TRANSYLVANIAN ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM

A must-see if you want to discover Romanian culture. The Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania, founded in 1922, is the oldest of its kind in Romania. Since 1959, it has been located in the heart of the city, in the Redoubt Palace. A key location in the country's history, it was here that the Transylvanian Diet met in 1790. It was also the site of the Memorandum trial in 1894. Last but not least, it has been the venue for numerous balls, and has seen such great names as Brahms, Liszt and Bartók pass through its doors. The premises house over 41,000 objects, ranging from the ^17th to the ^20th century, including a superb collection of traditional costumes and a documentary collection of over 80,000 references, including 50,000 photographs and 5,000 slides.

The museum also boasts an open-air section: the Romulus Vuia Ethnographic Park, named after the museum's founder. Located on Hoia hill, north-west of the city, this village museum, opened in 1929, was the first of its kind in the country. The park features over 160 exhibits (buildings, tools, etc.), the oldest dating back to 1678, all in a beautiful setting, with several farms and rural technical installations, workshop houses and three wooden churches. One of these (Biserica din Cizer) was built in 1773 by the craftsman Vasile Ursu Nicola, known as Horea, the future leader of the peasant revolution of 1784.