Tourist and information
Bucharest is the capital and largest city of Romania. It is the major cultural, economic and financial centre with more than 2 million inhabitants. Although it has been inhabited since ancient times, the first mention as the "Citadel of Bucharest" dates from 1459, when it became the residence of the famous Wallachian Prince Vlad III the Impaler (that presumably inspired Bram Stoker's character Dracula). Bucharest presents a unique mix of old and new (the city centre combines medieval, neoclassical and art nouveau buildings with utilitarian communist era architecture and new skyscraper office buildings), as well as of West and East (with its people speaking a Romance language and belonging mostly to the Greek Orthodox Christian faith).
Local tourists attractions:
- Palace of Parliament - former House of the People, the gigantic building of the communist dictatorship (built and decorated exclusively with Romanian produced materials) is the second largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon in the USA;
- National Village Museum - a great open air, spectacular museum, of traditional original wooden houses, brought from all over the country (some of them being more than 150 years old);
- Famous buildings and museums: Romanian Athenaeum, Arch of Triumph, National Museum of Romanian History, National Art Museum of Romania (former Royal Palace), Museum of the Romanian Peasant, National Museum of Natural History, Old Court Palace Museum (the Old Court was built in the second part of the 15th-century by Vlad the Impaler) etc;
- Old and beautifully restored churches: Old Court Church (the oldest still standing in Bucharest, dating from 1545), Romanian Patriarchal Cathedral, Stavropoleos Monastery, Kretzulescu Church, Domnita Balasa Church and many more.
- Great parks: Herastrau Park (the biggest park in Bucharest), Cismigiu Gardens (the oldest park in Bucharest), Carol Park etc.
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