Goicea Mică, Dolj, sec. the nineteenth
Originating from the south of Oltenia, near the Bistreț Lake, the house from Goicea Mică illustrates a type of surface dwelling that is common in the Danube Plain since the beginning of the 20th century, replacing the half-buried houses. The geographic placement of the village determined the main occupations of its inhabitants: agriculture, animal husbandry and fishing. Until recently, another occupation was sericulture (the growth of silkworms), as evidenced by the large number of mulberries planted in the village after the First World War and the variety of the raw-silk weavings.
Ion Pomană Doljan's house, built at the end of the 19th century, was transferred to the museum in 1936. It is interesting to note that his family lived for a while in it in Bucharest, as was the practice, for sociological purposes, in the early period of the museum.
The dwelling is built on a solid foundation, with burnt brick walls and a mild hipped roof with a tile covering. On the main façade, the attention is drawn by the enclosed veranda ended with a side porch raised above the basement entry.
The house is developed in length and has a rectangular plan consisting of a median foyer (“ogeac”) and two rooms. In the foyer, the open hearth at floor level represents the centre around which the simple furniture is placed: low round three-legged table, chairs, chest, etc. Also here are the clay dome-shaped lid for baking bread, the bowls and the ceramic vessels from Oboga, the copper kettles and pans, as well as numerous wooden utensils (boxes for salt, bottle gourds for liquids, wood water ladles).
The foyer is bordered on the left by the guest room (“the clean room”), and on the right by the living room (“the sitting room”) with an in-wall (“blind”) stove. In the latter, an important role is played by the loom on which a raw-silk weaving is in progress, as well as by a series of other objects pertaining to the home textile industry and used for processing wool or hemp (a niddy noddy, a vertical-axis swift, a heckling comb, a bobbin winder, a quill winder, etc.). The attention is drawn by the miniature hemp break for children, a toy/tool made from a wood support and a blade manually activated to break the woody core of the hemp, after retting. The beds, walls and dowry chests in both rooms are covered with beddings, rugs and kilims, wood blankets and carpets vividly coloured and decorated with stripes, diamonds, crosses and holy bread seals, stars, birds and flowers, offering the interior a special charm.
