DUMBRĂVENI Household, 19th CENTURY, Jud. Suceava
Dumbrăveni village is found at the junction between Suceava Plateau and Siret Meadow. The settling founded in the 15th century is a gathered one, with a large concentration of households along the main road.
Built at the end of the 19th century and transferred in the museum in 1961, villager Nicolae Biciușcă’s house has a particularity in its building system: the walls are made of stakes driven into the earth and clayed vertical rods, interweaved on laths. The hip roof has the covering made of rye straws, in the sheaves technique. At the hips, the sheaves are placed in steps, and at the ridge they are weaved two at a time, in “garlands”.
The house plan includes: “the clean room” without a heating system and only occasionally inhabited, the median foyer and the living room. In the later, the family carried out its activity around the hearth oven that occupies half of the space. The oven played a double role, being the place for food preparation and also for sleep.
Among the furniture items in the house, one can note the painted dowry chests at the ends of both beds. The interior decoration is complemented by the clothes rod adorned with wearing apparel, hemp and wool fabrics, and towels embellished with stylized geometrical and floral motifs. The general colour tones of the fabrics in autumn nuances (orange-yellow and light brown) constitute a particularity of the place.
