The best museums Romania

From room to room, the history museum will take you through the ages, from the Paleolithic to the Communist period. In particular, you'll see precious artifacts from the Dacian-Roman city of Porolissum. A visit to the museum, before or after touring the ruins, will help you understand the history of this city. The art gallery (strada Gheorghe Doja, 6), featuring works bequeathed by local painter Ioan Sima (1898-1985), is closed to the public for an indefinite period.

It occupies two prestigious neighboring buildings in the city center: the Babylon building, erected in 1851, and the Union Hall, built in 1900. It was here that the Grand National Assembly proclaimed the union of Transylvania with Romania on December¹, 1918. The various sections cover prehistory, the Middle Ages, battles against the Turks, the revolution of 1848, the unification of the Danubian principalities in 1859 and, of course, the joining of Transylvania.

Since 2016, it has been housed in the superb Villa Haberstumpf, a long yellow building erected in 1900 in eclectic German style as a summer residence for members of the Haberstumpf family. It is a museum of ethnography, local history, art and natural sciences, focusing on the Odorheiu Secuiesc area, populated mainly by Sicules. A visit to the museum provides a better understanding of the peculiarities of the "Hungarians of Romania" through ancient objects, costumes and descriptions of specific traditions.

On Trandafirilor Square, between Secession houses and 1970s buildings, the Museum of Ethnography and Folk Art is housed in a superb ^18th-century Baroque building, the Toldalagi Palace. It features interesting collections of objects reflecting the ethnic diversity of the region: folk costumes, textiles, wooden objects, ceramics, icons painted on wood and glass, etc. Part of the exhibition is dedicated to the annual fairs held in and around the town in the first half of the ^20th century.

Next to the Ethnographic Museum, set on the picturesque Flower Hill, the Village Museum (muzeul Satului) presents, in the open air, interesting traditional houses of the region, with reconstructed interiors and exteriors: barns, pigsties, farm installations and farm machinery of the time. You will also see crosses, gates and a wooden church of 1630, brought back from the village from Chechiș. However, although this rural reconstruction is vast and exciting, it does not replace a country holiday.

Housed in an ^18th-century building close to the old town center, it exhibits over 250 works by the Nagybánya School (the Hungarian name for Baia Mare), a colony of painters founded by Simon Hollósy in 1896, at a time when the town was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Influenced by Impressionism, this movement, highly regarded in Europe, was characterized in particular by plein-air painting. The museum's collections also include fine works of Romanian and European art, presented in temporary exhibitions.

It occupies the former Mint, built in the ^18th century and now the headquarters of the Mining Department. One of its sections traces the long history of mining in Baia Mare. You can also see coins, weapons, photos, various documents and ancient objects, as well as a surprising collection of some 300 watches. On the archaeological side, a permanent exhibition is dedicated to "Bronze Age Treasures from Northern Transylvania".

It's a collection of small centers dedicated to the natural and cultural heritage of Hațeg country, spread across different parts of the territory. In Hațeg, there's an exhibition on dinosaurs and legendary creatures such as dragons and balaurs. Here you can admire the reconstruction of a balaur bondoc, a Transylvanian dinosaur species. At the General Berthelot Village Science and Arts Center, you'll see two more life-size reconstructions, and a fossil collection including three real dinosaur egg nests!