Romanian Cultural Institute

The Romanian Cultural Institute, situated at two hundred East thirty-eighth Street, stands as a rare survivor of a Cold War experiment in international relations. Established in nineteen sixty-nine following a formal agreement between the United States and Romania, it began its life as the Romanian Library. At a time when the world was sharply divided, this institution served as a unique point of contact between two nations on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain, acting as a counterpart to the American Library that simultaneously opened in Bucharest.