Nicolae Popa Ethnographic Museum

Some spots in Romania will just captivate your family, particularly your children. And one of them, believe it or not, is Nicolae Popa Museum, a private peasant museum located in the little town of Tarpesti in Neamt County. The gate opens onto a wide yard with an open-air lane on a green hill, behind a classical fence. Many fairy-tale characters -carved in wood or stone- that enliven the entire environment can be seen on each side of the alley, among fruit trees, and at the end of the lane a typical home with wooden porch sits solidly on the ground. It is the home of the famous Târpeşti craftsman Nicolae Popa, which has been turned into a real ethnographic museum, one of the most beautiful and appealing of its kind in Moldavia.

Nicolae Popa, the museum's inventor and legend was a well-known original artisan, artist, extraordinary collector, and writer. He learned to make head masks as a child, because mask games are the most complex and spectacular of Neamţ County's New Year's traditions, and later perfected its stone (sandstone) and wood carving skills, developing his own style of depicting facial features: well-shaped eyes, thick lips, big teeth, big nose and ears, long hair and beards, bushy moustaches. The museum's holdings, which include traditional masks and costumes, wood and stone sculptures, numismatics, religious artefacts, icons, and naïve painting, form a living record of the local spirituality, which has been exceptionally well maintained in the villages of Neamţ county. Tourists of all ethnic backgrounds are captivated by the beauty of traditional clothes as well as the authenticity of Romanian dances and traditions.

Location: Neamt, Romania