NATIONAL VILLAGE MUSEUM - Bucharest

The Village Museum (Muzeul Satului in Romanian) is an open-air ethnographic museum located in the Herăstrău Park (Bucharest, Romania), showcasing traditional Romanian village life. The museum extends to over 100,000 m², and contains 272 authentic peasant farms and houses from all over Romania.
It was created in 1936 by Dimitrie Gusti, Victor Ion Popa, and Henri H. Stahl.

There are other "village museums" throughout Romania, including ASTRA National Museum Complex in Sibiu, and those of Cluj-Napoca, Râmnicu-Vâlcea, Timișoara, a.s.o.

There are more than 60 original houses, farmsteads, windmills, watermills and churches from all of Romania's historic regions: Transylvania, Oltenia, Dobrogea and Moldavia. Every exhibit has a plaque showing exactly where in Romania it was brought from. 

Most of the houses date from the mid 19th-century, but there are some, such as those from Berbeşti, in the heart of Romania - celebrated for their intricately carved entrances - which date from as early as 1775.

The highlight of the museum is probably the steep belfry of the wooden Maramureş church, complete with exquisite but faded icons. You should also not miss the earth houses of Straja, dug in to the ground and topped with thatched roofs, or the brightly painted dwellings of the Danube Delta.
. The museum has a great souvenir shop, and a stall selling traditional Romanian sweets and cakes.

It even has a restaurant, La Francu, set in an original 19th-century inn. Children love the museum, and it makes for a perfect  family outing.
Admission 10 lei, pensioners 5 lei, students/children 2.50 lei. Audio guides available for 50 lei, guided tours in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian 300 lei: call in advance. Note that while the museum is open on Mondays, the houses are not.