Astra Traditional Folk Civilization Museum, Sibiu

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Better known as the Open Air Village Museum, it is situated in the Dumbrava Sibiului natural reservation. With its 10kms long alleys, it offers an impressive collection aiming to give you a good overview of the traditional Romania by desplaying households from across the country.

The museum offers a wide range of services: two restaurants, the possibility to celebrate your wedding here, visit the museum by carriage (EUR 15/hour), take a boat trip (EUR 2,5/hour) and many more.

Fees
Entrance for adults: RON 15 (EUR 4,25)
Entrance for students: RON 3,5 (EUR 0,8)
Audioguides: RON 20 (EUR 5)
For Photography: RON 5 (EUR 1,2)

Future Events :
July 30- 31: The Fair of Rroma Craftmen
August 12-14: The 28th edition of the Popular Craftmen in Romania
August 12 - 14: The Festival of National Popular Traditions
December 3-4: The 5th edition of the National Festival of Traditional Customs

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Sometimes you randomly find yourself in a very special place. ASTRA National Open Air Museum Complex is one of those very special places. Located in the middle-of-nowhere outskirts of Sibiu (though oddly right beside the Hilton hotel!), ASTRA gives visitors the chance to step back in time and imagine a time when life was simple. Unlike other "village museums" which feel like they've been carved out of the city, ASTRA is far enough away from the city to feel like an entirely different world. Add the relative lack of visitors to its isolated location and you really could be in rural Romania circa 1700.

Upon entry you'll find yourself in front of a large lake. There are exhibits on both side of the lake, so take your pick. As you wander through the woods you'll see traditional homes and buildings, artisan works (such as carved wooden fences and the elaborate cross shown in my photos), windmills, wells and maybe even some wildlife (I saw a weasel, which is like spotting an albino gorilla considering my luck with animal sightings!). You could literally spend hours wandering around the site and not feel like you'd seen it all (but still feel like it was a great day). It's just so calm and peaceful! There is also a restaurant on site (but I'm not sure how regularly it opens) and a snack bar near the lake (normal operating hours, or so it would seem). You'll be doing A LOT of walking here so you might want to bring your own water bottle and snacks (it would actually be an awesome spot for a picnic).

To get to the museum, take bus (or tram) #1 from the center towards Rasinari. Some busses go all the way to the museum, but many stop at the bus exchange (which is about 500 metres ahead of the museum in a park). I got off at the bus exchange and walked along the road to reach the museum; I was a little worried a bear would attack me but traffic wasn't a problem (though there is no sidewalk). On your way into the museum check the posted schedule for return busses and trams, and try to plan your departure accordingly. The museum has an awesome gift shop selling lots of traditional souvenirs (second only to that at the Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest, in my opinion).

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In your visit here, in Sibiu, there are few MUSTs. One of them is this opened air Museum, like no other in Romania - valued of being one of the best in the WORLD (Bucharest has a big one too, but you'll find this one more beautiful).

The costs of entrance are normal. You must also pay for parking and for the photo/video camera (you need to take photos ! )

Inside you can find a place to rest, have a drink in the opened air close by the lake. Or go for lunch to the restaurant located inside the museum.

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Astra Museum of Traditional Romanian CivilizationI strongly recommend a visit to this great museum.Allow at least three hours and note that the museum is at the outskirts (south) of Sibiu, in the Dumbrava forest. You can take a taxi or the local tram to go there. It will be an unique experience for western European or American tourists, because it features very rustic rural households with all that great wooden equipments for daily and specialized use of the various crafts that used to be done in different regions of Romania. The museum features 146 households and annexes, over 96 hectares of land. The park where the museum is arranged features also a zoo.

The Astra Museum is the biggest open air museum in Europe. The 420,000 square metres museum shows the romanian culture as it started. There we find houses and all people needed to survive in those times, we find tools they were using, we find everything from wagons to thresh machines, we find houses from every part of Romania. At the entrance you can also find a shop from where you can buy traditional wardrobe, objects, painted eggs, carpets and other things that can make you remember a great trip. Anyway my words are nothing from what you can see so the best you can do is come to Romania and visit it.

A really nice surprise this outdoor museum. They have houses, churches, mills and all kinds of other buildings and contraptions that the people of romania have used for the last century (or longer). It makes for a very pleasant walk and one can't stop often enough to take pics unless lit is pouring. Like the day i was there. but even then, with the rain co0ming down in buckets, i managed to wander around for around 2 hours. Just being amased about the variety of what one could do with wood and designing of living space.

Located in Dumbrava Forest,in a lovely landscape you `ll find the greatest open-air museum in Eastern Europe dedicted to the villagers : ASTRA Museum of Traditional Civilization .
Is the better way that, in a short time ,you learn about Romanian people and its traditions and customs.Among old oaks ,on 100 ha there are spread houses and establishments from various provinces .Nice and well informed peoples will explain how lived and worked the ancient peasant.You will be stunned.

Go to the Museum of Traditional Folk Civilisation "Astra" in the Dunbrava park. It is a large area with several traditional villages. Not only wooden houses and windmills can be seen here, but also lots of information about all kinds of techniques that were used since pre-industrialized time until recent times. Beautifully decorated furniture and weaved cloth, as well as simple shelters for sheep-holding can be found in the museum. I needed half a day to see only a glimpse of the park. The park is opened from 10:00 tot 18:00 hours but closed on mondays. Get early, because you need the whole day!

Built up between 1963 and 1989, as the most elaborate scientific-documentary and technical collection and archives (pictures, photos, films) dealing with pre-industrial folk technology in Romania. It offers a brilliant demonstration of life and material continuity in this part of Europe.

See the Museum of the Romanian Village. You will like it a lot if you are either a Romanian or from another country. It is the bestof this kind from the whole Romania and rated as the best European Museum of the year some years ago. It will take a lot of time to visit it, so maybe you should reserv a whole day for it.
Traditional Houses from all over the country, which you can admire as a whole, meaning both interior design and exterior and with yard and everything that was needed in the old times to make it a good home. Usually the houses are also specific for people who did a certain work (e.g.: shepherd, sewer etc). And also there is a special part of the museum with old workshops.
There is also a very beautiful church and some pulic place like the inn where you can really try traditional Romanian food at not so high prices. So enjoy!