The Dacia-Romania Palace (Palatul Dacia-România) is a historic building in the old town of Bucharest, located opposite the National Bank of Romania in Strada Lipscani. It used to be the Palace of the former Dacia-Romania Insurance Company (Palatul fostei Societăți de asigurări Dacia-România) and now hosts an art gallery, book store, and a coffee shop.
The palace was constructed between 1882 and 1889 on a plot of land bought by the Dacia-Romania Insurance Company to establish their new headquarters. A former church and an inn on the site had been demolished between 1861 and 1863 because they reached an advanced state of decay. Dacia-Romania was the oldest insurance company in Romania and was established in 1881 by the merger of the Dacia companies (established in 1871) with Romania (established in 1873).
The Dacia-Romania Palace is a v-shaped building with a dome on the corner where Strada Lipscani, Strada Stavropoleos, and Strada Smârdan meet. Its style can be described as Viennese and the facades of the building are decorated with columns and sculptures representing Justice, Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture.
The building was later sold to the General Bank of Romania (Banca Generală Română), which went bankrupt in 1931. In 1937 the building was purchased by the National Bank of Romania for 90 million lei. In the following decades the building has hosted a conservatory of music and art, a restaurant, and two different banks. After the building was damaged by the 1977 earthquake, a large restoration took place between 1979 and 1983.
In 2012 the Bucharest City Hall purchased the building for its “Bucharest City Art Gallery” program. Since 2019 the building belongs to the Bucharest Municipality Museum which hosts art exhibitions on this location. On the ground floor there is a branch of the Cărturești book store chain and a cafe.
