A Romanian association has started awarding Country Brand certificates with an aim to help promote Romania. The Village Museum in Bucharest is the first Romanian institution that received this certificate. The Association Brand de Tara (translated as Country Brand) has started a program called ‘We are Romania’, which includes awarding such certificates.

“Culture defines Romanians in Europe and foreigners should know both the bad and the good things about the Romanian people and the country's institutions,” said Paulina Popoiu, the Village Museum general manager, upon receiving the certificate.

Respect for culture and for traditions will help Romania create a stronger image in Europe. ‘In the end, if we want to know who we are, we have to go back to our roots, and the roots are in our villages, where eternity was born,” the Village Museum director went on.

The Village Museum is an open-air ethnographic museum located near Bucharest’s Herastrau Park. Very popular among foreign visitors, it currently comprises 80 authentic peasant houses, monuments and installations, collections of folklore costumes (over 13,200 items), textile objects of practical utility (7,576), religious objects (over 1,500), ceramics (8,565 items), wooden objects (5,817), as well as 93,000 documentary photographs.

Our Bucharest walks: the Village Museum.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com