Craiova holds Romania's most significant Brancusi works outside Bucharest, inside a palace built for a banking dynasty. Add a nationally famous theatre company, a Byzantine-revival cathedral and Oltenian folk craft, and three days fill easily.
Constantin Brâncuși's Cumințenia Pământului, Sărutul copy, Vitellius and Torsul de fată sit in a dedicated ground-floor room. Upstairs: Theodor Aman, Grigorescu, Petrașcu and Dutch-Flemish canvases. Open Tue–Sun 09:00–17:00, closed Monday.
Petre Antonescu's 1912–1913 neo-Romanian pile on Calea Unirii, all loggias, brancovenesc arcading and a corner clock tower. The interior stair hall is accessible on weekdays during office hours if you sign in at the porter's desk.
Craiova's oldest foundation, rebuilt 1889–1893 by French architect André Lecomte du Noüy in strict Byzantine revival. Interior frescoes were painted in Paris by the Ipolit brothers and mounted on canvas panels — unusual for Romanian church work.
Designed by French landscape architect Émile Redont, it won the gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition. The suspension bridge, artificial grotto and mock medieval castle are all original elements of that award-winning romantic layout.
The natural sciences wing on Strada Popa Șapcă holds Oltenia's fossil and mineral collections plus a restored 19th-century cabinet of curiosities layout. Tue–Sun 09:00–17:00; the building itself is a 1920s school conversion.
Home of Silviu Purcărete's internationally toured productions and the biennial Shakespeare Festival. The 1973 brutalist-modernist building on Strada A. I. Cuza has a box office open weekdays 10:00–19:00 for same-week seats.
Housed in the 1906 Casa Băniei annexe complex, this section covers Dacian silver hoards, Roman material from Sucidava and Romula, and medieval Oltenian metalwork. Labelling is Romanian with partial English summaries.
The city's symphony orchestra performs Thursday evenings at 19:00 in its own hall on Calea Unirii, with a repertoire heavy on Enescu, Brahms and Romanian contemporary commissions. Tickets sell at the door from an hour before.
Craiova's oldest surviving civil building, dating to 1699 under Constantin Brâncoveanu, now holds Oltenian folk costume, painted ceramics from Horezu and Oboga, carved wooden gates and textile looms in a vaulted ground floor.
The county library occupies the 1908 Aman family house and runs a rotating programme of literary evenings, manuscript displays and its Sala Multimedia exhibitions. The old reading room preserves its original oak shelving and gallery.
The artists' union gallery on Calea Unirii shows contemporary Doljean painters, printmakers and sculptors in month-long rotating exhibitions. Work is for sale directly from the union, typically 400–3,000 lei for small canvases.
Craiova's old merchant quarter behind Strada Lipscani keeps a handful of vaulted brick cellars now used as wine bars, pouring Dealurile Craiovei and Drăgășani bottles by the glass alongside plates of Oltenian pastramă and telemea.