The Straw Hat Museum
Visiting Hours
Mon – Sun 10.00-18.00
Contact details
Location
The Straw Hat Museum
The Straw Hat Museum in Criseni, Harghita County, was founded in 2001 at the initiative of the Lajos Szocs family, a family with a tradition of over 4 generations in this field, together with the Association of straw hats manufacturers and for keeping traditions.
The museum is housed in a 130-year-old peasant house composed of a porch and 3 rooms that includes an entrance for the cat.
In the first room, on the left side, we can see the braids made by the people of the village, this being the main activity of the inhabitants. Here we find ornaments made of wheatears that signify the thanks given by the villagers to God after the harvest, as well as all types of hats throughout the country that we find out to have multiple meanings. Depending on the model chosen, we can tell if the owner is German or Szekler. Also, the placement of the ornament indicates nationality, the Romanians always wearing it on the right side and the Hungarians on the left.
The brim of the hat also has multiple meanings: if it is bent upwards it means that the owner is younger while if it is bent downwards it means that he is older and he must be respected. The size of the brim indicates wealth, the row of braids representing the number of acres of land owned – the more there are, the more it symbolizes that the owner is wealthy.
In the middle room we can admire other decorations / ornaments made of straw (angels, stars, etc.) manufactured by the villagers who found other sources of income in the other periods of the year besides selling hats specific to the summer months.
Continuing the exploration, in the room on the right side, we can see the technical process of making a straw hat. Basically, taking each phase, from harvest to wear, there are somewhere around 16-17 steps, and the duration of making a single hat is at least one day. Here we can also find a giant hat, 2 meters in diameter and 2.65 kg which required 12 and a half days of work, 500 meters raw material, about 22555 straw threads and 1799 meters of yarn.
In the courtyard of the museum there is also a natural collection of stones from the river bed of Cusmed, as well as a fire carriage about 150 years old, but also a hat-shaped gazebo on whose pillars appear sayings specific to hats. There is also a souvenir shop and two gazebos with thematic pictures where workshops for visitors or children camps are organized.
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