Nationaltheater Bukarest

The Ion Luca Caragiale National Theatre Bucharest was founded in 1852 as the Grand Theatre of Bucharest, with Costache Caragiale as its first director. The Baroque building on Calea Victoriei, erected under the Viennese architect Anton Hefft, opened on 31 December 1852 with a vaudeville and had three tiers of boxes and a foyer with staircases of Carrara marble. The theatre became a national institution in 1864 and was named the National Theatre in 1875. In August 1944 German bombs destroyed the building. The present building on University Square, designed by Horia Maicu, Romeo Belea and Nicolae Cucu, was inaugurated in December 1973, later substantially altered and extensively renovated from 2012 to 2014. Today the theatre performs in seven halls; the largest, the Ion Caramitru Hall, seats 940.