Brukenthal National Museum

Brukenthal National Museum is an art and history museum based in the historic Brukenthal Palace in Sibiu, Romania, founded on the collection of Baron Samuel von Brukenthal. The museum houses European paintings and related collections and is one of the older public museum institutions in the country.

The principal attraction is the palace art gallery with rooms arranged in the 18th-century urban palace and a sequence of galleries displaying paintings, prints and decorative arts. Additional small exhibition spaces and a reference library present prints, manuscripts and historical objects from the Brukenthal collection.

The collection was assembled by Baron Samuel von Brukenthal, governor of Transylvania under the Habsburgs, and parts of it were opened to the public in the early 19th century. Over time the holdings were expanded and organised as a national museum with branches and conservation programmes.

Located on Sibiu’s historic central square in Transylvania, the Brukenthal Palace sits within the city’s medieval core and is within walking distance of other civic landmarks and museums.

• Founding and significance: The core collection was assembled by Baron Samuel von Brukenthal and made available to the public in the early 19th century, making it one of Romania's older museum institutions.
• Notable collections: The art holdings include Dutch, Flemish and Central European paintings spanning Renaissance to 19th-century schools, with some works on permanent display in the palace galleries.

What to See #

• Art Gallery (Brukenthal Palace): Housed in an 18th-century baroque city palace facing Sibiu's large central square, the main art gallery exhibits European paintings collected by Baron Samuel von Brukenthal.
• Library and small collections: A historic reference library and smaller exhibition rooms that contain prints, drawings and objects assembled by the original collector in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.