Historic building in Bucharest opens to the public after EUR 2 mln restoration

Cesianu House Museum in Bucharest was opened to the public on June 22, after consolidation and restoration work worth RON 8.6 million (nearly EUR 2 million). The works started almost two years ago. For over 60 years, the building located on Calea Victoriei boulevard was used to stock part of the Bucharest Municipality Museum’s patrimony. “Today, we give back the Cesianu House Museum to the cultural tourism circuit. It is an illustrative example of a nobleman’s house from the early nineteenth century. It is the only monument on Calea Victoriei that kept all the components at their original size,” said Bucharest mayor Sorin Oprescu, present at the museum’s opening. Cesianu House entered a restoration process in November 2013, carried out with a grant awarded under the Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013. The total value of the work amounted to some EUR 2 million, of which EUR 1.3 million represented non-reimbursable EU funding. According to Oprescu, the Filipescu-Cesianu residence park will not only be a recreation space, but it will also host exhibition spaces, concerts, and theater plays. There will also be a modern museum whose exhibition will present the family history, childhood, and everyday life in Bucharest over the last 300 years. Bucharest's municipality has revamped three other historic monuments revamped under the Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013, namely the Arch of Triumph, the Astronomic Observatory and the Nicolae Minovici Museum. Work on the Arch of Triumph started in January 2014 and is now 84% done. The monument should be reopened before December 1, the National Day of Romania. The Astronomic Observatory’s revamping started in August 2014 and is now 37% done. It should be fully completed by November 2015. The authorities started the restoration of Nicolae Minovici Museum in June last year and completed half of it. This project should be completed by September. All these historic monuments will re-enter the cultural tourism circuit. Gabroveni Inn opens in Bucharest’s Old Town – new concert hall & cultural center Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: Sorin Oprescu on Facebook)