click here for Emil Sigerus museum
Established in 1997, the museum is an institution which brings upfront the contribution that the Transylvanian Saxons made to the development and enrichment of Romanian and world culture in over 800 years of existence in Transylvania. The collections of the museum include patrimony exhibits of the first Transylvanian Saxon Museum (Siebenbürgischen Karpatenverein) and from well-known private collections like those of Julius Bielz, Gisella and Wilhelm Richter, Ervin Ulbrich, and others, to which important acquisitions are added, like those of Emil Sigerus – collector, but also famous historian and humanist dedicated to the history of the city. Owing to his endeavours, part of the monuments of the old town can still be seen today. The collections, structured by types of materials, consist of 7,000 pieces of pottery, wood, metal, traditional costumes and embroidery, representative of the Transylvanian Saxon civilization, many of them being unique. The objectives of this institution are to preserve the Saxon patrimony still existent in the communities in Transylvania and to carry on ethnographic studies, as well as to organise exhibitions, seminars, and others in order to better display the output of research and the collections owned by the museum.The collaboration with the organisation of the "Folk Creators of Romania," "The Days of the Academy of Romanian Traditional Arts" and of the crafts-children camp is intended to call attention to the craftsmen who continue to work in the spirit of tradition, as well as to revive occupations once widespread but forgotten today. The spirit of the exhibition lies in the basement of the museum located at 12, Piaţa Mică, which was inaugurated by the permanent exhibition called "Transylvanian glazed stove tiles of the centuries," a unique and original attempt to illustrate one of the crafts representative of the Transylvanian Saxons. This exhibition intends to display the exceptional patrimony in the museum's collections: the largest and most complete collection of Transylvanian glazed stove tiles consisting of about 1,500 pieces. Through its theme, the exhibition brings the old fire-places and stoves to the visitor's attention as elements of civilization relevant for the way of life of the rural and urban Transylvanian communities in the 15th-19th centuries and for the cultural interferences resulted from the cohabitation of Romanians, Transylvanian Saxons, and Hungarians in the region.
by Plural magazine
