Conservation and restoration of the ethnographic heritage from ASTRA Museum
ASTRA National Museum Complex
Other
€2,461,888
EEA Grants
In Sibiu in Romania, the EEA Grants support the restoration of ASTRA National Museum, which is Europe`s second largest open-air museum.
Located in Transylvania, in the heart of Romania, the ASTRA National Museum Complex preserves human and cultural heritage from all over Romania. Everything from small items, equipment and furniture to large wooden houses at the museum has now been preserved for future generations. Some of the objects in the museum date back to the 17th century.
Norway`s Ambassador to Romania Øystein Hovdkinn visited the museum in April 2010 and enjoyed a tour of the museum’s nearly 1,000 acres area. „What made the greatest impression was a small wooden church with beautiful, old murals on the inside. The Romanian wooden churches almost look like Norwegian stave churches, but they are constructed in a completely different way”, Hovdkinn said.
A new centre
The number of objects in the museum is steadily increasing. The current collection of 22,500 objects is now too large to be displayed in the museum premises. A €2.5 million grant in support from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway will now finance the construction of a new centre which will allow the museum to display its entire collection. The new „Centre for Conservation, Restoration and Valorisation of Movable Cultural Heritage” will be opened in 2011. According to Project Coordinator Adriana Avram, the new centre is expected to be completed already in 2010 and the opening will follow six months later.
The project is run by the ASTRA National Museum Complex in cooperation with the Norwegian research organisation SINTEF. „I am pleased to see that the EEA Grants contribute to making ASTRA an even better museum, and to an even greater tourist attraction in this area that already has much to offer tourists”, Ambassador Hovdkinn said.
source: http://www.eeagrants.org
I am so looking forward to seeing the Astra outdoor exhibit when I return to Sibiu in August this year. I had been to the city museum back in April and was fortunate to meet the director and picked up the new children’s book as well to share with my students here in Brusturoasa and also back in the states. I think that it is a fine place that has, from what I could gather, some very good community programs for it’s size. Wishing them all the best for a great season.
Natalie Montanaro, US Peace Corps
Brusturoasa, Romania