Sutu Palace is right in the center of Bucharest, on I.C. Bratianu Bvd, No 2, near the University of Bucharest, and is not only a beautiful, classical building, with rich interior and exterior decorations, but also a cultural landmark of great importance, as it houses the Museum of Bucharest, a place where one could find everything and anything about the fascinating history of this capital. The palace also has an interesting history, being built in a really short period of time, in 1833 - 1834, following the project signed by two architects from Vienna, Johan Veit and Conrad Schwinck, highly praised at that time for their skill and talent. The two tried to offer Sutu something different, so they built the palace in a Neo-Gothical style, rather unusual for Bucharest at that time, but furthermore enhancing the unicity of the palace.
The family that owned the palace - Costache and Irina Sutu - wanted it to be much more than a simple (however elegant) living space, and by the middle of the 19th century it had become one of the gathering places for high society, every party organised by the Sutu family being the stuff of legends. As a high ranking and rich official, Costache Sutu could afford nearly everything, while his wife had the taste and elegance to transform the palace into something else. The massive construction, with four small towers on the sides, was surrounded - at that time - by luxury gardens, with some exotic plants, where peacocks, pheasants and other rare birds simply walked around. It was surely a sight to behold.
The interior decorations, very well restored, were made by a certain Karl Storck, a Romanian sculptor of German birth, who tries and succeeded into harmonising the Neo-Classical style with the Neo-Gothical architecture, for a rich, vast and impressive result. Of the greatest interest is the large central stairway, as well as the several building changes and especially the above glass dome, richly decorated. The monumental wooden doors, the huge crystal chandelier, the original furniture still on display, the vast spaces of every room are to be admired from the very first visit. And it seems only suitable for this palace to host the Museum of Bucharest, o superb institution dedicated to recording, preserving and presenting the complicated and long history of the city. This museum was officially opened in 1921, and nowadays it's collections contain over 400.000 objects, discovered on the site of the city over time or relating to it's history, from prehistoric discoveries to contemporary documents, artefacts, works of art, as well as statues, jewelery, paintings, statues, photos, manuscripts, books and various magazines and newspapers, and much more than that.
On the first floor you can admire a perfectly preserved living room, typical for Bucharest in the 19th century, an elegant space, worthy of the Sutu palace, with expensive, original furniture, rich decorations, a great number of accessories. The walls are painted in crimson, with brown and blue decorative elements, rather few in number. In the next halls of the museum you can see several collections of objects and artefacts, starting with the prehistorical times and ending with the 20th century, representing various time frames in the history of Bucharest. The museum also has a very rich library on the subject, as well as the biggest collection of documents regarding the city of Bucharest, many of them unique and interesting especially for researchers. Downstairs, in the hallway or the meeting halls there are often hosted temporary exhibitions of painting or photography, and even concerts of chamber music.
December 2007
