Romanian traditions, customs and crafts meet again at the Astra Museum in Sibiu, the largest open-air museum in Europe.
From August 24 to 27, between 11 a.m. and 17 p.m., the museum will host the event "From iron to wood, to clay and wool!", which will bring together seven types of craft workshops organized in eight locations of the Museum in the Air from Dumbrava Sibiului. Among these workshops that are part of the project Anima ASTRA! include pottery, ceramic firing, making wooden agricultural tools, archaeology, cultural animations (Gendarmul and Rural Learner) and tailoring.
"The Anima ASTRA Project! sends a constructive message in the context of the European Year of Skills 2023 (The European Year of Skills 2023). In this way, craftsmen with indisputable practical and theoretical skills are promoted. The artisans and traditional crafts specific to each area are directions for the development of a sustainable cultural tourism," said Lucian Robu, director of the Open Air Museum in Dumbrava Sibiului
Anima ASTRA! Program: workshops for adults and children at the Astra Museum in Sibiu
For those who want to enjoy traditions, to discover hundreds of years old methods and techniques directly from Romanian craftsmen, but also to rediscover the multiculturalism of our country, the Astra Museum in Sibiu is the ideal destination for the last days of summer. Both adults and children will find here a series of activities that will help them better understand Romania's identity.
As part of the event "From iron to wood, to clay and yarn!", part of the Anima ASTRA! project, museum visitors will be able to participate in the following creative workshops dedicated to both children and adults:
- the pottery workshop and the making of utilitarian ceramic objects at the Oboga (Olt county), Găleșoaia (Gorj county) potters' households, between August 24 - 27, from Thursday to Sunday, and at the Horezu Household (Vâlcea county), between August 25-26, Friday and Saturday,
- pottery firing workshops at the Găleșoaia Nouă household (Gorj county), Friday, August 25,
- tailoring workshops, crocheting, making felt items at the household in Săpânta (Maramureș), 24 – 25 August, Thursday and Friday,
- household and agricultural tool making workshop at the household in Poiana Perișani (Vâlcea county), August 25 – 27, from Friday to Sunday,
- animation workshop/cultural scenarios illustrating important characters from the rural world during the XIX-XX centuries, Thursday, August 24, and Saturday, August 26, in the area of the Oboga potter's household (Olt county), and Friday, August 25, and Sunday, August 27, at the school in Ticera,
- experimental archeology workshop, August 25-31, at the functional ironwork in the open-air Museum in Dumbrava Sibiului.
The most important milestones of the event "From iron to wood, to clay and yarn!"
For the last weekend of this summer, the Astra Museum in Sibiu offers tourists a journey into the universe of Romanian traditions. For example, for visitors curious about the ancient practices of Romanian artisans, the demonstrations organized at the functional blacksmith shop within the archeology workshops, between August 25 and 31, will illustrate a foray into the history of the craft, by presenting and using the installations, tools and processing techniques used by ancient and traditional blacksmiths. Craft tools and everyday household objects will be made showing the usefulness of each ethnographic object in the ancient period and in the present.
On Thursday and Saturday, August 24 and 26, 2023, between 11 a.m. and 17 p.m., in the area of the potter's household in Oboga, Olt county (pottery sector), the rural gendarmerie station chief from the beginning of the XNUMXth century will appear in patrol, in a replica of the period uniform and will interact with visitors to the Astra Museum.