Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum

National Village Museum "Dimitrie Gusti"

Muzeul Național al Satului "Dimitrie Gusti"
Maramureș wooden church from Dragomirești, Maramureș County, 17th century
Established	1936 (1936)
Location	King Michael I Park, Bucharest, Romania
Coordinates	44°28′24″N 26°04′36″E / 44.47336°N 26.07656°E / 44.47336; 26.07656
Type	open-air ethnographic museum
Collection size	123 settlements, 363 monuments, over 50,000 artefacts
Founder	Dimitrie Gusti
Website	www.muzeul-satului.ro

The Village Museum or formally National Museum of the Village "Dimitrie Gusti" (Romanian: Muzeul Național al Satului "Dimitrie Gusti") is an open-air ethnographic museum located in the King Michael I Park, Bucharest, Romania. The museum showcases traditional Romanian village life. The museum extends to over 100,000 m²,^[1] and contains 123 authentic peasant settlements, 363 monuments and over 50,000 artefacts from around Romania.^[2] Structures in the museum ranged from the 17th to the 20th century, representative of different ethnographic regions including Banat, Transylvania, Moldavia, Maramures, Oltenia, Dobrogea, Muntenia.^[2]

The village was a creation of the folklorist and sociologist Dimitrie Gusti. The location plans were executed by the writer, playwright, director Victor Ion Popa and set designer Henri H. Stahl. The necessary financial funds were provided by the Royal Cultural Foundation and in the presence of King Carol II of Romania the museum was inaugurated on 10 May 1936.^[3] At the time of its inauguration, it was the fourth open-air museum of Europe after Skansen (Stockholm, Sweden), Norsk Folkemuseum at Bygdøy (Oslo, Norway), and the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania at Hoia Forest in Cluj-Napoca.^[3] The museum initially was 4.5 ha in size with 33 authentic settlements that were transferred from the researched villages. Among them was the Maramures wooden church from Dragomirești, Maramures county.^[3] The building remains the central piece and is incorporated into the logo of the museum.