Over three hundred buildings
Brought from across Romania and rebuilt stone by stone.
Prof mm2010 — 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 museum in forest south of Sibiu, among the largest in Europe: more than three hundred traditional buildings brought from across Romania and rebuilt here stone by stone. The premise was that rural Romania was disappearing: timber houses, mills, churches, presses and craft workshops abandoned and collapsing. The museum moved what could be saved and reassembled it across some ninety hectares around a lake. What separates it from an ordinary buildings museum is the arrangement: the structures are grouped by craft and region, and come with their tools and machinery — working water mills, oil presses, pottery kilns and apiaries. You understand how the rural economy worked rather than only how the houses looked. The site is vast and the paths long: allow at least three hours and wear comfortable shoes. Electric carts operate on site. This is the open-air section of the ASTRA complex — the national museum of folk civilisation — not the ASTRA museum in central Sibiu, which is a different thing. Somewhat seasonal: some buildings and activities run only in the warmer months.
Brought from across Romania and rebuilt stone by stone.
Water mills, oil presses and kilns — the economy, not only the appearance.
The paths run through forest and around water, so the visit is a walk as much as a museum.
The Dumbrava forest, south of Sibiu
South of the city about four kilometres, reached by a historic tram, buses and taxis in around fifteen minutes. It is not a reasonable walk from the centre. Start early, as the site needs time.
Both are open-air museums of relocated rural buildings, but this is far larger — ninety hectares against about a dozen — and its focus is crafts and machinery rather than houses alone. The Bucharest Village Museum is easier to reach and quicker to see. If you are in Sibiu, this is clearly the better one.
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