Craiova Art Museum: Romania’s Palace Showpiece

The palace’s façade is defined by a balance of arched windows with gilded façade ornamentation, capital-topped Corinthian columns, ornate ironwork balconies, gilded corbels, and slate-covered steep-pitched roof towers. The enormous palace accommodates 29 rooms, plus annexes. Ana del Castillo/ Shutterstock

The architecture of Craiova Art Museum in Romania serves as a stunning setting for some of Romania’s finest paintings and sculptures, from the medieval era to modernity. It was built as a palace for Constantin Mihail (Michael Constantine) between the late 1800s and early 1900s, based on an original design by architect Paul Gottereau. The building became an art museum in the 1950s.

Eclectic in its design, the palace boasts a mix of French Academic Classicism, a style influenced by art at the French Academy in Rome, and late-baroque elements, defined by lavishness and grandeur.

Though Gottereau reportedly gleaned design ideas from other French palaces, like Cheverny Palace in the Loire Valley, his goal was to achieve symmetry while simultaneously presenting the affluence and opulence of its owner.

The museum houses Dutch, Flemish, Italian and French furniture and over 8,000 European and Romanian works of art.

The carriage entrance, or porte cochere, is a covered passageway that gave palace guests an overall view as they approached. A pediment sculpture features Greek motifs, including flora and fauna. (Paul Horia Malaianu/Shutterstock)

Carrara marble, quarried only in Italy, was used throughout the palace, including on stairways. A wide columned railing, carved scrollwork, and a deep-set framed and paned porthole window grace the view when ascending. Paul Horia Malaianu/Shutterstock

The palace’s iron gate showcases circular scrollwork over the arched design. Iron-topped columns adorned with sculpted wolf-head images and other ornamentation flank the gate. Painstaking heating, hammering, shaping, and fitting were required to create the artistic and functional wrought-iron gate. Paul Horia Malaianu/Shutterstock

Instead of full stairs, red-carpeted Carrara marble step-up platforms with wrought-iron railings uniquely distinguish the interior stair hall. A banquet of exceedingly intricate design elements engulfs visitors when they step into the space. Gilded and deeply molded coats of arms flank one of the atrium ceiling’s windows. Classical Corinthian columns support arched openings and are visible from every angle. Ana del Castillo/Shutterstock

One of the entryways displays precise symmetry. Two doors flank a statuary niche. Panels trimmed with decorative molding are situated between and beside each door. Lined up at the base of each panel are smaller vertical panels also trimmed in molding. Over the matching doors are thick swag moldings. The flooring is parquet. Ana del Castillo/Shutterstock

Looking up into the second floor balcony, an ornate wrought-iron railing with a scrollwork design is encircled by both a lavishly detailed and gilded wreath and a decorative band set trimmed in moldings. Crystal and brass chandeliers accentuate the opening. Central over one of the second-floor windows is a highly embellished, gilded sash showcasing the face of a figure over which are playful cherubs. Ana del Castillo/Shutterstock

The palace’s ballroom now displays works of art. A Murano crystal chandelier hangs from a molded, gilded ceiling medallion. Molded and gilded “frames” set off aspects of the detailed wall treatments; these gilded frame designs are repeated in a more subtle way at the base of the doors. (Ana del Castillo/Shutterstock) 

What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to [email protected]