Brukenthal Palace - The Medieval Exhibition

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I'm a huge fan of medieval architecture and art, always looking forward to visit new places and Transylvania has a lot to offer in this area. I'm trying to visit as many as possible and also post about it for those who can't visit these beautiful places.

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Two days ago I did a post about the Brukenthal Palace - Orangery And Garden, today I'd like to show you the palace and the exhibitions that are hosted there.

The Brukenthal Palace is in Avrig, a small town in Sibiu county, Romania. The town has not much to offer but the Brukenthal Palace along with the garden and everything that comes with it attract thousands of tourists daily in normal conditions.

Four years ago I had the occasion to visit the Brukenthal museum, that is in the other palace of Samuel von Brukenthal, in the city center of Sibiu.

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The way up to the palace is through the park, which at the time of our visit hosted a mountain bike award ceremony, so we had to go round and avoid the crowd.

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There's this lovely bridge, which is authentic from those days. It was a true pleasure to cross it and stop on it for a moment. It felt like going back in time while imagining myself in those costumes of the 18th century.

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The little creek is crossing the whole property and there are a few bridges to help people walk over it. This one is not so stylish as the other one, as it's further down the creek.

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The stairs to the castle are most likely the original stairs as they look pretty worn out and broken. I didn't mind as I prefer original over something new and shiny.

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Unfortunately the palace was a huge shock. After what I saw at the entrance, the orangery and the garden, this almost crumbling building was painful to look at. Imagine baron Samuel von Brukenthal building this palace, that back in the day was the most modern in the entire region, falling apart after 250 years because no one cared to restore it to its original status. It is a shame and hurtful. This building is history, should be protected at any cost and left to the future generations.

I was thinking maybe restoration is coming but after a disastrous year like 2020, when in the first half most of the events were cancelled, now all the events are limited, there's no way to allocate funds to restoration.

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The palace has an U shape, I suspect the two side buildings were used once by servants. Unfortunately those buildings are also in a deplorable state too. At the time of our visit, there were these tents set up because of the mountain bike competition, so the building is only partly visible, but you can see the damage the years have done.

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This is the right side of the building, looking not much better than the other side. It's sad as this area is still in use, there's an exhibition in there, that I'm going to show you below.

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The Medieval Exhibition

At the entrance of the exhibition, there's this medieval costume next to the door, and this cute fabric doll, with a welcoming board greeting people.

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The walls are decorated with medieval flags, crests, shields.

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These clothes you could try on and take photos in them in the courtyard, in front of the palace. I saw two girls creating a medieval fashion show, trying on quite a few of these clothes.

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There were a few tables displaying medieval diadems. I'm calling them diadems and these are not crowns. I believe every title had a diadem according to the rank. These are most likely replicas as originals would be kept under a lock.

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This table was that caught my attention. No worries, I don't have warrior tendencies, but I did a year of fencing when I was a kid and still know those steps, plus how to greet the opponent. So I picked up a weapon next to the mace and showed people what I know. Lucky me, there weren't so many except us, so it wasn't a show.

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If you look at these weapons, these were used during those times to defend themselves, to defeat the enemy. There were no guns, no rifles, all the fights were close combat, face to face. You had to be the best if you didn't want to die or get wounded for life, which was even worse than dying. These weapons were made of steel, each one is quite heavy, except for the fencing sward, that is a bit lighter, but that wasn't used in fights, that was more for duels.

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Helmets were also a necessary accessory of their protective gear, it could save your life in some cases. Looking at these pieces, you can imagine how comfortable one could have been. You may say in a war or battle comfort is the last thing you think of but imagine wearing this metal piece for hours or days, rain and shine.

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This is a shield from those days, made of some metal and must be very heavy, you can judge that from the look of it.

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Here's another one, that has two heavy swords attached in the back. These were all handcrafted back in the day.

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Two dresses, the one on the left heavily decorated with golden embroidery. Must have been of someone important. The other is simpler but still elegant.

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These diadems were also part of the noble's wardrobe. Ladies wore them every day as it symbolized their social status.

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A family coat of arms flag, unfortunately there was nothing to indicate who has this belonged to.

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A few more medieval clothes, replicas obviously but what it worth noticing is the cups, candle holder and decoration on the table. These were most likely made of copper and by hand, needless to say. I don't know how it felt to drink vine in those cups. For them it was normal as there wasn't anything else, glass wasn't common back then.

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The ticket we bought at the entrance to the park was valid, didn't have to pay again to visit this medieval exhibition.

My biggest regret was that the whole exhibition looked like put together in like 10 minutes. Everything was just thrown there, which is a big shame. Those times and the memory of those who were living then deserves more respect.

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These steppers had no place there. Most likely there are fitness trainings in the courtyard, which is a good thing but storing them in this room was definitely a huge mistake, or negligence.

I wish they would realize the responsibility they have. They could organize things better, add some educative boards teaching people about what they can see here.

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Definitely No! I would appreciate if you'd stop spamming my posts in the future.

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I've never been to Romania, and your detailed stories are very helpful for my future (I hope so) travel.

The palace looks very common for Ukraine, especially its sad condition...

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Thank you my friend. That's my intention, pin as many places to the map as possible, so others would have a fair advantage, a good idea what they can expect when visiting Transylvania.
Ex communist countries are kind of the same from certain points of view .
Have a nice weekend 😊

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Thank you, I really appreciate it.

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Very cool and interesting exhibition, with lots of awesome pieces... but I have to say, my favourite one was the little doll by the door! So cute! 🤭

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I like that little one too. Should have brought it home ☺️

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A beautiful post, but so sad to see the exterior condition of that building. Surely the government can make a plan for restoration funding?
I can tell you that if I was a resident there, I would lead a protest to revamp that building.
But what do I know, as I only live in South Africa lol.

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If this building would have been in another city....
Let's hope in the near future something will be done.

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