Bucharest

One of the main attractions of Bucharest is the Village Museum, a place that guarantees some moments of peace, calm and serenity, a short trip in time, more than 100 years back in history.

 

The museum was founded in 1936, it is an open air museum an and it occupies 4,5 hectares inside the Herastrau Park, the city`s biggest park.

Countryside life, traditions, the way a village house should be built and organized with all utilities: the kitchen, bedrooms and baking room, weave room, the hencoops, aviary, the barn, the horse carriage, the fountain and more related to the village life. The inside of the houses is decorated respecting an old traditional house: terries on the walls, fluffy pillows, wooden painted religious icons, ceramic vases, and the colors and vivid and welcoming. And to give the truth touch of the countryside, near the house you`ll find a barking dog, a lazy cat, some chicken and a cock and some ducks, sometimes. And of course, the front yard will grow beautiful flowers and the back yard had vegetables.

The museum was built by Dimitrie Gusti`s initiative, sociology teacher, in order to give the people of Bucharest, at the end of 19^th century, a better knowledge of the countryside. Each one of the houses presented respect the traditional house plan of the region the are from: roof shape, construction type, rooms, basement or no basement, attic etc. The materials respect the original village the house represents, as well. They were brought by train and assembled in Bucharest by handymans from the same village, too.

A walk of 30-40 minutes through the Museum will take you from Maramures to Oltenia and from Transylvania to the Danube Delta or the seaside. Along with the houses, the churches are also represented, from different sides of the country, and the houses architecture changes as you cross the boarders.

The visit time is 9 to 5 on Monday, and from Tuesday to Sunday, from 9 to 7. More information about the place, the exhibitions and the events of each month can be found by accessing www.muzeul-satului.ro