The "Elephant House" Jewish Museum

The museum house was erected between 2006 and 2008, at the initiative of the Orthodox priest Ioan Chirilă, on the place of the former Orthodox confessional school. Although the building is not significantly old, it seems to belong to ancient times thanks to the traditional architectural typology, specific to the Lăpuș ethnographic area. The stone and oak construction, standing on a stone foundation, reveals a modest interior consisting of three rooms: a main room, porch and pantry. The main room of the museum with short walls and small windows shelters traditional objects, tools and textiles, some of which are hundreds of years old. The dowry chest, the loom, the grain box, the shirts and the aprons are just some of the items that restore the image of the simple and authentic life of long ago. It is also commendable that all the objects that give value to the "Lăpuș House" were donated by the people of Rogoz and, therefore, all bear the story and the burden of those who crafted and used them over time. Another one of the museum’s strong points is its location, in the center of the town, adjacent to the wooden church dedicated to the "Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel", an edifice with a complex architecture and a special beauty, which was included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The church dates from 1661 and is the most famous architectural and religious masterpiece in The Land of Lăpuș. 

The Ethnographic Museum of Maramureş is housed in an imposing building, which represents a historical and architectural monument. Although the efforts to organize an ethnographic collection with Maramureș exhibits go further back in time, the Ethnographic Museum of Maramureş was inaugurated in 1926. Unfortunately, in the years following the Vienna Dictate, a significant part of the institution's collections was lost, the local museum being re-established only in 1954, with the careful involvement of Francisc Nistor, famous ethnographer, archaeologist, teacher and photographer. The permanent ethnographic exhibition, which can be seen today, opened its doors to the public in 1971. It included objects used in agriculture or pastoralism, but also for manufacture of various textiles, all these exhibits illustrating the specific occupations of the people living in the Maramureș area. Also, traditional pieces of furniture, elements of folk costumes, ceramic pieces, as well as a collection of authentic masks, specific to the winter holidays traditions in Maramureș are presented in this permanent exhibition. Those who visit this important tourist objective have the opportunity to admire religious art objects used in the church traditions of Maramureș. The whole exhibition is an illustration of the life of the simple peasant from Maramureș, with all its natural stages.

The Baia Mare Museum of Astronomical Sciences, known until recently as the Baia Mare Astronomical Complex, located in the new downtown area, first opened its doors to the public in 1969. At that time, it was the first public planetarium in Romania. Back then, the planetarium took pride in the astronomical observatory which was used for monitoring the night sky. In 2015, the astronomical complex was endowed with the most modern planetarium equipment in the entire country, the new opto-mechanical stellar projector allowing the greatest clarity of the stellar field. Thus, the institution from Baia Mare is now part of the most modern optical planetariums not only in Romania, but also in South-Eastern Europe. From 2020, the museum brings to the public a captivating and interactive presentation, which allows visitors the possibility of learning about scientific and cultural astronomy, being intended for both the general audience and the educational public. The exhibition space of the Baia Mare Museum of Astronomical Sciences includes five exhibitions, namely: the basic exhibition "Solar System", the permanent exhibition "DeepSky Objects in the Messier Catalogue", the exhibition "Solar Moments - photos by Ilie Tudorel", the history objects exhibition of the planetarium, as well as the digital multimedia exhibition “Traditional Romanian Constellations”. In addition to these, the institution is proud of its unique temporary exhibitions, regularly hosted inside the museum. With regard to the technical and cultural heritage of the museum, two collections of astro-philately were also added to the optical instruments used for demonstration and observation.

The institution was inaugurated on December 1st, 2003 and operates under the administration of the Vișeu de Sus Cultural-Social Center, having a rich and important patrimony that includes over 1100 pieces. The foundations of the museum's collections were laid around 1970 in the local schools. The permanent exhibition of the museum is structured in two departments, history and ethnography, and brings to the public's attention approximately 800 exhibits of those held in the museum’s collection. The historical collection consists of objects, illustrations, documents and archeological pieces that recreate the course of local history, while the ethnographic collection includes pictures, work tools and household objects, elements of the folk costume, as well as exhibits reminiscent of cultural life and of the people of this region. Although it speaks about the past, the Museum of History and Ethnography in Vișeu de Sus is a tourist attraction that currently awakens great interest, which has preserved fragments from our material and spiritual heritage that we have a duty to perpetuate.  

The Museum of Icons and Old Books "Bishop Gavril of Bârsana" is part of the ensemble of the Bârsana Monastery, one of the spiritual landmarks of Maramureș, whose functions were completed in 2005, by the opening of a museum exhibiting church art and an ethnographic collection. The three-storey building in which the museum operates was the twelfth erected as part of the monastery as a whole, falling within the architectural typology specific to the area, which can be seen in the other monastic edifices, all sharing a perfect stylistic unity. Religious iconography and weaving workshops have been set up in the basement, where the skilled hands of the nuns create true works of art, while on the ground floor, old books and icons are displayed in glass cases. The holy books and manuscripts exhibited here date from the 16th to 19th centuries and are a veritable treasure trove. Upstairs you can visit a local ethnographic exhibition, which further strengthens the authentic Maramureș spirit one can feel throughout the monastic ensemble.

The Memorial to the Victims of Communism and the Resistance, one of the landmarks of our county, was opened in memory of the injustices of a dictatorial regime, but also of the souls who fell prey to it and which we must not forget. The idea of ​​establishing this Memorial, which is a "means of reviving the collective memory", began to materialize in 1993, through the initiatives of the Civic Academy Foundation, the proposal of the framework project to the Council of Europe being made by Ana Blandiana. After years of hard work, the Memorial was inaugurated on June 20th, 1997, each cell became a museum hall, that describes chronologically or thematically the steep price paid by Eastern European nations under the terror of the communist regime. In one of the courtyards of the former prison you can visit a Space of Recollection and Prayer designed by the architect Radu Mihăilescu, a place where ancient aesthetics intertwine with modern aesthetics, in a silent cry of suffering endured by the nearly 8,000 prisoners who ended up in prisons, camps and deportation facilities in Romania and whose names were engraved on the walls of the descent ramp. The Memorial to the Victims of Communism and the Resistance houses several works of art that ennoble the space and amplify the deeply emotional experience felt by the visitors to this place. The most extensive work that can be seen here is the statuary group "The Procession of the Sacrificed" (Cortegiul Sacrificaților), which bears the signature of the sculptor Aurel I. Vlad and evokes the impact of the communist regime on people's lives. The museum also includes the Cemetery of the Poor, located about two kilometers outside the city, where it is said that 54 prisoners were buried after dying in the political prison.

The Museum and Monumental Complex "Dr. Vasile Lucaciu" evokes one of the historical figures who had a considerable contribution to the achievement of the Great Union. He was also a signatory of the Memorandum demanding that Romanians in Transylvania be given equal rights to ethnic Hungarians. Born in 1852 in Apa locality, Satu Mare County, Vasile Lucaciu dedicated his youth to his studies, later becoming a priest and a teacher. After resigning from education, starting with the summer of 1885, he held the position of parish priest in Șișești, becoming more active on the political scene. In the next three decades Vasile Lucaciu distinguished himself as a prominent political figure, militant for the union of Transylvania with Romania and a great supporter of the interests of all Romanians. After an illustrious career, he passed away in 1922, being buried in Șișești on December 1st, four years after the Great Union. The museum complex inaugurated in 1968, dedicated to the "Lion of Șișești", now includes the following: the parish house, which served for three decades as a residence for the Lucaciu family, the school where he taught, the Church of the Holy Union of All Romanians with VasileLucaciu's tomb, the Gathering place, the Spring of the Mother of the Romanians from Șișești, the stone columns for the statues of Trajan and Decebalus, the altar of the old wooden church and the library of the Lucaciu family. In the valuable library, which contains approximately 15,000 volumes, there are documents that describe the activity and personality of Vasile Lucaciu. Also, the patrimony of the museum complex also includes photographs, documents and original pieces of furniture, from the years when this spokesman of the Great Union fought tirelessly for the welfare of Romanians.  

The Lăpuş Village Museum Collection is part of the Ruoaia Monastery ensemble, a monastic settlement that enriches the spirituality of the Maramureș lands. The church tradition of the place where the monastery is found today goes back all the way to 1315, when there was another monastic ensemble here, which would be destroyed more than three centuries later. The foundation stone of Ruoaia Monastery was laid in 1995, on the same protected area from where the old monastery would watch over the people of Lăpuș. The Lăpuş Village Museum Collection consists of traditional objects and tools, but also clothing that exemplifies the ethnographic style of this area, increasing the attractiveness of the monastery among tourists, eager to combine the spiritual experience with a cultural one. This monastery includes a Maramureș-style church, a chapel, a summer altar and the cells, which offer generous number of accommodation places. The nuns who worked hard to create this slice of heaven managed to set up a workshop of embroidery, fabrics and carpets.

St. Anne - Rohia Monastery has a very valuable museum ensemble. The place of worship located in the heart of Maramureș is one of the places that carry the greatest spiritual load, a magnificent example of church traditions in these lands. Every year, thousands of visitors from all over the world visit Rohia Monastery, a destination that reveals a rich religious and cultural heritage. The museum of the monastery is arranged in the wooden church dedicated to "St. Anne" and brings to the public's attention a collection of over 100 church books, but also a valuable collection of old icons, painted on wood or glass. In addition to this museum, which shelters priceless exhibits, hundreds of years old, the monastery's museum complex also includes Nicolae Steinhardt's cell, as well as a vast library of over 40,000 books of worship and theological magazines, as well as volumes of universal and Romanian literature. The cell where Father Nicolae Steinhardt spent the last years of his life and which is located on the ground floor of the "Poet’s House", has preserved the personal belongings of the monk, known as a doctor of law, writer, publicist and literary critic. Nicolae Steinhardt, a native Jew, converted to the Orthodox religion while being incarcerated in Jilava Prison, where he would serve his sentence for refusing to testify against his friend, Constantin Noica. Between 1979 and 1989, Nicolae Steinhardt lived as a monk in the Rohia Monastery.