The Banat Village Museum ( ro, Muzeul Satului Bănățean) is an open-air ethnographic museum in northeastern

Timișoara ), City of Roses ( ro, Orașul florilor), City of Parks ( ro, Orașul parcurilor) , image_map = Timisoara jud Timis.svg , map_caption = Location in Timiș County , pushpin_map = Romania#Europe , pushpin_ ...

, at the edge of the Green Forest. Spread over an area of 17 ha, the museum is designed as a traditional Banat village and includes peasant households belonging to various ethnic groups in

Banat Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...

(Romanians, Slovaks, Swabians, Ukrainians, Hungarians, etc.), buildings with social function of the traditional village (town hall, school, church, etc.), folk art installations and workshops.

History

The idea of establishing an open-air ethnographic museum goes back to Ioachim Miloia, former director of the

Museum of Banat The National Museum of Banat ( ro, Muzeul Național al Banatului; abbreviated MNaB) is a museum in Timișoara, Romania, headquartered in Huniade Castle. It was founded in 1872 by the Society of History and Archeology of Banat ( ro, Societatea de I ...

between 1928 and 1940. In 1928, after Miloia returned from the opening ceremony of the

Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania The Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania ( ro, Muzeul Etnografic al Transilvaniei; hu, Erdélyi néprajzi múzeum) is situated in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. With a history of almost 100 years, the ''Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania'' is one of the fi ...

Cluj-Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

, he asked the municipality for permission to open a small village museum in the courtyard of

Huniade Castle hu, Hunyadi-kastély , native_name_lang = , image = CastelulHuniade2.jpg , image_caption = The Huniade Castle in 2007 , coordinates = , building_type = Castle , architectural_style = Romantic, neo-Got ...

. After the approval, he exhibited the first wooden churches, crosses and farmhouses here. In 1967 the museum received the current plot of land on which developed the open-air ethnographic museum, open to public since 20 August 1971. In 1986 the museum was subject to preservation measures and was closed to visitors for a period of nine years by presidential decree; it was reopened on 1 May 1995. Until 2000, it functioned as a section of the

, after which it became a separate institution subordinated to the Timiș County Council. In 2006, the Ethnography section of the

(with its over 13,000 heritage objects) relocated to the Banat Village Museum.

Collection

The museum is designed on three thematic levels – the Village Civic Center, the Alley of Ethnicities and the Living Museum.

Village Civic Center

The core of the museum is the Village Civic Center, consisting of a town hall, a school, a "national house" and an inn, the central piece being the wooden church. Built in 1746 in Remetea-Luncă, it was donated in 1807 to churchgoers in the neighboring village of Topla, where it was moved on rollers pulled by 24 pairs of oxen. From there it was brought to the museum in 1987.

Alley of Ethnicities

The Alley of Ethnicities consists of a series of traditional houses of the historical ethnic groups of Banat. Starting with 2000, a Hungarian house (Babșa, Timiș), a German house (Biled, Timiș), a Slovak house (Nădlac, Arad) and a Ukrainian house (Repedea, Maramureș) were inaugurated here. The Serbian house is currently under construction, and the director of the museum is considering the acquisition of a Bulgarian house and a Czech house.

Living Museum

The Living Museum is a cross-border project between

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

started in 2012. The project aims at creating four replicas of traditional households (a Romanian house, a Hungarian house, a Swabian house and a Serbian house) as a reconstruction of country life in Banat in the 18th and 19th centuries.

References