Qualla: Cotroceni Palace

Cotroceni Palace: Introduction

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexandru Antoniu, Public domain. There is a hill in western Bucharest called Cotroceni, and on its slope a palace has stood in some form since 1679. Romania's rulers have used it for almost three and a half centuries. Princes built a monastery there. A king tore the monastery down and put up a French-architect-designed palace in its place. Queen Marie redecorated half of it in her own taste. The communist government turned it into the Pioneers' Palace and let around a thousand objects walk out the door. Ceaușescu used the building as a guest house. Since 1991 it has been the official residence of the President of Romania, and the rooms not in active state use are open to the public as the National Cotroceni Museum. To walk through it is to walk through every Romanian regime of the last three centuries, in order, with the wall coverings to prove it.

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Image: Alexandru Antoniu | Public domain

Cotroceni Palace: From Monastery to Royal Palace

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Serban Cantacuzino, the Wallachian prince who reigned from 1678 to 1688, built a monastery on Cotroceni Hill in 1679, the first year of his rule. The hill had previously held an old wooden hermitage. Cantacuzino's monastery was completed in 1682 and became a frequent stop for pil...

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Cotroceni Palace: Marie's Palace

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0. When Carol's nephew Ferdinand inherited the throne in 1914, his English wife Marie made Cotroceni her own. She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria on one side and of Tsar Alexander II on the other, raised between Eastbourne and Coburg, and she arrived in Romania in 1893 as a te...

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Image: Joe Mabel | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cotroceni Palace: The Pioneers' Palace

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bekuletz, CC BY-SA 2.5. King Michael I abdicated under communist pressure on December 30, 1947. Within a few months the new government had decided what to do with the royal palaces. On June 18, 1948, the Council of Ministers ruled that Cotroceni Palace, with its five buildings, 150 rooms, and park, woul...

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Image: Bekuletz | CC BY-SA 2.5

Cotroceni Palace: After 1989

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cris Coman, Public domain. The Romanian Revolution of December 1989 ended the Ceaușescu regime in a few violent days. In 1991 the new government made Cotroceni Palace the headquarters of the Romanian Presidency, and the older portions of the complex were opened to the public as the National Cotroceni Museu...

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Image: Cris Coman | Public domain