Night of the Museums in Bucharest is one of the most expected events for those who love to immerse themselves in the city’s cultural vibe. Organized all over Europe, Night of the Museums allows visitors to glimpse what museums in Bucharest offer throughout the year.
Night of the Museums in Bucharest 2024
This year’s edition of Night of the Museums takes place on Saturday, May 18, and looks promising. Here is our selection of the best locations not to miss during the Night of Museums in Bucharest 2024.
A Night at the Museum of the Romanian Peasant
Visiting hours during the Night of the Bucharest Museums: 18.00-21.30, May 18.
The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, which, through this event, evokes and pays tribute to the outstanding personality in the national culture of Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș.
1907 – We want land
Through the exhibition 1907. We want land, the Peasant’s Museum thus proposes an objective and multi-focused retrospective that reads, in the national cultural landscape, the attention on these events, their importance, and their tragic character for the entire Romanian society.
The [in]visible museum #5. Subject, image, object – Sala Irina Nicolau
The exhibition together of the posters, curatorial ideas and a series of objects that could be found at the Târgurile martișorului, at the Pots and urns, Laces and embroidery, Stitching fabrics, or in the visual essays dedicated to ethnological themes such as Materia martir. Wheat / The art of passing. Play, games, toys.
The War Childhood Museum – New Hall Gallery
WCM is an independent, youth-run museum dedicated exclusively to childhoods affected by armed conflict. Appearing from the „crowdsourced” book „War Childhood”, the museum opened its doors in 2017, in Sarajevo, after seven years of research and development. Currently, the museum holds over 4,100 personal items and hundreds of hours of oral history testimonies (some of which we will use in educational workshops)—Jasminko Halilović, himself a child of war.
„100 Romanian Traditions” fair (in the inner courtyard)
Artisans from all parts of the country bring to the museum courtyard handcrafted objects, crafted or skillfully restored over the winter: wipes and rugs from the area of Bistrița Năsăudului, ii from Bucovina, Mehedinți or Breaza, scarves, shawls, Oltenia carpets, icons, necklaces, jugs and candles, wooden objects for the household.
A night at the National Military Museum
Visiting hours during the Night of the Bucharest Museums: 12.00-24.00, May 18.
During this event, those who will choose the National Military Museum will be able to visit the Pavilion of General Military History, where the national history of Romania is presented from the point of view of the development of the phenomenon of armed conflict, from the first stone age, until the participation of the Army of Romania within the international missions. A point of interest will be related to the temporary exhibition related to the Road to the Coronation in 1922, where it will be possible to admire two uniforms worn by King Ferdinand I and Queen Maria as well as the original carriage used during the ceremonies in Alba-Iulia and Bucharest.
In addition to the old barracks of the 4th Regiment „Ilfov” No. 21, visitors will be able to visit the Aviation Pavilion, where they will be able to admire the history of air weapons, from the aerostat to the descent module with which the only Romanian who returned to Earth arrived in space gl. Lt. (ret.) Dumitru Prunariu.
A night at the Museum of Natural History – Grigore Antipa
Visiting hours during the Night of the Bucharest Museums: 19.00-01.00 May 18.
The National Museum of Natural History „Grigore Antipa” has prepared for the Night of Museums 2024. This program includes a free visit to the permanent exhibition and the opening of the temporary exhibition „Beyond the Seas and the Seas”. In the hope that we will have favourable weather conditions, the Museum’s researchers propose you discover the little creatures with whom we share the night in a series of activities held in the Museum’s courtyard between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.
The unique program of the Night of the Museums 2024 in Antipa will start on Saturday, May 18, 2024, at 19:00 and will end on Sunday, May 14, at 01:00. During this event, public access will be free!
On Saturday, May 18, between 10:00 and 17:00 (the last visitor will enter at 16:00), the „Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History will be OPEN!
Program of events:
-19:00 – Opening of the temporary exhibition „Over seas and seas”;
-19:00 – 01:00: Visiting the permanent exhibition of the Museum;
-22:00 – 23:00: Entomological collection of nocturnal insects with the help of unique light sources, under the coordination of museum specialists.
The activities carried out in the garden of the „Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History will only take place in favourable weather conditions.
A night at Tiriac Car Collection
Visiting hours during the Night of the Bucharest Museums: 17.00-22.00 May 18.
The gallery is the only private collection in the world to hold all seven models of the Rolls Royce Phantom series, including a unit from the IV series, the most exclusive generation Rolls Royce ever built. Only 18 such vehicles were produced between 1950 and 1956 and were initially intended for royal families and heads of state.
The oldest exhibit in the collection is a Hurtu 3 1/2 Quadricycle, manufactured in 1899, one of only seven examples still in existence today.
Ţiriac Collection occupies an area of approximately 4,300 square meters and is located in Otopeni, opposite Henri Coandă airport. The gallery also benefits from a dedicated mobile application for free for iOS and Android.
A night at the Central University Library Carol I
Visiting hours during the Night of the Bucharest Museums: 18.00-24.00 May 18.
The Carol I Central University Library offers you a complex route composed of the following points of interest:
– Directors’ Gallery (painter Stelian Neicu);
– the hall next to the Teachers’ Hall (in the square is the plaster bust of King Charles I, made by plastic artist Eugen Ilina). The lobby is floored with marble; the windows have stained glass – everything is entirely new, redone according to the original models;
– Space Time Capsule;
– Teachers’ Hall „Al. Tzigara Samurcaş” – director of the library for 47 years;
– Salon „Carol I” (two paintings representing the royal family – King Charles I, Queen Elizabeth – painter Ion Drăghici);
– Multimedia Hall „Ing. Petre Badea”
Visitors are invited to write impressions about the library and the event.
A night at the Museum of the Bucharest Municipality
Visiting hours during the Night of the Bucharest Museums: 17.00-23.00, May 18.
At Casa Filipescu-Cesianu (Calea Victoriei no. 151) it will be possible to visit the permanent exhibition „Museum of the Ages – from childhood to old age”. The Museum of Ages tells a story about intimacy and the evolution of relations between generations in the last three hundred years, for the Romanian urban environment, with Bucharest as a case study. The Museum of the Ages is a projection of what a day would have looked like from the 18th century to the present. And, above all, about how this symbolic day has evolved in history with each generation. The Filipescu-Cesianu House represents the arrangement of an older building from 1846-1850. It is one of the few aristocratic residences of Bucharest from the Belle Époque, which remained faithful to the original project.
Special event, between 19.00 and 21.30, in the garden of Casa Filipescu-Cesianu: Romanians at the Gates of the World. The show, organized by the MASCA Theatre, will give viewers a chance to know the secrets that motivated and inspired Smaranda Gheorghiu, Ștefania Mărăcineanu, Ana de Noailles, Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu, Elena Caragiani-Stoienescu, Martha Bibesco, Grigore Antipa, Victor Babeș and Angel Saligny.
A night at the Astronomical Observatory in Bucharest
Visiting hours during the Night of the Bucharest Museums: 20.00-03.00, May 18.
At the Admiral Vasile Urseanu Astronomical Observatory (Bd. Lascăr Catargiu, no. 2) you can visit the permanent exhibition „Discovering the Universe Together,” and astronomical observations will be organized, weather permitting. The astronomy exhibition „Discovering the Universe Together” is about the solar system and its exploration, planets, stars and galaxies. The exhibition’s primary purpose is to illustrate our place in the Universe. A secondary theme is exploring the solar system, with space probes being represented in a novel way.
A night at the Cotroceni National Museum
Visiting hours during the Night of the Bucharest Museums: 14.00-21.00, May 18.
The Cotroceni National Museum awaits you on Saturday, May 18, 2024, to participate in the 19th edition of the European Night of Museums Program.
This year’s tour includes:
- The royal salons, located on the first floor of the Museum;
- Saloon Cerchez where the VR drawing and holography exhibition of the artist Ioana Pioaru takes place – The City: a disappearance;
- The Medieval Spaces where the 2024 Decorative Arts Salon takes place.
Upon entering the Cotroceni National Museum, an original identity document (C.I. or passport) will be presented.
A night at the National Museum of Romanian Art
Visiting hours during the Night of the Bucharest Museums: 19.00-23.00, May 18.
For the 2024 edition of the Night of Museums program, the National Museum of Art offers the public free access to permanent and temporary exhibitions at the headquarters in the 19.00 – 23.00 program (last access at 23.00, museum closing at 24.00).
Opened to the general public in 1950, the Museum of Art currently includes the National Gallery (with the Old Romanian Art Gallery and the Modern Romanian Art Gallery), the European Art Gallery, as well as the historical spaces of the former royal palace (the Throne Hall, the Royal Dining Room, the Voivods’ Staircase).
The National Art Museum of Romania brings together three other museums in Bucharest, which house unique collections of Romanian and international art – from the Impressionist and post-impressionist periods. These museums are: the Museum of Art Collections, Museum K.H. Zambaccian and the Theodor Pallady Museum, the latter operating in one of the oldest houses in Bucharest.
If you want to visit the best of Bucharest’s attractions during the day, please, check out our Bucharest travel guide. It is one of the most extensive regarding Bucharest, with many touristic objectives listed and many attractions to visit during the day or night.
