In 2025, 35 years were celebrated since the (re)establishment of the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant (MNȚR) in its modern form — an institution dedicated to preserving and promoting Romanian peasant traditions and art. Today, it holds one of the richest collections of peasant artifacts in the country.

A legacy of the rural world in formation

However, its history is far older and more intricate: it reflects decades, even centuries, of effort to recognize the rural world as a pillar of national identity. After the Union of the Romanian Principalities in 1859, Romanian society entered a period of nation-building. 

In this context, the peasant and the rural world began to gain a central significance, becoming cultural references for the national project. Folk culture, customs, and peasant art thus became integral to the idea of Romanian identity.

The first institutional attempts

The origins of the museum can be traced back to 1863, when Alexandru Ioan Cuza issued an ordinance calling for the organization of exhibitions that would include products of peasant domestic industry. 

On May 20, 1863, under the guidance of Ion Ionescu de la Brad, the “National Exhibition of Livestock, Flowers, Vegetables, Agricultural and Industrial Products” opened in the Obor area of Bucharest. In 1864, Cuza founded the National Museum of Antiquities, considered the forerunner of today’s MNȚR.

Later, in 1875, Titu Maiorescu proposed the creation of a special section dedicated to textile art — folk costumes, carpets, woven fabrics — based partly on the private collection of Lieutenant Colonel Dimitrie Pappasoglu. Many of the artifacts that now belong to the MNȚR originate from this period. Thus began the first consistent efforts to collect and preserve objects reflecting the peasant world.

From folk art museum to “palace of earthly art”

On October 11, 1906, the Museum of Ethnography, National Art, Decorative and Industrial Art was established in the former Mint building. Its first director was the art historian Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaş. 

In 1912, following a decree signed by King Carol I, construction began on the current headquarters, which was to replace the old state mint. Architect Nicolae Ghica-Budeşti was commissioned to design a building that would serve as a “palace of earthly art,” inspired by monastic architecture, according to the vision of Tzigara-Samurcaş.

The building, combining Neo-Romanian and Brâncovenesc styles, was completed in 1941. It features red-brick facades, arched windows, elegant columns, carved balustrades, and a central tower reminiscent of old monastery bell towers — a true architectural monument that serves as a “temple” of traditional art.

A period of oblivion and revival

Starting in 1953, the building was repurposed by the communist regime. It first hosted the Lenin-Stalin Museum, then the Museum of the Romanian Communist Party. In the final years of communism, it became a kind of “museum-tribute” to President Nicolae Ceauşescu. Meanwhile, the folk art collections were scattered, temporarily stored in other buildings, including the Ştirbey Palace and later in the Village Museum’s depots.

During the 1960s, a new central wing of offices and auxiliary halls was added in a stark, utilitarian style completely at odds with the building’s original Neo-Romanian architecture — a clear reflection of the proletarian-aesthetic of the totalitarian era.

After the 1989 Revolution, on February 5, 1990, Minister of Culture Andrei Pleşu re-established the Romanian Peasant Museum and appointed the painter Horia Bernea as its director. Thus, the institution was reborn as a modern promoter of authenticity and rural identity.

Collections, recognition, and cultural life

Today, the MNȚR holds an impressive heritage of about 90,000 items — ceramics, traditional clothing, textiles, wooden objects, religious artifacts, furniture, and metalwork — representing all Romanian provinces. The ceramics collection includes around 18,000 pieces (pots for sarmale, milk jugs, baking molds, water pitchers). 

The folk costume collection counts about 20,000 pieces dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. The wood and furniture collection contains around 8,000 objects. The museum also holds an important collection of religious art (icons on glass and wood, crosses, small altars) and a photographic archive with historical images.

Alongside permanent and temporary exhibitions, the museum organizes creativity workshops for children and students, drawing, painting, sewing, weaving, storytelling, and traditional music, as well as fairs and markets dedicated to Romanian craftsmanship. The museum’s famous seasonal fairs, for Mărţişor (early spring), Palm Sunday, or Sânziene (midsummer), connect traditional crafts with contemporary creative expression.

The place, the architecture, and its symbolic meaning

The MNȚR is located at 3 Kiseleff Boulevard, Sector 1, Bucharest, near Victory Square, in an area rich in cultural institutions. The building is listed as a historical monument and stands as a remarkable example of Neo-Romanian architecture, strongly influenced by the Brâncovenesc style. Its floral and zoomorphic decorative elements, brick masonry, and tower-pavilion design make it, indeed, “a true palace of the arts.”

This architectural choice was deliberate: it reflects the intent to endow peasant culture with a space worthy of its significance, a nearly sacred environment affirming the artistic and spiritual value of rural creativity. In this sense, the museum functions as a temple of authenticity, a space where tradition is not displayed as nostalgia but celebrated as a living force of identity.

Why it matters today

In an era of globalization and rapid transformation of rural life, the MNȚR plays a vital role: it safeguards memory, promotes tradition, and fosters dialogue between rural and urban culture, between past and present. 

Its collections provide not just a panorama of Romanian village life but a dynamic cultural resource. Through workshops, fairs, film screenings, and exhibitions, the museum engages younger generations and the broader public alike.

Moreover, the museum’s philosophy — that it does not represent ethnography merely by “presenting the village,” but rather by interpreting peasant life as an archetypal model — highlights its deeper mission: to reinterpret and revitalize Romanian tradition for the modern era.

The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant is far more than a collection or an institution: it is a symbol of authenticity and continuity, a place where the Romanian peasant world — with its costumes, objects, popular art, and customs — is preserved and celebrated with reverence and care. The 35th anniversary of its modern revival in 2025 offers not just a moment of commemoration but an opportunity to reaffirm its enduring mission.

Through its outstanding collections, its monumental building, and its lively cultural activities, the MNȚR confirms that the Romanian village — with its spiritual and material richness — deserves a central place in the contemporary national culture.

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