Every year since 1977, the International Council of Museums has been organizing various events on May 18 to mark International Museum Day. The museums of Mureş County have joined every year this international day, and they offer various interesting programs to attract tourists and visitors on the Night of Museums.
Among Mureş County’s most visited museums during this period the first is the Mureş County Museum in Târgu Mureş, which is one of the largest cultural institutions in Mureş County.
Its current collection consists of more than 200,000 works of art, some of which are of national and international significance, while about 80% of their artifacts have regional and local value. The most outstanding among these treasures are the bronze deposit from Band, the Dacian treasure from Sângeru de Pădure, the fibula from Suseni or the Dacian treasure from Mădăraș.
The Art Department of the Mureş County Museum is located in the iconic building of Târgu Mureş, in the Palace of Culture. Among other things, important paintings from artists such as Tonitza, Munkácsy and Grigorescu can be seen here. Visitors will find two permanent exhibitions, the Gallery of Modern Hungarian Art and the Gallery of Modern Romanian Art, as well as the Ion Vlasiu Gallery in the right wing of the building.
The Department of Ethnography and Folk Art is housed in an 18th-century building in the Toldalagi Palace, with a valuable ethnographic collection. The Department of Archeology and History operates in the Târgu Mureş Fortress, its exhibitions focus on material culture and built heritage, presenting aspects related to the history of the region and promoting its cultural heritage, but not excluding aspects of modern and contemporary history. The Department of Science is currently closed due to renovations, hosting only a few museum pedagogical sessions. It has a significant collection of about 60,000 paleontological, mineralogical, botanical, invertebrate and vertebrate zoological collections.
The second most popular museum in Mureş County is housed in the Clock Tower in Sighisoara Fortress, the city’s trademark and one of the symbols of Transylvania, the fortress itself being a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999.
The Sighisoara Museum of History provides thematic collections grouped into separate rooms for archeology, ethnography, history of pharmacy and medicine, handicrafts and guilds, Transylvanian pottery, clocks and watchmaking, and more. It is interesting that here in the Clock Tower was established the first museum at the end of the 19th century, then called Alt Schässburg (Old Sighisoara) Museum.
A relatively “young” museum is the “Anton Badea” Ethnographic Museum in Reghin, whose ethnographic collection was started by Anton Badea, famous Romanian ethnographist and museologist. Initially, in 1960, the museum only had a collection of 64 pieces, the first exhibition being held in 1966, followed by a further 128 exhibitions. The “Anton Badea” Ethnographic Museum in Reghin has become an open and welcoming space with a very strong emphasis on engaging visitors, and that’s one of the factors that has made it really popular.
Smaller museums in Mureş County also offer exciting destinations for tourists visiting Mureş County, such as the Saxon Museum in Szászrégen, the Israeli Corner Museum in Târgu Mureş, the village museums of Vețca or Chibed, the Petőfi Museum in Fehéregyháza, or the Rhédey Castle in Sângeorgiu de Pădure. Recognizing the current cultural and touristic trends, the museums in Mures County are no longer just spaces whose contents can be observed and viewed, but places that build community and provide real live experiences where visitors can actively participate in activities.
The Visitmures team has gathered all the museums you should visit in Mureş County! Immerse yourself in the experiences!
