The oldest house exhibited in a museum in Romania is a 225-year-old wooden house from Hunedoara County, which is now on display at the ASTRA Museum, the largest outdoor facility of its kind in Europe, located in the Dumbrava Sibiului forest on the outskirts of the Sibiu Municipality, the Sibiu County Council announced on Thursday on Facebook.

“More than half a century has passed since the oak house, dressed with clay and covered with straw, of the master cooper from Obarsa, Hunedoara County, made its way to Sibiu. Built in 1800, the household from Tara Zarandului is the oldest house exhibited in a museum in Romania and, not coincidentally, enriches the cultural heritage of the largest outdoor museum in Europe,” the Sibiu County Council said.

Built in 1800, the house was brought to Sibiu in 1972 and has two rooms, one for rest, the other for work.

“It was moved to the museum in 1972 and is representative of this beautiful region of the country, known for pottery and woodworking,” explained the general director of the ASTRA Museum, Ciprian Stefan, as cited in the release.

Unlike the houses of today, not a single nail was hammered into this cottage, as the pieces of wood were just fitted together, and its roof is made of straw.

“The historical monument will undergo conservation works consisting mainly of replacing the thatched roof. We will use organic rye straw, harvested by hand and ‘thatched,’ which we will bring from the village of Lazesti, Alba County. Then, two craftsmen, the last of their kind, will place the straw on the house using traditional methods, including using juniper branches to better fix the layer of straw,” Ciprian Stefan said.

He added that the restoration of this monument house costs roughly EUR 40,000.