Ruins of some buildings that were part of the Royal Academy were brought to light during the consolidation and restoration works of the Palace of the University of Bucharest. Founded in 1694 by Constantin Brâncoveanu in the buildings of the “Saint Sava” Monastery, the Royal Academy was the first higher school in Wallachia.
The Palace of the University of Bucharest is to be restored as part of a project that involves a major investment from the government, of 100 million euros.
The first part of the project to consolidate the University palace involved archaeological excavations, as a result of which fragments of some buildings that were part of the Royal Academy complex were discovered. For the moment, the walls have been protected with geotextile and re-covered with earth for conservation during the building’s consolidation and restoration works, according to the builder, SC Erbașu.
With an area of over 45,000 square meters, the University Palace in Bucharest is the largest educational building in Romania. six floors high, it was built in neoclassical style on the former site of the Royal Academy of St. Sava.
At the time of its establishment, in 1869, the University of Bucharest brought together, in a single body, the faculties of Law, Sciences and Letters and Philosophy, hosting, at the same time, other educational and cultural institutions: the University Senate, the Romanian Academy, the Central Library, the School of Fine Arts, Pinacoteca, Museum of Antiquities and Natural History. Later, with the increase in the number of students, the other institutions were relocated.
The University Palace was built according to the plans of Alexandru Orăscu, the city architect and dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Alexandru Orăscu, and is considered an architectural monument. The side bodies of the palace were built later, between 1912 and 1926, according to the plans of the architect Nicolae Ghica – Budeşti. Thus, the autonomous functioning of the faculties was achieved through two main entrances and others at the corners, marked by domes, according to a press release from the University of Bucharest.
The sculptor Alexandru Storck, who in 1862 created the bas-relief on the central pediment, also worked on the decoration of the facades of this architectural monument.
During the air bombings of 1944, the central body and the work of the sculptor Storck were destroyed. Later, the University regained its integrity shattered during the war years, its central body being rebuilt in a style similar to the rest of the building.
In 2017, Archaeologists from the Bucharest City Museum and the “Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archeology, involved in the excavations in the courtyard of the University of Bucharest, assisted by specialized teaching staff from the Faculty of History, discovered old walls of over 300 years, which belonged to the old Royal Academy from “St. Sava”.