The Muzeul de Artă Vizuală is the surprise of Galați. Housed in a 19th-century building on Domnească Street, it holds one of the best collections of modern Romanian art outside Bucharest — works by Theodor Pallady, Nicolae Tonitza, Corneliu Baba and many of the country's other 20th-century painters, alongside a contemporary section.
The collection grew out of a series of national art camps held in Galați from the 1970s, where artists were invited to live in the city and donate a piece on departure. The result is unusual for a regional museum: not a mixed bag of leftovers but a curated stretch through three generations of Romanian painting. Allow an hour or two.