DEALU FRUMOS household, CASA GERMANĂ, Sibiu county, 1896
Attested in the documents since 1280, Dealu Frumos is an aggregated village specific for the plain lands, but also specific for the hill region colonised by the Saxon settlers. The German people, the Saxon settlers formed in the first centuries since their settlement in Hârtibaciu Valley, a local identity, celebrating for the first time their colonisation in the village in Sibiu on 11th of July 1522.
The house, rebuilt in the museum in 2012, is built in bricks, on a low stone foundation, with only one floor – the ground floor with two living rooms, the kitchen and the basement – covering a rectangular lot, adapted to the not-generous openings of the plots from the proximity of a road, own for a huddled village, as the ones colonised by the Saxon settlers. Near the house, there is situated an appurtenance including the stable and the barn, reflecting the agricultural and pastoral competences of those minorities.
The interior of Saxon houses is colourful, the furniture is painted, the fabrics enrich the walls or the decorative ceramics developing a vast chromatic range of vegetal, floral and avimorph motifs, predominant on those objects. The organisation of the house interior of Dealu Frumos in the museum took into consideration the representation of two stages regarding the evolution of the aesthetics and functionality of the living space in the Saxon tradition, from the second half of the 19th century, up to the end of the 20th century, marking the transition from the old, painted furniture (in the “clean” room) to the modern, city one (in the living room).
The internal fabrics have special particularities being placed in a decorative assembly manifesting, beside the similitudes, also a personal visible feature, especially since they are seen by many people. Usually embroidered in one colour, the pillowcases, the tablecloths, the towels, or the wall fabrics are real guides, handbooks of the everyday experiences and of Saxon settlers' moral commitments.
