THE PALACE OF THE NATIONAL MILITARY CIRCLE

Right in the centre of Romania's capital city, at the intersection of two main communication routes - Victoria Street ( Mogoºoaia Bridge in the past) and Regina Elisabeta Boulevard - it is almost impossible not to notice the beautiful and monumental façade of the Palace of the National Military Circle, which reminds one of the National Opera in Paris (The Garnier Palace).

The idea of a building representative for the Officer's Military Circle of the Bucharest Garrison came at the end of the ninth decade of the 19th century. In 1911, by Nicolae Filipescu's decisive urge (who was in that period minister of war), began the works for the construction of the Palace of The National Military Circle, palace designed in 1899 by the Romanian architect Dimitrie Maimarolu. On the 4th of February 1923, in the presence of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie, of the minister of war, of general Gheorghe Mãrdãrescu and many other ecclesiastic and military personalities, takes place the official and solemn inauguration of the palace, a significant event for the Army of the reunited Romania.

The Palace of the National Military Circle, an important architectural and historical monument, has been designed in an eclectic style, having a monumentality specific for the French formalism, being part of the important series of architectural monuments that have been erected in Bucharest in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century,

monuments which, through their elegance and beauty, have asserted Bucharest a second name: "Little Paris". The Palace is host for the National Military Circle - the central cultural institution of the army, a national interest institution, that has a cultural - educational, artistic, image, representation and protocol profile.

The sumptuous interiors, starting with the halls on the underground floor (The Byzantine, Norwegian and Gothic Halls), continuing with the elegance of the Honour Hall (now The Founders' Hall) and the imposing Marble and Maori Halls, they all are ennobled by art works, furniture, chandeliers and interior stuccos that make up a uniform stylistic atmosphere. The Marble Hall is a masterpiece built in an eclectic style whose white- marble Corinthian columns support an ample arch embellished with floral and geometrical ornaments dominated by military symbols. Two caryatids and two atlantes uphold, in two corners of the hall, the two orchestra balconies.