The Village Museum is a large open-air ethnographic museum. It is among the first of its kind in the world and the largest in Europe.
Founded by historian Dimitrie Gusti, who led a team of researchers investigating RomaniaÆs ethnic and folklore regions between 1925 and 1936, the Museum shows the history of RomaniaÆs peasant civilization from the 15th to the early 20th century.
Inaugurated in 1936, the Museum never strayed from the principle of total authenticity. All the houses that were included in the Museum were entrusted to the care of peasant families.
Nowadays, the Museum has extended to cover approximately 12 hectares and includes 332 houses. About one hundred of these are made of wood and date from the 17th to the 20th century. They are lined along shaded alleys, just like in a village, and have courtyards, annexes (bridges, wells, or bakeries), churches, and water-mills, in the styles typical of one region or another. The houses of the Danube Delta fishermen, for instance, with their thatched roofs and long porches close to water, are also placed here in their original settings. The inside of the houses is decorated with furniture, embroidery work, pottery, and various tools, just like in the case of traditional peasant houses. The Museum shop offers to visitors various traditional arts and crafts objects.
