Berbeşti Household, Maramureş, 1775
Originating in the valley of Mara River, Pop Gheorghe Tomanu's household from Berbești village is representative for the folk architecture in the 18th century Maramureș. The assembly comprises of the house, the stable with barn, the cornloft, the shed for firewood and tools, as well as the ingenious hayloft with mobile roof. The annexes and the interior objects illustrate the main occupations of the inhabitants in the area: animal husbandry, agriculture and forestry.
The buildings within the Berbești household, rebuilt in the Village Museum in 1961, are raised on stone bases, have walls made of massive oak beams and steep roofs covered with shingles. The assembly is surrounded by a hazel wicker fence covered with a shingle roof and has a monumental gate, masterfully carved in oak wood and dated 1903. Among its decorations one can note the sun and the moon, the human face, the hand, the oak leaf, the twisted rope, “the bagel”, etc. Inside the house, we can admire the bressummer on which the year of building (“1775”) and the master's name (“Pașco de pe Sălaje”).
The house plan includes three rooms: the living room (“the house”), the cold foyer and the pantry, aligned along an open veranda, with carved pillars that are linked through arches. The room has a hearth with chimney, oven and “prichici”, a place next to the stove on which the peasants could rest in the cold winter days. The interior is characterised by a simple and functional furniture, with the bed placed on a side, the benches in a rectangular angle and the table and chairs in the middle of the room. The rod with polychrome fabrics above the bed, the wood utensils, the plates and pitchers from the Vama pottery centre, worked in vivid colours, as well as the wool fabrics in lively vegetal colours enrich the decorations of the house.
