, history, geography, art, architecture, weaponry, World Wars. You can associate what your family or children have been studying with the items and very good descriptions you find in the collections. Great place for unschoolers/homeschoolers/worldschoolers.

Even though I didn't find enough description in the area with the Romanian treasures (next to each artifact there that is where at times it was difficult to read the text on glass...) I still give it 5 stars for what the staff did...

The museum only has three areas open to visit right now. The first is small and dedicated to textiles. The second exposition is Columnei Lui Traian, and I found it interesting. There is a large replica of part of the column and then NUMEROUS replicas of smaller sections and a short movie providing more details ( Subtitles in English). The third section was the one I enjoyed, and featured jewelry artifacts found in Romania as old as 1200 BC, and even one exhibit from 5250 BC ( See Stock photo : The Thinkers) .We visited on a hot summer day, and the only section that felt air conditioned was where the jewelry was. We bought tickets online, but the staff had some what of a hard time scanning them- but they were friendly, and we were able to get in. There are lockers for belongings, but nobody said anything about our backpack, so we brought it in. Admission was only $5.00, so all in all, a great value. Some of the explanation cards for exhibits were in Romanian and English, and others were only in Romanian. Photography is allowed ( no flash) and staff were pretty relaxed in regard to masks. I recommend a visit to this museum. It is affordable, and even though there are a small amount of exhibits right now, there are plenty of remarkable...