Exhibition period: November 1 – November 15, 2023, Iulius Mall

This is a new MNIT brand exhibition, which aims to familiarize the public with the most beautiful pieces from the furniture collection of the National History Museum of Transylvania.

Among the cultural treasures owned by MNIT, the furniture collection holds a special, well-defined place. The pieces in this collection illustrate the most important artistic currents in the history of European cabinetmaking: Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Empire, Louis Philippe or Victorian styles.

In chronological order, the pieces of furniture from the collection of the Cluj Museum of History are arranged between the 16th and 20th centuries. Regarding their provenance, it can be appreciated that most of them belong to the cultural space of Central Europe. Whether they were made in the workshops of local craftsmen or commissioned from prestigious production centers in Hungary, Austria or Germany, they highlight the tastes, artistic canons and, ultimately, the common cultural identity of an area of ​​civilization which stretches from the Alps to the Carpathian Mountains. A certain sobriety of forms, a more accentuated functionalism, "provincial", more modest adaptations of some established motifs - represent the characteristic notes of the furniture that gave shape to the interiors once inhabited by our Transylvanian ancestors.

Exhibition curator: Melinda Mitu
Design: Török Károly

15 – 31 October 2022, Iulius Mall

With autumn, the series of exhibitions in Iulius Mall by the National History Museum of Transylvania is back with new themes and topics! Because autumn brings not only rich fruits, but also numerous viruses, the first exhibition "of the season" is Bizarre cures from the past. Today's medicines are controlled, tested and standardized, produced and sold under conditions of maximum hygiene, administered according to personalized dosages. But not long ago, in Transylvania until around 1900, many people treated themselves with baby remedies, and those who could afford to buy from the pharmacy often received strange preparations, obtained not only from minerals and medicinal plants, but also from the organs , the fluids or even the excrement of some animals, or even from human bodies. Among these, we mention theriaca, mummy dust, cuttlefish bone, goat blood, mercury, beaver anal glands, ash beetles, crayfish eyes and many more. With this project we told the story of the most bizarre drugs of the past and by comparing them with today, we marked the progress of science.

Curator: Ana-Maria Gruia.
Graphics: Török Károly.