National History Museum of Romania

National History Museum of Romania
Muzeul Național de Istorie a României
National History Museum of Romania

Established	1892 (1892)
Location	12 Calea Victoriei, Bucharest, Romania
Coordinates	44°25′53.51″N 26°5′50.01″E / 44.4315306°N 26.0972250°E / 44.4315306; 26.0972250
Website	www.mnir.ro

The National History Museum of Romania (Romanian: Muzeul Național de Istorie a României) is a museum located at 12 Calea Victoriei in Bucharest, Romania, which contains Romanian historical artifacts from prehistoric times up to modern times.

The museum is located inside the former Postal Services Palace, which also houses a philatelic museum. With a surface of over 8,000 square metres (86,000 square feet), the museum has approximately 60 valuable exhibition rooms. The permanent displays include a plaster cast of the entirety of Trajan's Column, the Romanian Crown Jewels, and the Pietroasele treasure.^[1]

The building was authorized, in 1892, and the architect, Alexandru Săvulescu was sent with the postal inspector, Ernest Sturza, to tour various postal facilities of Europe for the design. The final sketches were influenced primarily by the postal facility in Geneva. Built in an eclectic style, it is rectangular with a large porch on a high basement and three upper floors. The stone façade features a portico supported by 10 Doric columns and a platform consisting of 12 steps spanning the length of the building. There are many allegorical sculptural decorative details.^[2]

As of 2012^[update], the museum is undergoing extensive restoration work and is only partially open; a late medieval archaeological site was discovered under the building.^[3]