The Gutâi Mountains

The Maramureș County Museum of History and Archeology is a public cultural institution with a long tradition in the cultural life of the county. It was originally founded in 1904, under the name of Baia Mare City Museum. Since 2006, it has been operating under the name County Museum of History and Archeology, having its headquarters within the Mint Office building, which was included in the list of historical monuments. In addition to this location, the museum also comprises the Butchers' Bastion, another emblematic objective of the city of Baia Mare. The permanent exhibition of the Maramureș County Museum of History and Archeology includes cultural items describing  the evolution of the communities in this area, some of the archeological vestiges dating back to the Bronze Age and others from the medieval or modern period. Visitors have the opportunity to discover over 1500 pieces that reconstruct the mining history of this area, from tools and means of transport, to documents and photographs. Also, one should not miss the collection of clocks exhibited in the museum, which includes about 300 exhibits, with an invaluable cultural and scientific value. This "journey" takes visitors through various and interesting items of all types and sizes, which have served several purposes over time: tower clocks, table clocks, pocket watches, wall pendulums and more.

The Maramureș County Museum of Ethnography and Folk Art is one of the emblematic public cultural institutions of the county, subordinated to the Maramureș County Council, and it includes two locations: the Pavilion Department and the Village Museum. The exhibition space of the Pavilion Department operates in the building of the former Summer Theater. Here, in two separate rooms, tourists can see the permanent exhibition as well as a temporary exhibition. The permanent exhibition, entitled "Wood in the traditional community of northern Transylvania - from cradle to grave", brings to the public's attention the process of woodworking, traditional tools, interiors of peasants’ homes, but also folk costumes, traditional ornaments, cult objects and ceramics, belonging to all the four ethnographic areas of Maramureș: Historical Maramureș, Chioarului Land, Lăpuș Land and Codrului Land. Not only the interior of this museum is surprising, but also the exterior area. Beyond the impressive landscape created by the beautiful green plain, one can also admire a set of statues consisting of 12 columns, bearing the signature of the great sculptor Vida Géza. The Village Museum, the second location of the Maramureș County Museum of Ethnography and Folk Art, was inaugurated in 1984 and operates outdoors. Its patrimony includes true masterpieces of folk architecture, representative, in turn, for all four "lands" of the county. An imposing Maramureș gate makes the transition from the city to the village up the hill, having been sculpted by the famous folk craftsman Găvrilă Hotico. The traditional houses and domestic annexes from this corner of heaven, which rewrite pages from the past of Maramureș, take visitors back to an era dominated by simplicity, authenticity and beauty.

The County Museum of Art " Baia Mare Artistic Center" is an institution that brings to the attention of art lovers the art created in the Baia Mare Artistic Center, ever since 1896, when it was under the careful guidance of the painter and pedagogue Simon Hollósy. Works belonging to over 3000 visual artists from the country and abroad are today part of the generous heritage of the institution, including paintings, graphic works, sculptures, decorative art and photography. The artistic colony founded in Baia Mare more than a century ago has a unique character, strengthened by the continuity of this guild to this day. Many renowned artists have refined their talents here, becoming part of avant-garde movements and exhibiting their creations along with famous names in the field. Approximately 4,500 artifacts, as well as a generous documentary collection (documents, photographs, catalogs, prints, negatives, medals, graphic works) complete the collections of the County Museum of Art "Baia Mare Artistic Center". In addition to the works that bear the artistic print of the Baia Mare colony of artists, which constitute 95% of the museum's fund, in the museum one can admire other exhibits of modern Romanian art, but also works that restore the European art route across two centuries, respectively from the 18th to the 20th century. The museum has been operating in the current building since 1984, but the construction dates back to 1748, initially serving as the headquarters of the Maramureș Salt Office, later becoming private property.

The Florean Museum is the first private museum of contemporary art in Romania, and boasts a unique monumental sculpture park, located in a meadow that stretches over more than 40 hectares. The Florean Museum was founded in 1997, through a combined effort of the entrepreneur Victor Florean and of the artist Mircea Bochiș. The limestone, andesite or marble statues have come to compliment the landscape of "Sun Meadow" ("Poiana Soarelui") so beautifully, that they seem to have always belonged there. The collections of the Florean Museum have grown over time, comprising nowadays more than 10,000 pieces of contemporary art, signed by artists from several continents. In addition to its valuable heritage, the Florean Museum is also famous for its commendable initiatives to promote young talent. Annually, the institution implements three such initiatives, namely: the Cărbunari sculpture camp, the International Small Engraving Salon and the International Experimental Film Festival. The sculpture camp from Cărbunari has a unique nature considering that all the works are designed to fit into the landscape of the sculpture park, where they are eventually installed at the end of the event.

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.