List of honorary citizens of Bucharest

The title of Honorary Citizen of Bucharest is the highest civic distinction, which rewards the talent and the special contributions of a person, Romanian or foreign, granted by the General Council of Bucharest.[1] The title is granted, as the case may be, at the initiative of the Mayor General or the members of the General Council of Bucharest. The first person rewarded with this distinction was soprano Mariana Nicolesco in 1991.

Year	Name	Portrait	Comments	Country	Ref.
1991	Mariana Nicolesco (born 1948)		Soprano and honorary member of the Romanian Academy, named UNESCO Artist for Peace and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador	Romania	[2]
1992	George Emil Palade (1912–2008)		Physician and scientist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974	Romania/ United States
	Viorica Cortez (born 1935)		Mezzo-soprano	Romania/ France
	Ileana Cotrubaș (born 1939)		Soprano	Romania
	Marina Krilovici (born 1942)		Soprano	Romania
	Ionel Pantea		Opera singer and stage director, distinguished with the Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg	Romania
1994	National football team, coaches, doctor and president of the Romanian Football Federation		Quarterfinalist in the 1994 FIFA World Cup	Romania
	Nadia Comăneci (born 1961)		Gymnast, first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic event and first Romanian sportswoman included in the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame	Romania/ United States
1995	Ion Irimescu (1903–2005)		Sculptor, professor and honorary member of the Romanian Academy	Romania
	Knights of the Order of Michael the Brave			Romania
1996	Paul Călinescu (1902–2000)		Director and screenwriter	Romania
	Marin Sorescu (1936–1996)		Writer and Minister of Culture (1993–1995), member of the Romanian Academy and laureate of the Herder Prize	Romania
1997	Pierre Mauroy (1928–2013)		Mayor of Lille (1973–2001) and Prime Minister of France (1981–1984)	France
	Ion Voicu (1923–1997)		Violinist and director of George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra	Romania
	Dumitrașcu Lăcătușu (1891–1999)		Last Romanian veteran of the First World War	Romania
	Livia S. Sylva		Holocaust survivor, cosmetic designer and commissioner of New York City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol	Romania/ United States
	Bill Clinton (born 1946)		President of the United States (1993–2001)	United States
	Jacques Chirac (1932 - 2019)		President of France (1995–2007)	France
	Gabriela Szabo (born 1975)		Olympic athlete and Minister of Youth and Sports (2014–2015), named in 1999 the world's best athlete	Romania
	Nicolae Herlea (1927–2014)		Baritone	Romania
1998	Liviu Ciulei (1923–2011)		Director, actor, scenographer, architect, professor and corresponding member of the Romanian Academy	Romania
	Nursultan Nazarbayev (born 1940)		President of Kazakhstan (1991–present)	Kazakhstan
2000	Gold, silver and bronze medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics			Romania
2001	Migry Avram Nicolau		Stage director	Romania
	Tiberiu Simionescu		Founding member of the Ion Dacian National Theater of Operetta and Musical	Romania
	Nicolae Ionescu-Dodo		Founding member of the Ion Dacian National Theater of Operetta and Musical	Romania
	George Zaharescu (1927–2007)		Opera director, director of the Ion Dacian National Theater of Operetta and Musical	Romania
	Iolanda Balaș (1936–2016)		Olympic athlete, president of the Romanian Athletics Federation (1988–2005)	Romania
	Radu Beligan (1918–2016)		Actor and honorary member of the Romanian Academy	Romania
	Gheorghe Dinică (1934–2009)		Actor	Romania
	Marin Moraru (1937–2016)		Actor	Romania
	Tamara Buciuceanu (1929–2019)		Actress	Moldova/ Romania
	Carmen Stănescu (1925–2018)		Actress	Romania
	Damian Crâșmaru (1931–2019)		Actor	Romania
	Mircea Albulescu (1934–2016)		Actor, professor, publicist, poet and writer	Romania
	Olga Tudorache (1929–2017)		Actress and professor	Romania
	Marcela Rusu (1926–2002)		Actress	Romania
	Ion Zamfirescu (1907–2001)		Theater historian and professor	Romania
	Ileana Berlogea (1931–2002)		Theater historian, professor and critic	Romania
	Ion Toboșaru (1930–2016)		Film critic, esthetician and theatrologist	Romania
	Horea Popescu (1925–2010)		Director	Romania
	Margareta Niculescu (1926–2018)		Puppetteer, professor, director and theater director	Romania
	Dinu Săraru (born 1932)		Theater director, playwright, essayist, publicist, novelist and writer	Romania
	Ștefan Iordache (1941–2008)		Actor	Romania
	Dan Iordăchescu (1930–2015)		Baritone	Romania
	Adela Mărculescu (born 1938)		Actress	Romania
	Draga Olteanu Matei (1933–2020)		Actress	Romania
	Ludovic Spiess (1938–2006)		Tenor, Minister of Culture (1991–1992) and director of the Romanian National Opera (2001–2005)	Romania
	Florin Piersic (born 1936)		Actor	Romania
	Gheorghe Zamfir (born 1941)		Musician and composer, self-described "master of the pan flute"	Romania
	Veta Biriș (born 1949)		Folk music singer	Romania
	Achim Nica (1930–2012)		Folk music singer	Romania
	Maria Butaciu (1940–2018)		Folk music singer	Romania
	Sava Negrean Brudașcu (born 1947)		Folk music singer	Romania
	Floarea Calotă (born 1956)		Folk music singer	Romania
	Matilda Pascal Cojocărița (born 1958)		Folk music singer	Romania
	Liviu Dafinescu (1954–2004)		Director of Doina Gorjului Folklore Ensemble (1994–2004)	Romania
	Valeria Peter Predescu (1947–2009)		Folk music singer	Romania
	Dumitru Fărcaș (1938–2018)		Tárogató player	Romania
	Benone Sinulescu (1937–2021)		Folk music singer	Romania
	Viorica Flintașu (born 1939)		Folk music singer	Romania
	Elise Stan		TV producer	Romania
	Nicolae Furdui Iancu (born 1955)		Folk music singer	Romania
	Floarea Tănăsescu		Folk music singer	Romania
	Laura Lavric (born 1946)		Folk music singer	Romania
	Gheorghe Turda (born 1948)		Folk music singer	Romania
	Grigore Leșe (born 1954)		Folk music singer and bassoon player	Romania
	Liviu Vasilică (1950–2004)		Folk music singer and pediatrician	Romania
	Ion Luican (1907–1992)		Folk music singer	Romania
	Sofia Vicoveanca (born 1941)		Folk music singer, poet and actress	Ukraine/ Romania
2005	Stela Popescu (1935–2017)		Actress	Moldova/ Romania
2006	Cristian Gațu (born 1945)		Olympic handball player and president of the Romanian Handball Federation (1996–2014)	Romania
	Marcel Guguianu (1922–2012)		Sculptor	Romania
	David Esrig (born 1935)		Professor and theater director	Israel/ Romania
2007	Lucian Giurchescu (born 1930)		Director	Romania
	Tudor Petrov-Popa (born 1963)		Politician, fighter for the territorial integrity of Moldova during the Transnistria War	Moldova
	Andrei Ivanțoc (born 1961)		Politician, fighter for the territorial integrity of Moldova during the Transnistria War and political prisoner of the separatist regime in Tiraspol	Moldova
	Alexandru Leșco (born 1955)		Politician, fighter for the territorial integrity of Moldova during the Transnistria War	Moldova
2008	Rică Răducanu (born 1946)		Footballer, played in Romania national football team at the 1970 FIFA World Cup	Romania
2009	Horia Damian (1922–2012)		Painter and honorary member of the Romanian Academy	Romania/ France
2014	Larisa Iordache (born 1996)		Olympic gymnast	Romania
2016	Maria Popa		Professor	Romania
	Neagu Djuvara (1916–2018)		Historian, diplomat, philosopher, journalist and novelist	Romania
	Members of the women's handball team – CSM București		Winner of the 2015–16 Women's EHF Champions League	Romania
	Members of the women's volleyball team – CSM București		Winner of the 2015–16 CEV Women's Challenge Cup	Romania
	Members of Romania's sword team		Gold medalist at the 2016 Summer Olympics	Romania
2017	Cristian Țopescu (1937–2018)		Sports commentator, journalist and politician	Romania
	Dinu C. Giurescu (1927–2018)		Historian, politician and member of the Romanian Academy	Romania
	Herman Berkovits (born 1947)		Benjamin Netanyahu's personal physician and Viorica Dăncilă's honorary counselor	Romania/ Israel
	Cătălin Badiu		Cardiovascular surgeon	Romania
	Cătălina Ponor (born 1987)		Olympic gymnast	Romania
	Marian Drăgulescu (born 1980)		Olympic gymnast	Romania
	Ileana Vulpescu (1932–2021)		Philologist, lexicographer, writer, novelist and translator	Romania
	Alexandru Arșinel (born 1939)		Actor and director of Constantin Tănase Revue Theater	Romania
	Ilie Ilașcu (born 1952)		Politician and political prisoner of the separatist regime in Tiraspol	Moldova/ Romania
	Mircea Lucescu (born 1945)		Footballer and selector of Romania and Turkey national football teams	Romania
	Cristina Neagu (born 1988)		Professional handball player, the only handball player in history to win three IHF World Player of the Year awards	Romania
	Angela Gheorghiu (born 1965)		Soprano, one of the most famous opera singers in the world	Romania
	Alexandra Nechita (born 1985)		Painter and muralist, dubbed "little Picasso"	Romania/ United States
	Simona Halep (born 1991)		Professional tennis player, first Romanian tenniswoman to become world No. 1 on the WTA Tour	Romania
	Ion Caramitru (born 1942)		Actor, Minister of Culture (1996–2000), president of UNITER (1990–present) and director of Ion Luca Caragiale National Theater (2005–present)	Romania
	Helmut Duckadam (born 1959)		Footballer and president of FC Steaua București	Romania
	Dorin Petruț		Lieutenant colonel injured in Camp Victory in 2007 and professional archer	Romania
	Daniel Porumb (born 1980)		Sergeant injured in Iraq in April 2007	Romania
	Eugen Valentin Pătru		Corporal injured in Afghanistan in March 2014	Romania

References

1. "REGULAMENT pentru acordarea titlului de Cetățean de Onoare al Municipiului București" (PDF). Primăria Municipiului București (in Romanian).
2. "Cetățeni de onoare" (PDF). Primăria Municipiului București (in Romanian).