Audia Household, early 19th century
Brought in the museum in 1957 from the proximity of Ceahlău Massif, the household belonging to the villager Teodor Bălănescu from Audia is composed of the living house and the stable “with breast” (having a hayloft built in console). It is surrounded by a fence made of vertical fir branches. In the provenance area, the main occupations were forest working, animal husbandry and fishing. The house owners were yeomen, free people with some prosperity as it is mirrored in the size and inventory of the rooms and storage spaces.
The house with five rooms, built out of round fir beams, is surrounded by an open veranda with beautifully finished pillars and has at the entrance a side porch with fretted parapet, over the access in the stone cellar. The hip roof that also follows the line of the side porch, is covered with long shingles in two layers, the upper layer having a saw-tooth shape with decorative effect.
The house inventory reminds of the owners’ occupations: the trap illustrates the preoccupation for hunting; the spear, the toils and the wicker basket – for fishing; the vessels and wood tools are connected to sheep breeding; the mortar with a simple mechanism used for getting honey out of combs – for apiculture.
The furniture made of beds, dowry chests, a high table and benches with high arms that remind of thrones or church stalls is decorated with refined carved geometrical motifs.
