The Voitinel household, c. XVIII, Suceava county
The Voitinel village is a gathered settlement from the north of Rădăuți Depression, where the inhabitants’ main occupations are animal husbandry, forest working and agriculture.
The household, dated at the end of the 18th century, was transferred in the museum in 1960.
The villager Ion Hrișcă’s dwelling is built on a low base with the walls made from massive wood beams, clayed on the outside. The hip roof has a covering made of fir shingles. The house plan includes: the median foyer, the living room (“small room”), the guest room (“large house”), the pantry, and the porch that protects the entrance in case of bad weather. The foyer, without ceiling and heating system, was used to store various household items. In the two rooms with plastered and whitewashed walls there are massive ovens with free hearths and space to sleep.
The inventory of the “small room” includes dish shelves made by local masters, wooden pails, barrels and distaffs. In the dish shelves, Rădăuți bowls made by the potter Constantin Colibaba replaced the original black ceramics from Marginea. The “large house” has simple furniture: benches along the walls, a table, chairs with high backs, a bed, a wardrobe and a painted dowry chest. Wall carpets and strip bench carpets with stripes and geometrical motifs, in harmonious colours obtained from plant dyeing, as well as garments are displayed on the walls and the beam.
The household also includes: the summer kitchen with porch (“gănguț”), the fountain and the dog house carved from a thick oak trunk.
A barn with stable was also part of the household, but was lost in the 2002 fire.
