Have you arrived in Constanța and want to discover the beauty of this city? In addition to the beach and terraces, the city is full of history and culture. Here are some goals to put on the “Want To Visit” list.
We even found a tour of the historic center of the city that we recommend. Click here for the tour.
The Statue of Ovidiu is a monument located in the historical center of Constanța. It was made in 1887 by the Italian sculptor Ettore Ferrari. An identical replica has been found since 1925 in Sulmona, his hometown in Italy. The statue is placed on the peninsula, in Ovidiu Square, in front of the building of the former Constanța City Hall, today the National Museum of History and Archeology, near the port of Tomis.
The building that dominates Ovidiu Square – the National Museum of History and Archeology Constanța – was the seat of the City Hall, then called the Communal Palace. Its construction was started in 1911 according to the plans of the architect Victor Ştephănescu and finished, late, due to the war, in 1921.
It is one of the richest museums in the country. Here are exhibited Neolithic pieces from Hamangia and Gumelnița cultures, agricultural tools from the slavery period, sarcophagi dated as belonging to the I – III centuries, Greco-Roman amphorae, statuettes representing Greek deities and works of art. The most important piece in the collection of the Museum of National History and Archeology Constanța is the Glykon snake, a unique statue in the world, discovered by chance on April 1, 1962.
The Art Museum is considered at national level an important and representative space for exhibition, preservation, capitalization and research of the Romanian visual creation from the modern period.
Founded in 1961 with a modest heritage, belonging to the old art galleries of Constanta and Balchik (opened in 1935 – respectively 1937), the Art Museum offers the public over a century of the evolution of Romanian painting, sculpture and graphics (1840 – 1950) , trying at the same time to show and fix through reference works, the place and the role of Dobrogea, of the marine inspiration landscape in the context of the national creation.
From a patrimony of over 7800 works, around 1500 are permanently exhibited, both at the headquarters in Constanța, and in the two sections of the city and county – Ion Jalea Sculpture Museum Constanța, (established following the sculptor’s donations in 1968 and of his family since 1984) and the Dinu Art Museum and Sevasta Vintilă Topalu (composed by donation of Dr. Gh. D. Vintilă to his hometown, in 1960).
The Roman Mosaic Building was discovered during the works undertaken in 1959 in the historic center of Constanța. The building, with almost 2,000 square meters of mosaic, erected in the 4th century AD, probably under the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great, instead of some earlier port buildings, was repaired in various stages until the beginning of the 7th century, when he ends his life once he leaves the ancient fortress of Tomis, following the great invasions. The museum facilities house collections of goods and equipment from ships, found in the warehouses of the building: anchors, ingots, weights, amphorae with paints and resins, statuettes, collections of lamps, marble plywood, polychrome mosaic, pillar heads. In the former warehouses are exhibited the epigraphic monuments discovered in different centers in Dobrogea.
The Museum of Folk Art is located in the historic area of Constanța. The museum is housed in a building of great significance for the city’s history. The building was built in 1893. Over time the building had other destinations, but since 1975 it houses the Museum of Folk Art, an important cultural institution in Constanta. The Museum of Folk Art in Constanța houses an impressive heritage, consisting of over 15,000 exhibits that illustrate folk culture from various parts of Romania. In the galleries of the museum you can admire collections of icons on glass and wood, ceramics, folk costumes, barks, fabrics, ornaments and utensils, household items, used by Romanian peasants. The richness of colors and floral, vegetal, zoomorphic, anthropomorphic motifs, alternating with stripes and other geometric shapes create ornamental compositions of unique beauty.