"Dimitrie Gusti" National Village Museum

lies on 28-30, Soseaua Kiseleff (Kiseleff Road)
it was founded in 1936 in Bucharest, in Herastrau Park, being one of the first museums of ethnography in the open from Romania and from all over the world
"Dimitrie Gusti" National Village Museum is the result of intense and constant researches, theoretical and practical, as well as of some museological experiments for over a decade, supervised by prof. Dimitrie Gusti, the founder of the Sociological School in Bucharest
as head of the sociology department of the University of Bucharest, Gusti organizes, between 1925-1935, campaigns for monographic researches together with specialists in different fields of activities and with his students
The Royal Foundation "Principele Carol" had an important contribution to the setting up of the museum, giving moral and pecuniary support
the official inauguration of the Village Museum took place in May 10th 1936, in the presence of king Carol II, and for the public, it was opened in May 17th 1936
at the beginning, between 1936-1940, the museum stretched on 6.5 ha
33 authentic complexes were located in this place, being brought from the investigated villages: houses with their dependencies, a church (from Dragomiresti, Maramures county), roadside crosses, installations made by peasants, wells and a swing
they were placed according to a plan thought out by the dramatist and scenographer V.I. Popa
this plan, that is to a great extent valid even today, tends to reproduce Romania’s map, by grouping together the architectural monuments and the folklore architectural monuments according to the criterion of geographical vicinity of the localities, in sectors representing the great historical provinces of the country
in 1940, when Basarabia and Bucovina and part of Herta and Bucovina Land were annexed to the Soviet Union, the municipality of Bucharest decided to shelter families of refugees from Basarabia and Bucovina in some householdings of the museum who remained here until 1948

under these circumstances, the museum was in the position to close its doors as it could not continue its activity
the improper use of the monuments, by being inhabited, led to the destruction of a great number of constructions
in 1948 "Dimitrie Gusti" National Village Museum was reopened to the public, and Gheorghe Focsa was appointed director being one of prof. D.Gusti’s student and member of the groups of monographers
during Gheorghe Focşa guidance the developing directions of the museum were established, on the base of some multiple criteria: historical (representation of the traditional habitat and of the folk culture in its geographical development, between the 17th-20th c.), social, geographical (grouping the monuments on historical provinces), economical (the typology of the household in accordance with occupations and crafts), artistic ( the presence of the aesthetics as implicit or explicit value), of authenticity and typicalness
according to these criteria and by enriching the museum with new acquisitions, the exhibition in open air changed its side face, becoming from a "sociological reservation" an ethnographic museum

in 1978, The Village Museum united with the Folk Art Museum of the Socialist Republic of Romania, under the name of the Village and Folk Art Museum
after 1989 revolution, the institution gained its individuality, by its separation from the museum it had been united with
the research work and the acquisitions of the last years led to the increase of the exhibits in open air and to that of the collections
today, the permanent exhibition comprises 121 distinctive complexes, totalizing 338 monuments, while the mobile stock includes 53.828 objects
among the monuments transferred recently to the museum, at the beginning of 2003, is the church from Timiseni (Gorj county), monument of a particular value for the old religious folk architecture (1773) and for the art of painting
besides the exhibition in the open and the collections, the museum possesses a rich documentary material having an inestimable ethnographical and historical value consisting of collections of manuscripts, sketches, studies, drawings, negatives on glass, films, white and black and colored negatives, photographs, pictures, resulting from the research work of the monographer teams which contributed to the foundation of the Village Museum, as well as from later investigations
unfortunately, the recent history of the museum underwent two dramatic events: the fires from September 5th 1997 (Transylvanian sector) and that from February 2002 (Moldavia and Dobrudja), when some monuments and the objects belonging to them were damaged
today, "Dimitrie Gusti" National Village Museum is included in a series of partnerships promoted by European Council
the museum is present in many countries of the world through its exhibitions