Museum of the Romanian Peasant (Muzeul Taranului Român)

Frommer's Review

Occupying an early-20th-century building by Nicolae Ghica-Budesti, the this museum is stocked full of furniture, farming equipment, costumes, crucifixes, tapestries, textiles, and some very beautiful religious icons; surprisingly, a great deal of the seemingly primitive technology on the first floor is what continues to be used -- along with many of the lifestyle objects kept here -- by rural communities to this day. During the Communist years, the building housed the Museum of the Communist Party and Romanian Revolutionary Workers Movement. On your way out, don't miss the basement exhibition (accessed via stairs next to the entrance) devoted to that time; the smell of mothballs adds a strangely appropriate atmosphere to a stirring display remembering Communism's collectivization scheme, highlighted by numerous unattractive busts of Lenin. Entitled "The Pest," the exhibit is a "memorial of the pain and hurt land-collectivization caused to the peasant world." Oddly, the main exhibit is a desk (from which collective control was exercised) littered with nutshells and onion peels. Tip: The souvenir shop here is worth browsing.

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.

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