Craiova was the seat of the Ban of Oltenia, the second-ranking office in Wallachia, and the launchpad of Michael the Brave's 1593 revolt. Three days trace Dacian silver, Craiovesti boyar power, French-Baroque palaces and the scars of 1848 and 1989.
Str. Madona Dudu 14. The Dacian and Geto-Dacian silver hoards from Craiova and Balta Verde, Roman milestones from the Pelendava castrum and the medieval Ban charters. Tue-Sun 09:00-17:00, closed Monday. Entry 10 lei, students 5 lei.
Str. Matei Basarab 16, the oldest surviving civil building in Craiova, raised 1699 by Constantin Brancoveanu on 16th-century Craiovesti cellars. Vaulted brick undercroft, loggia and the ethnography wing. Tue-Sun 09:00-17:00, 8 lei.
Craiova's princely church next to Casa Baniei, founded by the Craiovesti boyars around 1500, rebuilt 1889-1933 by Andre Lecomte du Nouy in neo-Byzantine brick. Frescoes by Gheorghe Tattarescu's school; the Craiovesti burial slabs remain in the narthex.
An 18th-century merchant-founded church on Str. Mantuleasa in the old Craiova trade quarter, with a votive portrait of the founding family and low-eaved artisan houses surviving between blocks of 1970s systematisation.
Calea Unirii 15, built 1898-1907 for Constantin Mihail, then Oltenia's richest banker, by French architect Paul Gottereau. The Venetian mirror hall, marble stair and the room where King Carol I and later Nicolae Ceausescu were received. 15 lei.
Monument to the 1859 unifier of the Romanian Principalities, whose 1864 land reform reshaped Oltenian peasant holdings. It stands at the gate of the park laid out 1900-1903 by Emile Redont, which won the 1900 Paris Exposition gold medal.
The 1907 palace served as royal residence, then Communist Party regional HQ, before becoming the Art Museum in 1954. The Brancusi room holds Cumintenia Pamantului and Rugaciunea, carved 1907 for a Buzau grave. Tue-Sun 09:00-17:00, 20 lei.
Str. A.I. Cuza 11. Founded 1850 as one of Romania's earliest provincial theatres, rebuilt in brutalist concrete 1973 after the 1970 fire. The forecourt carries the memorial to Craiovans shot in December 1989.
Oltenian peasant life documented before collectivisation: Gorj wool rugs, Horezu ceramics, carved oak gates and the ritual costumes of the Calus dance, a UNESCO-listed rite still performed in villages around Craiova. 8 lei.
Founded 1826 as the Central School of Craiova, the oldest high school in Oltenia; its 1893-1897 building by Francisc Billek taught Titu Maiorescu's family circle and Gheorghe Chitu. The street preserves 19th-century professors' villas.
Emile Redont's 1903 English-style park with the 14m stone suspension bridge, ruined-castle folly, hippodrome and lake dug by hand by Craiova labourers. The mayor Nicolae Romanescu funded it from municipal bonds. Free entry.
Craiova's oldest standing monastic church, built 1483 and rebuilt 1572 by Ban Stepan on the Jiu bluff southwest of the centre — original 16th-century frescoes and the votive portrait of the founding family survive inside.