Schedule

14:00 – 16:00 – National Village Museum (Muzeul National al Satului) “Dimitrie Gusti”

The National Museum of the “Dimitrie Gusti” Village is the name given by the Decision of the Government of Romania no. 742/2003, the institution called the Village Museum, a creation of folklorist and sociologist Dimitrie Gusti. The museum was inaugurated on May 10, 1936, in the presence of King Carol II of Romania, and for the public, on May 17, 1936, being currently one of the biggest tourist attractions of Bucharest.

The motivation for setting up the museum was the importance of the village in the culture of Romania, a country where, even at the beginning of the 20th century, long after the Industrial Revolution, most of the population lived in the countryside. The location plans were executed by the writer, playwright, director and scenographer Victor Ion Popa, and the necessary financial funds were made available by the Royal Cultural Foundation.

The memorial plaque at the Village Museum, commemorating the creation of King Michael Park, under the reign of MS King Charles II. To build the Village Museum that Dimitrie Gusti used to call “the sad sound of the bells of Romania’s history”, the houses were disassembled, piece by piece, transported by train, cart or boat to Bucharest where they were assembled in place on the surface today’s museum located on the shore of Herastrau lake . The oldest house is built in the 17th century, and the most recent belongs to the 20th century. The houses in the hilly and mountainous regions are distinguished from those in the plain area by their high foundation, those on the plateau being mostly with low foundations, those from the areas where the enemies invaded often being half buried in the ground.

Throughout history, the museum has been damaged, in the years of the Second World War by the presence of refugees from Bessarabia, then in 1997 and 2002 by two fires, but it has continued to expand its exhibits, the most recent wing of the museum being opened in 2016.