The Saxon House from the National Ethnographic Park “Romulus Vuia” in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Case Study
The Saxon House from the National Ethnographic Park “Romulus Vuia” in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Case Study

Summary/Abstract: The Ethnographic Parks usually present houses, tools, folk costumes, household items, and installations with an accent on traditions and customs. The soul of a house is given though by the people that lived in it, so its history is also essential. This paper presents the detailed research done to recreate a Saxon house’s history and memory for generations, from the construction time to the relocation into the ethnographic park. An essential part of this investigation is finding the descendants of the German ethnic (Saxon) family that lived in it for generations even though nobody from their original village, Jelna (germ. Senndorf), remembered them. Together with other more than 30.000 people of the same ethnicity from the present Bistrița Năsăud county, they left by carriages after 1944 Romania’s coup d’etat. As of the 23rd of August, Romania, a former ally of Germany in the Second World War, switched sides, becoming Russia’s ally, a situation seen as life threatening for the Transylvanian Saxons. Their direction was Austria at first and Germany. Some settled there, others not, becoming prisoners and dying in labor camps in Russia, or surviving and returning to the village while other locals took their homes. The story went further with the latest ones, up to the house’s acquisition by The Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography and moved to The Ethnographic Park “Romulus Vuia” in Cluj Napoca. Microhistory with a European dimension.

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