Central Romania: Open-air Astra museum to add new facilities with EUR 5 mln investments

The Astra National Museum Complex in Sibiu, in central Romania, will benefit from close to EUR 5 million investments in the coming years. The funds come from Norwegian grants, from the state budget, and from the museum’s funds, News.ro reported.

A new stage will be built on the lake of the open-air, ethnographic museum, Ciprian Ştefan, the museum’s general manager, explained. It will host large film festivals and concerts. A building of the museum in downtown Sibiu will also be refurbished and turned into a center hosting various activities.

Furthermore, a park where visitors can see and experiment how Dacian families used to live will also be built. It will cover a time frame beginning in the Neolithic and ending with the first part of the Middle Ages. The park will host accommodation spaces for visitors.

Astra covers a surface of 132 hectares. Visitors can see here more than 400 traditional constructions, from all the areas of the country.

“We have already accessed a Norwegian funds project, EUR 2.5 million, approved. We will use the financing to refurbish our building in downtown Sibiu, the former 15th-century Butchers’ Hall, where we want to build an activities and regional resource center. […] Furthermore, we have submitted a financing request with the National Investment Company (CNI) for the lake stage, of EUR 2 million. We don’t want a classic stage. We want the entire area to become a place for socializing, including during the week,” Ştefan said, quoted by News.ro.

The old stage will be demolished, and a new amphitheater will be built, with wooden benches and alleys. The museum’s director hopes the venue will host part of the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) and other cultural events.

At the same time, the museum plans to undertake RON 1 million (EUR 206,185) investments this year in its educational infrastructure and its alleys, with funding from the Sibiu County Council.

“Because of the Covid-19 crisis, we could not produce anything. Provided we can remain open, I think we will have the same number of visitors as last year. Everything we do at the museum, we fund ourselves. Since 2012, we have won projects worth EUR 15 million,” the museum’s director explained.

Last year, a public of 630,000 attended the museum’s programs. Half of them paid for an entrance ticket. In 2019, the museum had revenues of RON 5.5 million (EUR 1.13 million).