The grandest building in the city and the one to see if you see nothing else. A French-baroque palace put up between 1900 and 1907 for the landowner Constantin Mihail by Paul Gottereau, the architect of the royal palace in Bucharest, and named for the son who inherited it. It has been the art museum since 1954, and its Brâncuşi room is the reason to go in: early works, made before Paris, including a version of The Kiss. The rooms themselves — marble stairs, Murano glass, Lyon silk on the walls — are the other half of the visit. Closed Mondays.
The forecourt on Calea Unirii is open when the museum is not, and the façade is lit at night. It is the city’s wedding backdrop: on a Saturday there will be a bride on the steps and a photographer in the way. Come back on a weekday morning for the building on its own.
Visitors report the ticket bought here also covers the other municipal museums for a couple of weeks — the Oltenia museums and the Casa Dianu book museum among them — so keep it rather than binning it at the door. Cash: card was not being taken at the desk as of 2026.
Calea Unirii 15, Craiova · +40 251 412 342