National Village Museum is the biggest tourist attractions of Bucharest. Basically, the Village Museum is a collection of houses and other buildings that have been transported from the Romanian countryside or reconstructed to match the originals.
Conforming to the criterion of authenticity and respect of local construction practices, the reassembling of the rural households was made with peasant craftsmen brought from the very villages of origin of the houses. Located next to Herestrau Park, the museum is easy to reach and many bus connections will bring a person directly to the front entrance.
The Village Museum was set up in 1936 by Dimitrie Gusti, Victor Ion Popa, and Henri H. Stahl and was inaugurated in the presence of King Carol II. It was at the time one of the first ethnographic museums in the world. The oldest house is built in the eighteenth century, and belongs to the most recent of the nineteenth century.
The museum extends to over 100,000 m squared, and contains 272 authentic peasant farms and houses from all over Romania. Even if architecture draws most to the Village Museum houses should not forget the furniture, tools, clay objects, icons, carpets and folk costumes.
Life in the countryside and rural customs have a major significance in the history of Romania. Rural communities were organized so as to meet all daily needs. Clothes were made manually.
For 6 lei, or less than two dollars, a person gets full access to the museum and the park and the student price of 1.5 lei is less than a person would normally spend on a stick of gum. The Village Museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays like many other Bucharest museums, but is open from Wednesday until Sunday from 10:00 in the morning until 18:00 at night.
I. C.
editor artline.ro
