Romanian AthenaeumAteneul Român

History

French architect Albert Galleron designed the Athenaeum in a domed neoclassical style, and it opened in 1888 as a home for the arts and sciences society that commissioned it, with construction and decoration continuing through 1897. Money ran short partway through building, so organizers launched a public appeal under the slogan "Donați un leu pentru Ateneu" ("Give one leu for the Athenaeum"), and ordinary Bucharest residents funded much of the rest. Its circular concert hall is wrapped by a 75-meter fresco painted by Costin Petrescu, tracing Romanian history from the Roman conquest of Dacia to the 1918 unification of Greater Romania. Today it's the home stage of the George Enescu Philharmonic and the venue for Bucharest's biennial George Enescu Festival, and in 2007 the European Union recognized it with a European Heritage Label.