Laura Cristina POP
Muzeul Etnografic al Transilvaniei
lapopei@gmail.com
This paper aims to clarify which were the sources that inspired Vuia in the creation of the ethnographic park. For this synthesis we resorted to understanding the phenomena that formed the basis of designing the museums and ethnographic parks, we investigated the notion of social unity and its constituent elements. We demonstrated how the historical framework of the early twentieth century generated the acute need to express national identity. We paid special attention to the radiography of the museum landscape in Transylvania, which were the first debates after the Great Union of 1918. We reviewed the history of the main open-air museums in Europe and the defining moments for the evolution of the concept. We focused on highlighting the innovations brought by each one. We detailed the evolution of the organization of the Swedish Nordiska Museet and the open-air section, Skansen, in order to highlight the common points between Skansen and the ethnographic park in Cluj. In the case of the open-air section in Cluj, we followed the initial challenges and the sequence of events that marked the existence of this institution as well as its founder. Following the analysis of the models that were the inspiration for the ethnographic park in Cluj, we made a parallel of the common elements between it and the Swedish museum as well as an analysis of the common features of the two personalities who created museums: Hazelius and Vuia.
Keywords: Romulus Vuia, ethnographic park, national identity, The Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania, Skansen.