"Franz Binder" Museum

The "Franz Binder" World Ethnographic Museum is set in Sibiu, 11 Small Square, is the only museum in Romania that specializes in non-European ethnology, and, due to the exceptional value of its patrimony, represents an important department within the 'ASTRA' National Museum Complex - that also includes other subdivisions such as Romanian, Saxon or Roma ethnography. The museum is named after Franz Binder, a merchant and a diplomat who spent more than 20 years in Africa at the middle of the 19th century.

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The museum premises are a historical monument. The existing Hermes House, initially called The House of the Small Handicraftsmen's Association (Burger- und Gewerbeverein-Haus) was built between 1865 and 1867 and inaugurated on November 24, 1867, thus, becoming the administrative centre of this Association as well as a place where various activities took place (club, library, school for journeymen, exhibition room for handicraft products). Then, this building had several destinations and, only in 1990, it became the premises for the new ethnographic museum, regaining its true purpose of popularizing the authentic values of material and spiritual civilization.

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The museum collections were established in the 19th century through donations and acquisitions that belonged to travellers and collectors of such objects: Franz Binder, Andreas Breckner, Karl Meliska, Carl F. Jickeli, Arthur von Sachsenheim, Herman von Hannenheim, Gustav Adolf Schoppelt, Alfred Capesius, W. Schonhut, A. Schwabe, G.A. Seraphin, Emerich Schuleri, Hans Mallik, Rudolf Nussbacher, Christine Schuster, Helene Fischer, Wagner von Wetterstadt a.s.o. Most of them were members of the Transylvanian Society for the Natural Sciences (Siebenburgische Verein fur Naturwissenschaften), which carried on its activity between the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

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The exotic collections of the museum fall into two categories: the old collections constituted between the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century as a result of the Transylvanian Saxon travellers' donations to the Transylvanian Society for Natural Sciences from Sibiu; and the new collections established by exchanging collections, distributions, donations, acquisitions a.s.o. Thus, the exotic ethnographic patrimony of the museum, starting with the Egyptian mummy (donated by the Austrian-Hungarian consul in Egypt in 1907, Hermann von Hannenheim) and ending with the latest handicraft acquisitions, can find its place within a very diverse historical, geographical, ethno-cultural, and anthropological background. Originating from various parts of the world - northern Africa and the springs of Nile, China, Japan, Oceania, Asia Minor, Brazil, Lapland, Australia etc. - the objects belonging to the 'exotic collection' entered into the patrimony of the Natural Sciences Museum, forming a cabinet exhibition that was opened in the museum building until 1957.

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The collections were enriched after 1990 through successive acquisitions, exchanges or donations: the Zairean collection purchased from Violeta and Catalin Rang from Bacau, the ex-presidential collection of presents, comprising objects of extra-European origin (over 400 pieces donated from the gifts fund donated to the Romanian Presidency between 1965 and 1989), Japanese traditional toys obtained through an exchange of collections with the Museum of Toys from Hyogo, the national minority costumes collection donated by the Embassy of the People's Republic of China at Bucharest a.s.o.

"Emil Sigerius" Museum

The "Emil Sigerius" Museum of Saxon Ethnography and Folk Art in Sibiu was established in an attempt to fill a gap, presenting the role of the Transylvanian Saxons ethnic group in Transylvanian culture.

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The museum's collections are based on the Karpatenmuseum (the Carpathians Transylvanian Museum, or MSVK) collections opened in 1895 by the Siebenbügishen Karpathenverein Association. The first exposition was inside the Museum of Natural History building and was organized around the collection of Emil Sigerus, the most important collector of Transylvanian Saxon Folk Art at the end of the 19th century. In 1920 the museum's collections were included in the Brukenthal Museum and they were displayed in a new space inside the Brukenthal Palace; from 1950, they were included in the Folk Art Section.

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After the establishment of the new Museum of Traditional Folk Civilization in 1990, the Saxon collections were given over to the new establishment along with all other ethnology-related collections. In 1997, the Emil Sigerus Museum was opened in a building adjacent to the Franz Binder Museum in the Small Square. After the end of the restoration project restoring the House of the Arts in the Small Square, the museum will have a more appropriate space to exhibit its collections of over 2,700 ceramic pieces, including the permanent exposition of decorative tiles, over 4,000 objects in the classifications of costumes, textiles and embroideries and over 400 wooden, metal, or bone objects out of which over 150 are painted furniture items. Its heritage includes over 7,000 items from Transylvania from the 14th - 20th centuries. The most relevant belonged to renowned collectors such as Emil Sigerus, Julius Bielz, Wilhelm and Gisela Richter, Carl Engber and Erwin Ulbrich, completed by the acquisitions made by the museum specialists.

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The museum heritage comprises three collections - costumes-textiles, pottery, wood-bone-iron, each of them including extremely valuable pieces, representative for the culture and civilization of the Transylvanian Saxons and especially for their contribution to the growth and enrichment of Romanian and world culture. The permanent exhibition "Transylvanian Store Tiles (15th - 19th centuries), located in the pavement of the building in 12 Huet Place, is a unique original attempt of presenting one of the representative crafts of the Saxon community - the manufacturing of store tiles (the store tiles collection is considered to be the most complex valuable collection of this kind in the country and one of the richest in Europe; it was first presented within the permanent exhibition opened in 1998). The archaeological excavations conducted in 1996 revealed that in the place of the current building there was a wooden house, dated on the basis of a coin from the reign of King Bela IV (1235-1270). The building was raised on a trapezoidal surface, with a pavement, two storeys and an attic. Both fronts, the one facing Small Place and the other one towards Huet Place, with identical decoration, were restored by the end of 1997. The vaulted cellar, 3-3.5 m high, was inaugurated as exhibition hall in 1997, and since the autumn of 1998 it has housed the permanent exhibition of the "Emil Sigerus" Museum of Saxon Ethnography.

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The House of Arts (attested as the Butchers Hall since 1370) is considered the oldest guild house in Sibiu. In the 15th century, the building had only the ground floor, divided in 11 butcher shops with 8 open arches in front. The first floor was added later as a warehouse or meeting hall for butchers' guild. The building was used for a time by the sheepskin makers guild; in 1765 the first floor was used as show room. In 1789 was added the town coat-of-arms on the facade; in the 19th century the arches were closed and the ground floor was divided in small shops. Between 1967-1972 the building was restored and since 2002 it became property of the "Astra" National Museum Complex and was restored again. In 2007 the "Emil Sigerius" Museum moved here.

Emperor of Romans Hotel, Sibiu

The Emperor of Romans Hotel (Romanian: Împăratul Romanilor Hotel) was founded in 1773 and is the most important hotel in Sibiu. On the place of the hotel there was an inn dating from 1555 called "The Sultan of the Turks" who has changed name several times during ages. It is an architectural monument of a priceless cultural value in Sibiu, a city with a long and prosperous history and civilization, of German inspiration. Rebuilt in 1895 on three levels, the hotel remains a symbol of medieval burg. The hotel was renovated and modernized several times.

The hotel was named after Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. All of Joseph II is due the names of four communes near Bistriţa, called Salva, Romuli, Parva, and Nepos, after his exclamations: "I salute you, young grandchildren of the Romans (in Latin: "Salva Romuli parva nepos").

Located in the historical center of Sibiu, in the middle of the main trade street (Nicolae Bălcescu Boulevard), the hotel enjoys close proximity to the major civic and tourist attractions. In over 200 years of existence, the hotel hosted a large number of personalities such as Franz Listz, Johann Strauss, Johannes Brahms, Emperor Joseph II of Austria, King Otto of Bavaria, King Charles XII of Sweden, Mihai Eminescu, Mrs. Danielle Mitterrand, three German Presidents (Roman Herzog, Karl Carstens, Johannes Rau), Prince Charles.

The first hotel

The hotel in the early 20th century

Emperor of Romans Hotel is a romantic and most attractive place to put up at. In a unique architectural environment you will discover the high style and taste of Europe's greatest hotel companies, as well as the famous traditional Romanian hospitality which underlies the first rate services, comparable to the most reputable European firms of the kind. The high standard of the conveniences at the guests' disposal highlight the specific patina of the centuries old architecture.

Some 3D panoramas presenting the hotel.

Sibiu Museum of History

The building known today as the Altemberger House, after the name of its first proprietor, was purchased in 1545 by the Magistrate of the city, becoming the location of the Town Hall for 400 years (until 1948). It comprises 10 architectural units, to which a defensive tower was added, conjointly structuring one of the most impressive ensembles of civic Gothic architecture in Romania and even in the South Eastern Europe. The oldest part of the architectural set is the dwelling tower, its construction being initiated in the late 13th century.


As the legendary founder of the city was called Hermann, the visitors are welcomed in the Museum’s courtyard by several decorative figures named Hermanns, illustrating the late 17th c. townsman typologies: the healer, the knight, the banker, the butcher, the brewer (tavern keeper), the infantryman, the student, the mayor and the minstrel. In the back courtyard, known as Martyrs’ Garden, there are several works of figurative sculpture as the four consoles of the loggia, representing male portraits, elegantly and minutely executed. They decorate a space presenting elements of a Renaissance influence.


Multi-folded in the ways of approaching, the broad concept of the permanent exhibition (reorganized during 2006 and 2007) is that of local history.
Beginning by presenting the common life in the Paleolithic Period, the exhibition offers an illustrative image about how people lived in caves, in huts, in households, in more elaborate villas or medieval interiors.



Human activities are described from the game-processing to the specialized production of guilds. The social status and the leading position are underlined through the means of the exhibits in the Roman lapidarium as well as by the settings of the exhibition presenting the Magistrate of Sibiu.



Warfare was another facet of the human existence, implying weapons, tactics, logistics and specific organization, all envisaged through the means of arms and armors. Religious believes are constant aspects of human life, being illustrated since Prehistory to the days of elaborate liturgical rites, through the means of cult items.



Finally, the tour concludes with the presentation of the southern Transylvania movement for national emancipation, presenting events of the 18th to the 20th century period.



The main sections of the museum are: The Emergence of Human Settlements in Southern Transylvania, Roman Lapidarium, Medieval Lapidarium, Arms and Armors, The Guilds of Sibiu, The Glass work in Transylvania, The Magistrates of Sibiu, Coins and Medals, Treasury, The Movement for National Emancipation in Southern Transylvania. (From Brukenthal National Museum)

Sibiu "August von Spiess" Museum of Hunting

The Museum of Hunting is named after one of the important personalities of the city of Sibiu in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries: Colonel August von Spiess, the Keeper of the Royal Hunting under the King Ferdinand I of Romania.


The Museum opened as the first of its profile on the national level, in the year 1966, being accommodated in the Von Spiess residence, donated on this porpoise by the Colonel’s daughters. The collection comprises about 1600 items, arranged in five sections.


Arms and hunting instruments: the exhibition begins by a short history of arms and tools used in the process of hunting, starting in the Stone Age. Among exhibits are chopped flint items, spears, javelins, bows and crossbows along with firearms from the 14th century matchlocks to the modern cartridges, adjoining accessories as gunpowder containers, cartridges holders, daggers, blowing horns, dummies and traps used in poaching. The concept of the room is introductory, aiming for a general-notion presentation.


Small and medium sized trophies: starting in the second room, there are exhibited the impressive hunting trophies. The thematic message of this section is that today hunting is no more a cruel practice but a way of selecting and administrating the cynegetic trust, having as porpoise the conservation of the biodiversity of the wild fauna. There are presented exhibits representing bird-trophies adjoining small and medium sized game as foxes, wolves, wild-cats etc.


The “August von Spiess” Memorial Room: Dedicated to August von Spiess, the memorial room presents his personality and activity through his portrait, photos, gun, trophies, written literature, along with the presentation of his hunter-fellows and his family. There is also o section dedicated to Emil Witting, forestry engineer, who donated a great part of the extent Museum’s collection. The room is reconstituting one of the rooms in the Von Spiess’ residence after one of the interior photos, taken during the time of his life.


Large Sized Trophies: The present room displays impressive trophies of large, Carpathian game (stag, bear, wild boar, chamois) most of them awarded at national and international contests of the period between World Wars, reflecting the exceptional value of the Romanian game.


African Trophies: The last of the rooms describes the two African expeditions Von Spiess enterprise at ages 72 and 74, presenting African trophies: antelopes (Gnu, Impala, Oryx, etc), Caffer buffaloes, rhinoceros, zebra and many more.


The Museum courtyard in the back of the building was arranged to serve as a relaxation open space for the visitors and a proper environment for ecological education of children as it hosts many species of plants, a dog, fishes and a tortoise. (From Brukenthal National Museum)

Sibiu Museum of Pharmacology

Due to the specific profile, the Museum of Pharmacy of Sibiu (opened in 1972) represents a rarity in its domain on Romanian level, as well as on European one. The founding of the Museum in the city of Sibiu was double motivated: on one hand, this is the place of the first documented apothecary, mentioned as early as the year 1494; on the other hand, a rich tradition of pharmaceutical activities developed in the area.


At present, the building sheltering the Museum lies in the historical center of Sibiu, being one of the architectural monuments of historical importance, displaying Gothic and Renaissance features, dating from the year 1568. In this very building has functioned one of the oldest apothecaries in Sibiu, the third in chronological succession, founded around 1600 and named At the Black Bear.


It is the basement of this house where Samuel Hahnemann invented homeopathy and developed his version of treatment. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of the therapeutic doctrine, was active in Sibiu between 1777 and 1779, as physician and the secretary of Baron Samuel von Brukenthal, Governor of Transylvania. It is considered that, during the period, he was able to research the traditional Transylvanian folk practice of medication, which inspired him. The Collection of Homeopathy comprises over 2900 pieces, kits and bottles of homeopathic recipes respectively, all of which being took over from the former apothecary La Înger (At Angel) in Sibiu.


The exhibition was conceived according to a classic apothecary pattern, comprising an Oficina and a Laboratory, in addition to which the medical kits hall and a Homeopathy sector were added. The exhibits are displayed in thematic sectors; an all-comprising image of the apothecary functioning and instruments is envisaged to the visitor, evincing their historic evolution. The furniture of the room was manufactured in Vienna, in 1902, and it belonged to the former apothecary named To the Black Vulture.


The Museum’s collections comprise over 6600 pieces, bringing valuable evidences about the evolution of medication and pharmaceutical techniques for more than three and a half centuries. (From Brukenthal National Museum)

Sibiu Museum of Natural History

There was a time when the Transylvanian naturalism, as well as the European one, experienced a spectacular grow and by that time the Transylvanian Society for Natural Sciences (Siebenbürghische Verein für Naturwissenschaften zu Hermannstadt) was established (1849) as the result of German-Saxon intellectuals’ initiative. They aimed for an organization fit to accommodate the sharing of their passion for the nature and to serve the dissemination of their discoveries in order to educate the younger generation in the spirit of knowledge about nature and of the preservation of natural trust.


One of the issues becoming more and more imperative in the late19th century was that of the available spaces for the collections storage, as their number increased. Around the year 1890, the plans for the construction of a building specially design in this porpoise were clearly contoured.


The construction started in the autumn of the year 1894, having the opening in the 12th of May, 1895. The building was built in an Italian High Renaissance architectural style, on three levels (basement, ground floor and one upper storey), being entirely renovated between 2006 and 2008. The courtyard is meant to be a means of relaxation for the visitors and also of seeing common and rare species of plants as trees and ornamental bushes.


The entire project of the permanent exhibition inaugurated in December 2007 is meant to take into a good account the extent patrimony from a scientific, chronological and esthetical perspective. As elements of novelty in the fashion of presentation, there are the tri-dimensional displaying through the means of dioramas and the sounding and illumination systems suggesting a night and day cycle in each described environment, all conferring to the exhibition a dynamic atmosphere, inducing the visitor an empathic approach to the condition of an explorer.


The collections of the museum comprise over 1 million exhibits (including mineralogy-petrography, paleontology, botany, entomology, malacology, the zoology of the vertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, as well as ichthyology, ornithology, and the zoology of mammals).


The main sections of the museum are The Live World, Ecosystems, Paleontology, Mineralogy. (From Brukenthal National Museum)

Brukenthal Museum

Housed by the Brukenthal Palace at Sibiu, the Brukenthal Museum is the first Romanian museum and also the oldest museum in Central and Eastern Europe. It gathers together over 15000 exhibits of great value.


Baron Samuel von Brukenthal (1721-1803) was the only representative of the Transylvanian Saxon community who acceded to high public office in the Austrian Empire under the Empress Maria Theresia (1717 – 1780), the first such office being that of Chancellor of Transylvania. The years spent in Vienna, in this capacity, were the years when the Baron started acquiring his collection of paintings, mentioned in Almanach de Vienne (1773) as being one of the most valuable private collections and generally admired by the cultivated Vienna public of the time.


Baron’s initial collections (comprising the collection of paintings, a collection of prints, a library and a coin collection) were mostly put together in the period between 1759 and 1774. We have scant information as to how they came into being, the earliest records in the Brukenthal family being the archive concerning acquisition of paintings dating from 1770 (by which time the core of the collection of paintings must have been acquired). Appointed Governor of the Principality of Transylvania, a position that he occupied between 1777 and 1787, Samuel von Brukenthal built a Late Baroque palace in Sibiu, modeled on the palaces in the imperial capital.


Since the baron and his wife had a daughter as the only child (who died at the early age of four) his testamentary dispositions stipulated that, on the death of the last heir in the male line of succession, the entire inheritance was to be placed in the custody of the Evangelical Church of Sibiu while the palace presenting his collections to be open for the public, event that happened in the year 1817.



During the 19th century, the main concern of the Museum was to preserve the extant patrimony, to enlarge the main collections through the means of acquisitions and to establish new collections, especially in the range of the German-Saxon Culture.
In the year 1948, the Museum was nationalized, becoming the property of the communist Romanian state.



In 1948, the Transylvanian Society for the Natural Sciences in Sibiu ceased its activity, the museum under its patronage being included in the national patrimony. In 1957, the Museum of Natural Sciences became a part of the Brukenthal Museum.



The “August von Spiess” Museum of Hunting has its opening in 1966. 1972 is the opening year to the Museum of Pharmacy. In 1988 was inaugurated the History Section of the Brukenthal National Museum, at present the Museum of History, in the Altemberger House. The Contemporary Art Gallery of the Brukenthal National Museum is the most recently acquired location (2006). (From Brukenthal Museum)

Sibiu. Just photos