Curtişoara, Gorj, 19TH CENTURY
Curtișoara, an old settlement whose location has been changed over time three times as a result of the repeated floods of the Jiu, is currently spreading on a hill along the road linking Târgu Jiu to Petrosani. The geographical settlement of the village, located in a depression region rich in pastures and orchards, determined the main occupations of the inhabitants: the breeding of animals (in particular, of sheep and goats), fruit growing and agriculture.
From this area it was brought to the museum in 1936, the authentic house of Gheorghe Beuran, dated at the beginning of the 19th century. Although of reduced proportions, it is representative for the type of high dwellings of the wealthy peasants in the north of Gorj and illustrates the popular version of the fortified "cute", with a wide spread in the eighteenth-XIX centuries. Next to the house, there are also two warehouses: "pimnița" of oak wood for storing barrels and work tools and "jitnița", construction similar to a miniature house, for cereal storage. The entrance to the house is made by a monumental gate decorated with spirals, rosettes, stars and other geometric motifs and worked by the famous crafts of Bălești.
The two -level house is made of wooden beams on a foundation made of river boulders. It has the high roof, in four waters with "blossom" fir shingle covers ("Prastilă"), with "Ciocârlani" at the ridge. The "cellar" that makes up the first level consists of two warehouses used for storing food and tools. Access to the upper level is done on a side scale hidden from vision through a wall of planks. Upstairs, the porch with a foil called "Târnăț", which stretches on three sides and is closed by a transformed railing, dominates the surrounding landscape.
The plan of the house comprises two rooms: the fireplace room for cooking ("on fire") and the sleeping room ("on the stove"). Among the wooden objects that attract the attention are the small chairs with a backrest made in a single piece of wood, the chunks to drink the carved wine, the boxes and the torso forks, the spoons in various forms (horse head, peacock tail, acorns, etc.), the small furniture or the furniture worked in the centers. Humans written in simple but expressive lines.
Not by chance, the artistic fantasy of the creators in this ethnographic region was an important source of inspiration for the creation of the parent of modern sculpture, Constantin Brâncuși.
