Craiova is one of the oldest cities in Romania. Officialy certified in 1475, the town was born at the crossroads of trade routes that crisscrossed the country from north to south to the Balkan Peninsula, and east to west, towards the West.

In 2010, the municipality submited a project for European funds for rehabilitating the historic center. In October 2013, the works start, and in 2015 they are now concluded and the locals have another center – the historical one. The new center highlights another important social function, the communion.

Most of the buildings in Craiova that we now know are built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. That means very recent buildings, if we relate to other cities such as Sibiu (where the oldest building, Gate of the Stairs, dates from the thirteenth century) and Sighisoara, whose fifteenth century walls are still standing. It is perhaps the first paradox of Craiova – an ancient city in terms of certification and history, but new in terms of urbanistic.

Built between 1898 and 1907, in the middle of a city gripped by the renewal fever of the early twentieth century, Mihail Palace stands out through detailed design, that has the distinction of a painstakingly crafted jewelry. Thus are reflected the demands and social status of one of the richest men of the age, his ambition and competitive spirit that helped him to make a fortune. So if Gh. Grigore Cantacuzino, nicknamed “Nabob”, in Bucharest and the royal advisor Valimarescu, on the same street, had assigned the construction of their houses to the famous architect Albert Galleron, which had designed, among other important buildings in the Kingdom, The Romanian Athenaeum, Constantin Mihail did not settle for less. He asked another famous name in the era: Paul Gottereau, the architect of the royal family and the author of the Royal Palace, the Palace Foundation. Reflecting the prevailing trend of the time, that of an eclecticism that successfully combined the rigors of French academicism with elements of late baroque, the construction plan shows many similarities with the Cheverny Palace in the Loire Valley, recognized as an example of balance and architectural elegance.

Exterior details, such as ornaments on the facade, window frames and fittings, balconies, prepare the viewer’s eye for the truly grandiose interior. In the hall of honor, in the reception salons and also in the music salon, in living rooms, but also in all other areas without mundane destination, the building materials were of the highest quality: Carrara marble, Murano crystal and Venetian mirrors, decorative hardware, Lyon silk, gilt moldings, furniture and art objects, purchased in good partmostly from Vienna, through the rich Dumba family, closely related Constantin Mihail. But these standards of luxury are not the only things to impress. We have to recall the skylights and large windows, designed to provide space natural light and the technical equipment related to the comfort of the building, that were outstanding for the period, including electricity and heating plant “Roman type” with pipes placed in the walls and floor. The Palace includes 29 rooms (plus the outbuildings) of which the most spectacular is the Hall of Mirrors.

Opened in 1909 by the two sons, Nicolae and Jean, as Constantin Mihail had died the year before, the Palace began its mission of representation, which had been intended from the beginning. Jean Mihail was cultivated and have broad views. He studied Laws in Paris, wanting to follow a political career. Being a prominent member of the high society and part of the Royal Court, he hosts the royal family in the palace in 1913, for the inauguration of the “That’s the music that I love” monument, named so after the words of Carol I when hearing the cannons that started the War of Independence in 1877. The monument was destroyed immediately after the communists came to power.

Two years later, King Ferdinand and Princess Maria are welcomed at the palace, along with General Averescu, when they visited the Military Hospital in Craiova.

In 1936, Jean Mihail, the last descendant of the family, dies, leaving by testament the entire fortune to the Romanian state. And it was an impressive fortune, considering that during the economic crisis of 1929-1933 he endorsed with it a part of the loans contracted by the Romanian state to the foreign banks. His gesture reflects a high civic sense and patriotism, so the building remained in the public consciousness as the Jean Mihail Palace.

At the beginning of the Second World War, when Romania housed generously Polish refugees, the palace hosted Polish President Ignacy Moscicki, together with his family and Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly, commander in chief of the Polish armed forces. It was also the place where the Treaty from Craiova was signed, in 1940, between Romania and Bulgaria, regarding the disposal of the Cadrilater.

The palace was first opened to the public between the 24th and 31st of October, 1943, during the “Week of Oltenia”, event under the patronage of the Royal Cultural Foundation and during which some of the works of Constantin Brancusi have been exhibited for the first time in Craiova (Boy Head, Girl Head and The Kiss).

Between 1945 and 1950, the palace became the headquarters of ARLUS (Romanian Association for closer ties with the Soviet Union), and the Regional Committee of the PMR in Oltenia, whose secretary was Nicolae Ceausescu (probably reasons of sentimental nature led him later on, after becoming General Secretary of the Communist Party and President of RSR, to decide the preservation and restoration of the building, after being severely damaged during the earthquake of 1977).

Since 1954, following the decision of setting up an art collection, the building was transferred to the Popular Heritage Town Hall, becoming the headquarters of the Art Museum in Craiova.

Part of the Pinacoteca “Alexander Aristia Aman” was moved here, comprising besides the library, furniture and paintings of Dutch, Flemish, Italian and French Schools, during XVII-XIX, painting and graphics by Theodor Aman, Romanian and foreign decorative art. Its patrimony improves in the interwar period through acquisitions made by the town hall and through donations made by great noble families of Craiova: Mihail, Romanescu, Cornetti, Glogoveanu, and others. The acquisitions have continued after the war and transfers were conducted from the National Art Museum and the central state funds.

Currently, the museum’s heritage consists of over 8000 works of Romanian and European art, including the most illustrious names in Romanian painting and sculpture: Theodor Aman, Nicolae Grigorescu, Nicolae Tonitza, Stefan Luchian, George Petrascu, Theodor Pallady, Eustatiu Stoenescu, Ion Tuculescu, Gheorghe Anghel, Dimitrie Paciurea. The most valuable of the pieces owned by the museum are six works of “the titan” of universal modern art, Constantin Brancusi: Vitellius, Girl Head, Boy Head, Fragment of Torso, Miss Pogany and The Kiss.

It is a cultural public institution, with legal personality, of regional importance, serving the society, which collects, preserves, researches, restores, communicates and exhibits, for knowing, education and recreation, material and spiritual evidence of the existence and evolution of human communities and the environment.

Oltenia Museum Craiova is subordinated to the Dolj County Council. The museum’s activity is financed by Dolj County Council budget allocations and own revenues, as charges for provided services, donations and sponsorships or other specific activities.

Oltenia Museum is currently pursuing work in three departments: the Department of Archaeology and History, the Ethnography Section, the Department of Natural Sciences.

The group of specialists of the museum was formed along the time of eminent professors and researchers like: Stefan Ciuceanu (director between 1915 – 1923), Marin Demetrescu (director between 1923-1939), Dr. C.S. Nicolaescu – Plopsor (conservator of the archeology section, honorary director between 1922 – 1946, director between 1946-1952).

Engineer Alfred Vincenz, the conservator of the ethnographic section, with the effective support of the Scientific Group of Craiova, has achieved important successes in hoarding and capitalizing the patrimony. The museum became “one of the richest and most beautiful museums in the country”, an important objective of Romanian scientific and cultural life, establishing itself as the most representative cultural institution in Oltenia inter-war.

“This museum is not talking only about the past, but every piece, even old ones – note prof. Dr. Eugene Sperantia from Cluj at April 4, 1937 – is a living testimony of the love and interest, always current for the science and land of our country, passions of those who innitiated and who continues with Romanian altar.”

Over the nine decades of activity, the patrimony of the museum has registered an impressive growth. If in 1927 the museum had 1050 pieces, and in 1955, 29120 pieces, currently there are 234988 pieces at the Museum of Oltenia, of which 718 are classified as Thesaurus, and 268 pieces are categorized as Fund. The growth of the heritage was achieved by excavations, field researches, acquisitions and donations, the latest coming from a very wide circle of people, who, in fact, constitute the real core of friends of the museum.

The venue of some broader debates with aesthetic, ethnographic, biological and historical-documentary character, with the participation of the public, creators and professionals from different fields, The Museum of Oltenia has become today truly an “academy” of beauty and truth, fulfilling complex functions, directly related to the educational and art institutions, waiting for its visitors each day.

The building was nationalized in 1950. 16 years later, with the birth centenary of the poet, it becomes “Traian Demetrescu Memorial House”.

The House of Culture from Craiova was founded in 1973, by Decree 703 and is subordinated to the Culture and Socialist Education Committee. Based on the letter no. 387/1991, the name of the settlement is stated as the House of Culture “Traian Demetrescu”.

Starting 2002, the building is managed by The House of Culture “Traian Demetrescu”. Ms. Elena Popescu, sole heiress of the poet, sold the

building to the local authorities, provided its rehabilitation and consolidation, which was possible with the United Nations Programme for Development, the “Beautiful Romania” project.

This cultural institution is a center of cultural activity, not only local, but also regional.