Museum of Bucharest

The Museum of Bucharest is based in the sublimely elegant, Neo-Gothic Şuţu Palace, built from 1833-4 for the wealthy aristocrat Costache Şuţu: you will notice as you walk in that the main staircase is particularly opulent. The palace has served as the Museum of Bucharest since 1956 and having been given a reboot recently it is has never been in better shape. The current main exhibition is a history of Bucharest in reverse (which fittingly begins with a unique, backwards clock, made in Paris especially for the building's original owners) and features a vast collection of items key to the city's history. Testimonies from the communist period, as well as the first document mentioning Bucharest (signed by Vlad the Impaler himself) and the mysterious Goddess of Vidra can also be seen. Well worth your time.