The Veritas Foundation purchased the House on the Rock building in 1998 to serve as a center for education, community development and intercultural exchange. It was built on the site of an earlier building, after the great fire of 1676 destroyed three quarters of the properties in the citadel. It was probably originally occupied by a German master-craftsman and his family and apprentices.
It is appropriate now, after 20 years of use for Veritas educational activities, that a craftsman will once again use the building. House on the Rock is uniquely designed to provide large rooms on three floors for displays. The top floor of the building will be used for hands-on art activities for tourists.
The International Café opened in 2002 on the first floor of the building, providing coffee, tea, homemade pastries, and pies and more. It will continue to serve tourists and museum visitors.
The museum is operated by Mark and Raluca Tudose, Romanian entrepreneurs who have successfully created two gift shops in the citadel. One of these has been in the basement of House on the Rock where they have had a craft shop since 2012.
Their new enterprise is to create a museum of folk arts and crafts of Romania. One of the major features of the museum will be carved wooden spoons. Mark himself is a spoon carver, having learned from his grandfather. He has collected spoons from around the world, attractively displayed and with stories of the craftsmen who made them.
One of Mark’s goals in opening this museum is to help Romanian artists find an outlet for their work. His craft stores currently carry only Romanian-made crafts. This museum will also feature artists who are named by UNESCO as "live treasury", a designation for artists who are no longer working, but who were recognized during their lifetimes by the Romanian Ministry of Culture.
The Museum will focus mostly on wooden spoons, arranged in three areas:
- Traditional Romanian spoons made by craftsmen in Romania. Each artist will have a well-established exhibit with information for visitors to contact the artist directly.
- Spoons from the traditions of the world. Already 150 spoon collections have been donated or purchased from eight countries and counting.
- Different kinds of wood from which the spoons are made.There are at least 200 types of wood used worldwide.
The main purpose of this museum is to arouse the visitor's curiosity, to enrich his knowledge with ancestral symbols explained and to help him find common ground among the cultures of the world.
Besides the spoons, which will occupy the walls, the museum will house exhibits of beautiful pieces of furniture, artwork and traditional objects, depicting the multiculturalism found in the Transylvanian region. Purchase of tickets for the museum and coffee and food items from the International Café will provide support for the social work programs of the Veritas Foundation.
We congratulate Mark and Raluca and their work to make this dream become a reality. We are grateful to partner with them so that the House on the Rock will continue to be a place of education where traditional arts are featured.
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Loading boxes for the move from House on the Rock to the Family Center. |
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