It was founded as the Teatrul cel Mare din Bucureşti in 1852, its first director being Costache Caragiale. It became a national institution in 1864 by a decree of Prime MinisterMihail Kogălniceanu, and was officially named as the National Theatre in 1875; it is now administered by the Romanian Ministry of Culture. In April 1836, the Societatea Filarmonica — a cultural society founded by Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Ion Câmpineanu — bought the Câmpinencii Inn to build a National Theatre on the site, and began to collect money and materials for this purpose. In 1840, Obşteasca Adunare proposed to Alexandru II Ghica, the Prince of Wallachia, a project to build a National Theatre with state support. The request was approved on June 4, 1840. PrinceGheorghe Bibescu adopted the idea of founding the theatre and chose a new location, on the spot of the former Filaret Inn. There were several reasons to favor this locations: it was centrally located, right in the middle of Podul Mogoşoaiei ; the earthquake of 1838 had damaged the inn beyond repair, and it needed to be torn down.
Old building
The August 13, 1843, report of the commission charged with building the theatre determined that construction would cost 20,300 Austrian guilder of which only 13,000 gold coins were available. In 1846, a new commission engaged the Vienese architect A. Hefft, who came up with an acceptable plan. Construction got under way in 1848, only to be interrupted in June by the Wallachian revolution. In August 1849, after Prince Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei took power, he ordered that construction be completed. , on Calea Victoriei in 2010, replicates the exterior of the old Romanian National Theatre approximately in its original location The theatre was inaugurated on December 31, 1852, with the play Zoe sau Amantul împrumutat, described in the newspapers of the time as a "vaudeville with songs". The building was built in the baroque style, with 338 stalls on the main floor, three levels of loges, a luxurious foyer with staircases of Carrara marble and a large gallery in which students could attend free of charge. For its first two years, the theatre was lit with tallow lamps, but from 1854 it used rape oil lamps; still later this was replaced by gaslights and eventually electric lights. In 1875, at the time its name was changed to Teatrul Naţional, its director was the writer Alexandru Odobescu. The historic theatre building on Calea Victoriei — now featured on the 100-leu banknote — was destroyed during the Luftwaffe bombardment of Bucharest on August 24, 1944.
The modern theatre
The current National Theatre is located about half a kilometre away from the old site, just south of the Hotel Intercontinental at Piaţa Universităţii, and has been in use since 1973. The new edifice reconstructed from 2010 to 2014, was inaugurated to the end of the year 2014, and with 7 halls, as the Grand Hall with 900 seats, is the biggest and the latest theater edifice of Europe.
Theater activity
Currently, the Bucharest National Theater presents its performances in four halls: Grand Hall, Amphitheater Hall, Atelier Hall and Studio Room 99. In over 150 years of existence, the Bucharest National Theater presented on stage many of the most significant pieces of universal dramaturgy. It has had successful performances both in and outside the country: France, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Italy, England, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Brazil, etc.
