National Military Museum of Bucharest

Some might call it old-fashioned, as it surely needs some long awaited overhaul and modernisation. A lot of the rich collections are still in storage and seldom make their appearance in the exhibition halls, in no small part due to lack of space. Others may be turned away by the military artefacts, weapons and uniforms. It might not be their cup of tea. But this old Bucharest museum, established in 1923 by King Ferdinand, is despite it's flaws an interesting place to visit in the Romanian capital, a rich institution and surely a landmark when it comes to cultural tourism. And, who knows, as long as another historical museum (we are talking about the Antipa Museum) has boldly made the leap to the 21st century, one day the National Military Museum in Bucharest might do the same thing.


 
The beginnings of this military museum date all the way to the 19th century, during the reign of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, who first wanted to open such an exhibition hall and decreed that some old guns, bladed weapons, flags, uniforms (all that could be related to the military life) be preservered and prepared for a future museum. After a while, in 1893, first an Artillery Museum was founded, but without much success, and it wasn't until 1914, when Europe was already in turmoil, that a military exhibition hall was opened at the National History Museum. It wasn't after the end of the First World War that the exhibits we can admire today in the museum would find for the very first time their own space, a large building then called the Arts Palace in King Carol Park. Also, in a fitting act of generosity, the future museum was also given other two neighbouring buildings, and special efforts were made in enriching and growing it's collections of militaria, weapons, uniforms, flags and various artefacts.

It was on December 18th 1923 that King Ferdinand of Romanian signed the decree which officially opened the National Military Museum, and at last the Romanian capital had such an institution, very popular at that time. But, as it often happens, the future history of the museum would prove to be unlucky. A large fire forced the curators to close the museum in the summer of 1938, and two years later, in the great earthquake that shook Romania in November 1940 the museum would close. Everybody thought it would just be for a short while, maybe until the end of the Second World War, yet the National Military Museum would remain close for almost two decades. It was only in 1957, in May, that the museum reopened in a new building, on Nicolae Balcescu Bvd, then on Izvor Str, and it was during these trying times that serious changes came upon the permanent exhibitions. Due to the Communist regime the exhibits and general atmosphere of the places went to dramatic changes, as the whole military history was being reworked and rewritten according to what the Party wanted. Still, it would remain one of the most popular and interesting of Bucharest's museums. In 1985 the whole museum moved to it's current building, which was actually a former barracks.

Nowadays you can visit the National Military Museum in Bucharest to experience and discover some of over 300 000 artefacts, weapons and various objects from it's collections, presented in the permanent and temporary exhibitions, ranging from ancient swords and armors to Medieval coats of arms, first muskets and various firearms, flags, medals, rifles and revolvers owned by great historical and military heroes and so on. Outside the museum you can see in the vast exterior courtyard tanks, military vehicles of all sorts, cannons and planes, as well as a special exhibition dedicated to space travel.

Photo: wikipedia.org