A journey through the rural history of Romania: The ASTRA Museum

If you are interested in architecture, like me, and especially in the old houses from villages across the country, you are reading the right article. Romania has a large number of villages which have yielded, throughout history, an even bigger number of houses, typical to different regions of the country. You wouldn’t have time to visit them all so the Romanian people have made it easy for you and created an open-air museum containing the most important of them. Visiting the ASTRA Museum of traditional rural civilization or the village museum in short in Sibiu takes you on a journey through the rural history of Romania.

The ASTRA Museum

ASTRA National Museum Complex

Strada Pădurea Dumbrava 16-20, Sibiu 100302, Roumanie

Located on the outskirts of Sibiu in a natural reserve, the ASTRA Museum of traditional rural civilization houses over 400 architectural monuments from traditional houses to wooden churches and grinding mills which are spread across more than 40 ha of beautiful landscapes. All the monuments are from different regions of Romania and are also furnished with authentic objects. If you visit them all, it would be like visiting the whole country in one afternoon.

It is the biggest museum of traditional rural civilization in Europe being organized on an area of 96 ha including the 40 ha dedicated to architectural monuments, which include 10 km of pathways, a lake, a children’s playground, 400 parking spaces and beautiful woods.

The museum was first established in 1905 but most of the monuments were acquired after the inauguration from 1963 and until today it hosted a large number of events with traditional character, like fairs, festivals and handicraft workshops. The wooden churches still function as places of worship.

The surroundings

Depending on which season you decide to visit the museum, there are carriages, boats or even slays you can rent to spend your time enjoying the wonderful nature that surrounds the monuments. There is a zoo close by so if you still have energy left after all that culture be sure to visit it also.

Hopefully, I peaked your interest in visiting this wonderful museum, where you can learn a lot about how people used to live in Romania in the rural area, or maybe you are just in the neighborhood and have some time to spend not knowing what to visit. The ASTRA Museum combines culture, architecture, and nature so I think everyone will find at least one thing they enjoyed taking this journey through the history rural Romania has to offer.