THE NATIONAL HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY MUSEUM, CONSTANȚA Code:CT-II-m-A-02831 Prezent name: MUZEUL DE ISTORIE NATIONALĂ ŞI ARHEOLOGIE Former name: PALATUL COMUNAL (the Communal Palace) Location: Constanta, no. 12. Ovidiu square Datation: 1912-1921 Persons and events in the monument’s history: the building’s first stone was set on May 22nd 1912 by the heir to Romania’s throne, Prince Ferdinand. Construction works stopped in 1913, resumed in the summer of 1914 and stopped again, due to the beginning of World War I. Between 1919 -1921 the construction works were undertaken by the company of eng. C. M. Vasilescu, after the project of archit. Victor Ștefănescu, and on July 17th 1921 the Communal Palace was inaugurated. The Romanian painter Ion Theodorescu Sion suggested that the reception hall be painted, an addition which was actually performed much later, between 1966-1968, in a neo-Byzantine style, by the painters Niculina Dona Delavrancea and Gheorghe Popescu. The monument’s description: the massive and impressive construction is part of the series of public buildings in a neo-Romanian style: it has a loggia divided by columns whose bases and capitals are richly decorated and that support a semicircular arcade strongly highlighted by decorated strips. The entrance and two windows of the protruding wings have stone frames. The building’s rigorous verticality is also underlined by a massive belt of stone. Restoration date: 1977 State of preservation: good Bibliography: Doina Păuleanu, Axa est-vest Constanța – istorie și dinamică interculturală, Constanța, Fundația Pro Arte, 2000. Idem, Constanța spectacolul modernității târzii 1878-1928, vol. I-II, Muzeul de Artă Constanța, 2005. ***Comunicări de istoria Dobrogei, vol. I, coord. Adrian Rădulescu, Constanța, 1980. Old plan of Constanța - Dobrescu 1921; old plan of Constanța - Filotti 1936
