The best museums Sibiu

It took ten years (1778-1788) to build this palace, now considered one of the finest museums in Eastern Europe. In addition to its rich collections, the palace itself is well worth a visit. This Baroque masterpiece, the city's landmark, was designed by Baron Samuel von Brukenthal, Governor of Transylvania from 1777 to 1787, and a favorite of Empress Maria Theresa. Brukenthal, who was also a great art lover, asked in his will that the palace and his personal collections be made accessible to the public after his death. Opened in 1817, the museum is renowned throughout Europe for the richness and diversity of its collections, including the 1,090 paintings that belonged to the baron. These include 450 works by the Flemish school (Rubens, Van Dyck...), 500 German paintings illustrating the transition between the Gothic and Baroque styles, as well as works by Italian painters of various currents. Not to mention works by Romanian artists, Transylvanian drawings and engravings from the ^17th to ^19th centuries, and exceptional silverware.

The Baron's library has also been preserved, supplemented by the collection of Sibiu's medieval libraries. It contains 280,000 volumes, including a collection of incunabula (works printed before 1500) and the Brukenthal Breviary, written on parchment with superb miniatures by Flemish painters of the ^15th and ^16th centuries. It is no longer open to the public and is reserved for students.

This superb open-air ethnographic museum is the best of its kind in the country. A visit is a must for anyone wishing to learn more about the riches of the Transylvanian and Romanian rural world. More than 400 houses are on display, in a magnificent park of almost 100 hectares, complete with lake, in the heart of the Dumbrava Sibiului nature reserve. Along the 10 km of paths, you'll discover the homes of the fishermen of the delta and the peasants of Maramureș... These houses with their preserved interiors will plunge you into the daily life and past traditions of peasants from all over the country. You'll also see a multitude of technical installations from all eras: wine presses, weaving looms, ovens, distilleries, farming equipment and more. You can also admire wooden churches. Finally, there's an impressive area devoted to mills of all types: water, wind, hand and horse-powered... The walk is as enjoyable as it is instructive. You can even take a boat or horse-drawn carriage ride. In addition to the open-air museum, the Astra complex includes a section dedicated to the heritage of Transylvania's ethnic minorities. The pavilion also houses a folk art gallery (perfect for buying souvenirs), a cafeteria and a tourist information center.

Numerous events and traditional festivals are held here, particularly in summer: the National Festival of Folk Traditions in mid-August, the Taraf and Brass Band Festival at the end of the same month..

It occupies the former Sibiu Town Hall (1545-1948), also known as Casa Altemberger, the family whose coat of arms adorns the façade. This 15th-century building and its pretty courtyard are Gothic in style. It is one of the last remaining civil buildings from this period. The small bell at the top of the tower is known as the "condemned man's bell", because it was used to announce the execution of a prisoner. The exhibition traces local history back to the Paleolithic period.

Close to the Thalia Hall, it occupies a yellow building purpose-built in 1895 in the Italian Renaissance style. Here you can admire beautiful minerals, prehistoric animal skeletons (mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses...) and dioramas presenting Romanian, tropical, Arctic and Australian flora and fauna. The garden is home to a variety of plant species, some of them rare. A few dinosaurs can also be seen!

It occupies a beautiful green neo-Gothic building, called Casa Hermes (named after the Greek god of Commerce), erected in 1867 to house an association of craft guilds. Opened in 1990 as part of the Astra complex, this museum, currently undergoing restoration, is the only one in the country devoted to non-European ethnography. It brings together objects collected by local collectors during their travels in Africa, China, Japan, Oceania, Lapland and Brazil.

This pretty little museum presents pharmacy objects in use in Transylvania from the 17th to the 19th century, which bear witness to the evolution of pharmaceutical techniques: bottles of all kinds, wooden or ceramic pots, funnels, scales, plant presses... The house that houses it, a 16th century building combining Gothic and Renaissance styles, has housed one of the oldest pharmacies in the city, which appeared around 1600 and was called The Black Bear.