Ploiești Palace of Culture and the Museum of Man

The Palace of Culture stands at Strada Erou Călin Cătălin no. 1 in central Ploiești. It was built as the Palace of Justice to designs by the French-born architect Ernest Doneaud; the project was completed by Toma T. Socolescu, who had assisted Doneaud. Work began in 1906 and soon stopped, resumed in 1924 and was largely finished around 1930. The building was inaugurated on 26 November 1933. In the early 1950s it became a cultural centre, and it was restored after the 1977 earthquake. Today the palace houses the Nicolae Iorga County Library, the Prahova County Cultural Centre and the Prahova County Museum of Natural Sciences, founded on 30 December 1956. Its Museum of Man section, reopened after modernisation in 2013, has halls on human evolution, anatomy, genetics, biodiversity and protected areas, with fossil casts and interactive projections. The museum's Aquarium is also here, with about 60 tanks and some 50 species of exotic fish. The building, listed as „Palatul de Justiție, azi Palatul Culturii”, is a historic monument, LMI code PH-II-m-A-16247. The Museum of Natural Sciences is run by Prahova County Council, and the Museum of Man is open to visitors.