The Museum of Maps invites the public to visit a new temporary exhibition: Zoom in. Zoom out. Romania in Maps, a visual journey through detailed and panoramic representations of Romanian territories.

Opening: December 17, 2025, from 5:00 PM. Admission to the opening is free.

The exhibition is open from December 18, 2025 to February 22, 2026, at the Museum of Maps 39 Londra Street, Bucharest. Visiting hours are Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 AM–6:00 PM.

Ticket prices: 10 lei (full price), 5 lei (seniors), 2.5 lei (students and pupils). Online tickets available HERE.

In cartography, scale is far more than a mere mathematical ratio; it is the filter through which we decide how much of the world’s complexity to retain and how much to leave aside in a map. It is the tool that transforms a vast reality, impossible to grasp in a single glance, into a structured, finite, and manageable representation. Every map is, in essence, an exercise in reducing reality in order to render and understand it. Scale, the level of generalization, and simplification all adapt to the specific purpose of each spatial representation, ranging from the overview of an entire nation down to the depiction of economic resources on a cadastral boundary map.

The exhibition brings together a selection of over 30 cartographic documents – drawn from the museum’s collection and recent donations – illustrating the Romanian space starting from the 19th century. The two curators, Ioana Zamfir and Elena Păunoiu, propose an interplay of perspectives, a continuous slide between macro and micro. The visual journey starts from general maps at a European scale, zooms in to the detailed level of counties, and settles into the intimacy of city plans, urban views, and even property plans.

Beyond physical geography, these exhibits capture the administrative dynamics and the evolution of Romanian society over two centuries. You will discover diverse intentions and graphic styles used to encode information, ranging from the precision of satellite imagery to the aesthetics of school and road maps. Each document stands as a testament to how cartographers chose to translate the territory for their contemporaries.

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Parteners: Centrul Național de Cartografie (CNC), Agenția Națională de Cadastru și Publicitate Imobiliară (ANCPI)

Media partners: Ziarul News, Radio France Internationale România, România Pozitivă, Radio România Cultural, Historia, ACC Media Channel, Promenada Culturală, AICI A STAT, i-Tour.ro, daciccool.ro.