Romania’s first Art Nouveau Museum opens in Oradea

The Darvas-La Roche House in Oradea, a symbolic building of the northwestern Romania city, is now hosting the first Art Nouveau Museum in the country.

Sub-section of the Oradea City Museum, the new Art Nouveau Museum includes permanent exhibitions dedicated to "La Belle Epoque" interiors from Oradea - it recreates the city's bourgeois life with original objects (furniture, decorations, documents), temporary exhibitions, video mapping projections, but also spaces for local artists' workshops, conference rooms, theater and event spaces, local Agerpres reported.

The rooms located on the first floor of the museum take visitors back to the early 20th century. They can visit the entrance hall, the dressing room, the living room, the gentlemen's lounge, the ladies' lounge, the maid's room, the kitchen, the pantry, and even the bathroom. Access to the bedroom is restricted, but visitors can still see the white painted maple wood furniture, inherited from the last owner.

"The Darvas House, emblematic for the Vienna Secession architecture, presents the Art Nouveau attitude. The changing society. People who come to Oradea and see the palaces have to imagine what the period's interiors looked like. Here, however, the first floor keeps the interior design of the Oradea palaces," said Angela Lupsea, director of the Oradea City Museum.

The new Art Nouveau Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 to 18:00, according to a post on the Darvas-La Roche House Facebook page.

The Darvas-La Roche House, built between 1909 and 1912 by the brothers László and József Vágó, reopened its doors after an extensive restoration project, with European funds, meant to restore its former beauty and glory. The restoration works started in January 2018.

The city of Oradea is included, since 2012, in the European Art Nouveau network, along with other cities with such heritage buildings such as Vienna, Budapest, Barcelona.

(Photo source: Facebook/CasaDarvas-La Roche)