Founded in 1998 and re-established in 2006, The Ethnography Museum represents one of the two compartments of the Toplița Cultural Center together with the professional Folkloric Ensemble “Rapsodia Călimanilor”.
The museum occupies an area of approximately 270 sqm, comprising 5 halls and a hallway. From the courtyard of the museum begins our journey into the past, in the small outdoor green space being exhibited transport pieces (wheel, car, plow) and objects used in the past by locals.
The first room on the right side includes the library in which we can find over 3200 books from various fields such as art, literature, history, technical, linguistic, theater, ethnography, religion, etc. There is also a corner dedicated to older books from the period of 1900-1950, as well as a collection of pictures representing the history of Toplița. In the left room there are exhibited works belonging to the museographer and his former students from the Popular Art School.
Going further we discover the “thread of life”, this being the central theme of the museum, which presents the life of a simple man from the Topliţa area passing through all stages of life.
The first room is dedicated to childhood. Here we can find the swing, toys or didactic elements such as the backpack, tablet or abacus specific to the end of the 19 century, the beginning of the 20th century. At the entrance to the childhood room we can notice the small door that makes bending necessary, this representing a form of respect for the hosts from the guests, but also vice versa. Here we also find clay pots or personal objects created by children by carving wood.
The second room, the youth room, presents the wedding scene as well as an impressive collection with numerous traditional clothing, some of them over 100 years old, with various influences (from the area of Moldova, Mureş etc) keeping together the traces left by those who practiced the shepherding or other jobes in these lands. We can observe that the work clothes are very simple, while the festive ones are embellished by different models, and the fact that there are two types of men’s shirts, the pre-war ones being made of one piece, while the later ones are made of two pieces.
Through a porch with traditional windows we can reach the third room, this being the room that comprises a vast collection of household objects, used both inside and outside the house. We notice the sideboard with dishes decorated with floral motifs and the flat iron filled with embers, available in two versions, the large one being used by th adults and the small one by children to learn and also for ironing the areas around the neck and the sleeves. Also we can find here a prayer corner, the icon, the clock or the wall carpet. The lobby is intended for temporary exhibitions here can be found, depending on the time of the year, from decorated eggs up to military objects. Also, the museum has other interesting objects such as an old refrigerator made from wood and metal sheet but which, due to lack of space, are not exposed to the general public.
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