ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUMS IN THE RURAL AREAS OF CRIȘANA REGION, ROMANIA – KEEPERS OF LOCAL HERITAGE, TRADITION AND LIFESTYLE

Crişana Region is a historic region in the north-western part of Romania, rich in cultural heritage and traditions and a small, yet valuable part of this heritage can be found exhibited in the ethnographic museums from the rural areas. The aim of our study is to draw attention upon these museums, which are small museums, usually organized at the initiative of local people in their own houses or in old houses of deceased relatives (the case of Muzeul satului din Finiş - Finiş Village Museum). The collections are of various sizes, containing older and newer objects belonging to them or to other members of the community, however, the common issue which characterizes these museums is that they are all very eclectic, most often unorganized collections. We also made a cartographic representation of their distribution in the territory, so they could be easily located by those interested in this type of ethnographic cultural heritage.