The Victor Babes Museum in Bucharest, which is dedicated to famous Romanian physician and bacteriologist Victor Babes, reopened its doors to visitors on Friday, November 23.

The museum, which is located in northern Bucharest, is part of the Bucharest Municipality Museum network. Its permanent exhibition entered a process of restoration in August 2017, local News.ro reported.

The museum will also host a temporary exhibition focused on the history of medicine, which will come to show this field’s importance over the last 100 years.

Victor Babes, a famous Romanian physician and bacteriologist, wrote, together with Andre Victor Cornil, the first bacteriology treaty in the world, which laid the foundation for this branch of science. He also introduced rabies vaccination and founded serotherapy in Romania. He died on October 19, 1926, in Bucharest.

The building hosting the museum was built between 1928 and 1929 by the doctor’s son, Mircea Babes. In 1956, Mircea Babes donated the ground floor of the house to the Romanian state, for the purpose of opening a memorial museum. Then, 30 years later, in 1986, Sofia Babes, Mircea’s wife, left the house’s first floor to the City Hall in her will, according to information on the Bucharest Municipality Museum’s website. Thus, the entire residence of Victor Babes was turned into a museum.

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Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Facebook / Muzeul Municipiului Bucureşti - Palatul Suțu)