A whole country's architecture
Houses, mills and wooden churches from mountain, plain and delta, each built by different methods.
Andrei kokelburg — CC BY-SA 3.0 ro · Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Leontin l — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Leontin l — CC BY-SA 4.0
An open-air ethnographic museum south-west of Sibiu, among the largest of its kind in Europe. The grounds run to more than a hundred hectares inside a forest and hold hundreds of original rural buildings, dismantled from villages across Romania and rebuilt here. The idea is not to display models but to preserve real buildings: farmhouses, water and wind mills, presses, smithies, wooden churches and barns, each from a different region and built by different methods. Walking between them explains how Romanian rural architecture varied between the mountains, the plains and the delta. The site is very large and the paths long, so allow at least three hours and half a day to see most of it. There is a lake inside the grounds with boats in summer, and some buildings operate as working craft workshops. This is among the strongest things to visit in central Romania, and the single best explanation of the country for a visitor who knows nothing about it. Access is by bus or taxi from central Sibiu in about ten minutes.
Houses, mills and wooden churches from mountain, plain and delta, each built by different methods.
Some buildings operate as craft workshops, so you see the trade and not only the structure.
The paths are long and the ground open — budget the time, the weather and the footwear.
Dumbrava forest, south-west of Sibiu
Three hours minimum for a selective visit, half a day to a full day to see most of it. The grounds exceed a hundred hectares and the paths between buildings are long, so this is not a museum you cover in an hour.
Late spring to early autumn. The site is almost entirely open ground, some buildings and activities close in winter, and the paths turn muddy. Summer is ideal, but take water and a hat.
Yes, well: the open space, the animals, the mills and the workshops appeal, and the lake with boats adds to it in summer. But the distances are long, so factor that in with small children.
