Breakfast

Visit:
Muzeul Colectiilor de Arta (Art Collection Museum). First, a few words about the building. The Casa Romanit was constructed in 1822 as a private residence, before being bought by the state in 1883 to serve as the country's Supreme Court. After the communist takeover in the 1940s it was used as a dumping ground for the collections of wealthy Romanians not allowed to retain their art by the regime. There are some fantastic works on show, including paintings by all of Romania's greatest artists, from Nicolae Grigorescu to Theodor Pallady. In terms of artistic importance the collections here are second only to those at the National Museum of Art.

Biserica Doamnei (Doamnei Church)
Built in 1683 under the orders of Princess Maria, wife of Prince Serban Cantacuzino, this church is dedicated to the 'well-known Saint Hramu Vavedenie Prea Sviatie Vladiciti Nasei Bogorodoti Prisnoviavi Marii.' Bucharest's Biserica Doamnei was the first church in the city to boast octagonal stone pillars.
Note the decorative floral motives of oriental origin at the foot and on top of each column and on the door. The original paintings were lost during previous repair work. Slowly but surely, the interior is being restored.

Muzeul de Istorie a Municipiului Bucuresti (Museum of the History of Bucharest)
Rather bland exhibition of Neolithic artifacts uncovered from around the city and the region, housed in the elegant, Neo-Gothic Sutu Palace, built from 1833-4 for the wealth merchant Costache Sutu. Old postcards and costumes depict life in the Romanian capital in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries.

Ateneul Român (The Romanian Athenaeum)
The second most famous (and definitely more beautiful) building in Romania plays host to the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra as well as a wide range of other top performers. The circular design and domed roof are both architecturally fascinating and make for brilliant acoustics.

After lunch we will visit The Cantacuzino Palace (1898-1900), built in French baroque style, it presently hosts the ‘George Enescu’ Museum.

Theodor Pallady Museum (Casa Melik, Muzeul Theodor Pallady) Theodor Pallady (1871-1953) was an early Cubist artist widely regarded as Romania's most influential 20 ^th century painter. Schooled in Dresden and Paris, Pallady was influenced by the Symbolist environment of the late 19^th century, and his paintings before 1916 contain Symbolist motifs, sometimes with echoes of Moreau and Puvis de Chavannes. The entire small museum that today bears his name has only six of his paintings, a couple of his sketches and assorted other art. The museum's saving grace is the house in which it is hosted: the oldest in Bucharest. Originally called the Casa Melik, it was built around 1750 by the rich Armenian Hagi Kevork Nazaretoglu. Walk over the enchantingly creaky wooden floors and admire the decorated ceilings.

Biserica Kretulescu (Kretulescu Church)
Probably the most celebrated historic church in Bucharest. Biserica Cretulescu was raised from 1720-2 by Iordache Cretulescu and his wife Safta, a daughter of Romanian humanitarian Constantin Brâncoveanu. The outstanding paintings on the entrance are original, the work of an unknown artist, while the interior icons were added in 1859 by Gheroghe Tattarescu. Damaged during the fighting of December 1989, the church has recently been restored to its full glory, and is a must.

Concert at the Romanian Athenaeum.

Dinner
Accommodation in a 3* hotel
Overnight

Breakfast

Today we will take ‘The Revolution Tour’ and see the places where the Romanian Revolution took place in 1989

The Civic Center
Of all the atrocities committed on Romanian territory in the name of socialism, few rank as monstrous as the destruction of an entire district of the capital to make way for the Centru Civic, or Civic Center. Street Uranus was completely razed to the ground, as were most of the streets running from it. The centerpiece of the Civic Centre, Casa Poporului stands on the site of the Republic sports stadium, a wonderful art deco construction based on Rome's Olympic Stadium. Churches, houses, hospitals and even a monastery also had to make way for Casa Poporului, and for the five kilometer long Unirii Blvd., which stand today as little more than monuments to madness. The northern end of Unirii Blvd. has become a ghost town while the Casa Poporului itself survives as the site of the Romanian parliament, and is rather worryingly the city's most popular attraction.

Lunch

Piata Revolutiei (The Revolution Square)
It was here, at around midday on December 21, 1989, that the Ceausescu regime began to crumble. A white marble triangle, with the inscription ‘Glorie martirilor nostril’ (Glory to our martyrs), points (slightly inaccurately) to the low balcony above the entrance of the former Central Committee building (today the Senate) from where Nicolae Ceausescu held his last public speech. It is today difficult to imagine all that went on the not so distant past, as the area is quiet, but the (deliberately preserved) bullet holes on the building opposite (above the Humanitas book shop) are a reminder of the madness of those December days. After initial protests here (which forced Ceausescu to abandon the speech) the crowd was fired upon, and dispersed, only to regroup in Piata Universitatii.

Piata Universitatii (University Square)
Ten stone crosses on the traffic island in the middle of Nicolae Balcescu Blvd. pay homage to those killed during the revolution, while a black cross at number 18 marks the spot where the first victim of the revolution fell in Bucharest. Mihai Gâtlan died here on December 21, 1989, at 17:30. Revolutionaries had gathered here after the earlier protests at the Central Committee building further along the road.
(See Piata Revolutiei). A long night of pointless killing followed, with die hard revolutionaries manning barricades in front of the Inter Continental hotel, from where forces loyal to the old regime, as well as conscript soldiers who had little idea what was going on, fired into the crowd as it was forced to disperse shortly before dawn.

Televiziunea Romana (Romanian Television)
Sight of one of the fiercest battles of the December 1989 revolution, it was from the broadcasting rooms in this building that the end of the Ceausescu regime was proclaimed on the night of December 22/23 1989.
The rather futuristic building itself dates from 1968, to this day remains the home of state television.

Dinner
Accommodation in a 3* hotel
End of day 4