Maria and Mircea Dragan, Muzeul Etnografic Casa cu Păpuși / Ethnographic Museum Doll House

photo by Iulian Oancia as on Google Streetview

In Sibiu, a city of some 137,000 inhabitants (2011) in the Transylvania region in the center of Romania, there is a house that as of 2020 has been transformed into a museum of dolls .

Life and works

The collection came into existence around 2000, when the couple Maria and Mircea Drăgan, living in the town of Agnita in Transylvania and working as a mathematics teacher and a Romanian teacher respectively, decided to collect folk costumes from the surrounding countryside.

photo by Наталия Штупун as on Google Streetview

That countryside around Agnita is known as the Hârtibaci Valley, also referred to as Green Valley, an area with lots of wild nature and historical buildings such as churches and castles. 

Folk costumes also contribute to the unique character of the area and the couple Drăgan decided to collect them. Maria Drăgan in particular visited all the 46 villages in the valley and collected examples of folk costumes, often as worn by dolls, and all kinds of decorative and craft objects.

Mircea Drăgan, who was particularly interested in the history and customs of the inhabitants of the villages in the valley, conducted research on this subject, which was published in three volumes.

 photo by Ion "John" Ionica as on Google Streetview 

Maria not only collected all kinds of dolls dressed in traditional costumes, she also bought dolls at the market or got them from neighbors and friends. 

For these dolls she made suitable costumes herself. 

Eventually her collection would include about three hundred dolls. In the couple's home in Agnita, this collection of dolls was brought together in an exhibition. 

this image and the next two are screenshots 
from the video mentioned in the documentation

However, in order to be closer to their children and grandchildren, Maria and Mircea Drăgan left Agnita in 2020 and moved to Sibiu.

There they settled in a house along Calea Gușteriței, near the Cibin River., which they once more transformed into a museum where all the dolls they had collected got a place.

Some of those dolls looked out of the window at passers-by, but most were exhibited as can be seen in the images around.

The approximately 300 dolls on display are dressed exactly like the inhabitants of the Hârtibaci Valley,

The museum has also all kinds of attributes such as old furniture, carpets and cutlery that give visitors who are familiar with the traditions of the Valley, the feeling of being in a Hărtibacă household.

To give an idea of ​​that feeling, here is a commentary Maria Drăgan gave on the first doll in the collection for whom she made a traditional costume, as was customary in her native village in the Valley: "We call her 'woman with a veil', a covering worn by married women". 

The lady doll wears a jacket with a puff above the elbow and ruffled sleeves, a hat, a chevtar and a skirt with tassels. On her shoulder she wears a pair of sandals with a mătăuz in them. This is a bunch of basil that the bride threw at her in-laws' house on her wedding day. Whoever caught it was rewarded with a big drink.

So there you have it. It is not for nothing that the collection of dolls on display is formally called an ethnographic museum.

Documentation

* Article (March 2024) in newspaper Strada Cetatii

* Article  (undated) on the website Zig Zag prin România

* Article  (October 2018) on the website of newspaper Observer, with a short video

Maria and Mircea Dragan

Museum Doll House 

Calea Gușteriței 54B

Sibiu, region Transylvania, Romania

open for visitors

Ibolya Nagy, Galeria de artă a păpușilor / Doll's art gallery,

all images as on Google Streetview

On the facade of the house with the balcony it is stated in capital letters that the Doll's Art Gallery is located here. Below this English mention there are the indications in smaller letters: Galeria Papasilor and Babamuzeum, which is respectively Romanian and Polish for Doll Gallery and Doll Museum.

The doll's art gallery, that includes the house with the balcony and the one next to it on the left, is located in the center of the city of Târgu Secuiesc, a municipality with some 16.000 inhabitants (2021), situated in the center of Romania.

this image and the next eight as on Google Streetview, 
submitted by various photographers

Life and works 

This museum is a project undertaken by Ibolya Nagy, who is married to Tilhamer Nagy, a couple living in the city of Târgu Secuiesc.

At some point in her life she came into possession of six porcelain dolls, dressed in gowns from earlier times. 

She was so delighted with them that she passionately started collecting more of these dolls, which got a place in the house where she lived with her husband.

 

When her collection had grown to 175 dolls, she came up with the idea to exhibit them in a doll gallery, an idea that became reality in 2010. In 2011 there was a first exposition, and in 2017 the gallery opened permanently to the public.

Ibolya Nagy was able to realize her dream thanks to her husband who was the heir of a historical house in the center of Târgu Secuiesc, built in 1910 by his great-grandfather, who was a renowned merchant at the time. 

The communist government that came to power in Romania after World War II had confiscated the house, but Tilhamer Nagy managed to regain ownership in 2008.

Arrangement of the dolls in the gallery

Currently, the collection comprises some 1500 dolls, and until now, every year some 100 to 200 dolls have been added to the collection..   .

Because the gallery is housed in what traditionally is a residential building, the dolls are distributed over the various rooms and spaces that the building comprises.

The Porcelain Room is a place of honor for the very first six dolls with which Nagy Iboly started her collection.

Then there is the Green Room, where the oldest dolls in the collection are exhibited. 

These are dolls from the period between the 1920s and the year 1960. The oldest doll, dating from 1927, depicts a Chinese woman.

The so-called Style Room is about dolls that portray all kinds of princes and princesses, mostly related to (European) royal houses and often going back to times long past.

Then there is the Nostalgia Room, which brings back memories of visitors' youth and the dolls they played with, but also their  early school years and the children's books that shaped their lives during their younger years.

Finally, there is a space designated as the Great Hall.

This area has shelves along the walls with -among other items-  dolls depicting celebrities such as Audrey Hepburn, Kate Middleton and Prince William. Many of these dolls come from Germany and France.

The Great Hall is also referred to as the Olga Gallery, with the name Olga being a tribute to Nagy Ibolya's mother-in-law..

Documentation

* Article on the Anapedia-Travel website with an extensive series of images.

* Article (2017) by Mihaela Aionesei in newspaper Mesagerul de Covasna 

* Article (November 2024) by Gina Artenie on the website Covasna 45, also richly illustrated

Video\

* Video (YouTube, 2024, 7'36") by Maszol

Ibolaya Nagy

Doll's Art Gallery

4 Independenței Street

Târgu Secuiesc, Covasca County, Transylvania, Romania

visitors welcome
Google Streetview

Auguste Léger, Maison aux coquillages / House of shells

 

this picture and the next three courtesy of Tipeek Photos

The shell-decorated house pictured above is located in Gravigny, a municipality of about 4,000 inhabitants in the Normandy region of France.

The house is situated on its own grounds on a corner at the end of a street, which ends at a roundabout, and this specific location means that not only the front along the street can be seen, but also the sides to the left and right. 

These two sides are also decorated, in a design that is comparable to the decorations on the street side.

Readers who know a bit about Google Streetview can see this for themselves

The shell decorations were applied by Auguste Léger, about whom no biographical information can be found on the internet.

Some information about the period in which the decorations were applied can be obtained via the website Habitants-Paysagistes of the Lille Art Museum, where three photos of the house can be seen, made in 1983 by Francis David.

These photos radiate a certain naturalness, as if the decorations have been adorning the house for years.

This would mean that the shells were applied at least forty years ago and probably date from the 1970s.

Documentation

* Short article (1983) on website Habitants-Paysagistes, with photos by Francis David

* Short article (undated) on the website of the municipality of Gravigny, with the remark that the  house  currently is private property

* Article (September 2024) on Tipeek Photos with a series of recent photos

Auguste Léger, 

Maison aux coquillages

7 Rue du 23 Août 1944

Gravigny, dept Eure, region Normandie, France

can be seen from the street

Google Streetview

Bernard Rein, Maison décorée / Decorated house

front of the house
pictures are from Google Streetview, May 2023

The French municipality of Kembs with some 4100 inhabitants (2005), is located along the river Rhin. The city has the first and oldest (1932) of the eight lock complexes that shipping encounters between Basel and Strasbourg.

Of a completely different order, but certainly as interesting from the perspective of art environments by non-professionals, is the house with decorations pictured above.

the decorations as in 2008 on Streetview 

Life and works

The decorated house is a creation by Bernard Rein, who started the project in 1998.

It all began in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, a commune in the Vosges, about 90 kilometers from Kembs, known for its mineral trade. There Bernard Rein found all kinds of stones that appealed to him and which he bought with the idea to use these to decorate the outside of his house.

top of the front facade

He used the stones indeed to embellish the exterior of his house, but the decorations do not only consist of purchased minerals. 

Bernard Rein is a true collector of all kinds of stuff and the basement of his house is full of items found at flea markets or, as the project progressed, donated by friends who wanted to support the decorative project.

Adding decorative items is done by Bernard Rein on the basis of the inspiration of the moment, without a preconceived plan, just following themes or stories that come to his mind.

In this way the house gradually became a colorful art environment, with a completely filled facade, a partially decorated side wall on the right and a decorated front of an adjacent small building,

right side of the front facade

left side of the front facade

The decorations include a colourful collection of all sorts of items. For example, there are small sculptures from Djibouti, an African country located along the Red Sea, but also all sorts of fossils from Morocco.

There are small sculptures of Indians, all sorts of compositions in which shells are incorporated, souvenirs from trips made and all sorts of items from flea markets, found by Bernard Rein himself or by one of his friends

One can also see items that relate to the area near the house. For example, there is a plaque with a name that is not immediately familiar to everyone, understandably, because it is an item connected to a ship that was no longer used for navigation and was moored in the Rhône-Rhine Canal, that flows through the area behind the house.

decorations on the right side wall

Other items with a background that may not be immediately clear to everyone, originate from a collaboration between Bernard Rein and a magician and friends, who were involved in a circus in Switzerland and whom he assisted in performances or other activities.

Comparing the recent images of the site with the image of the front of the house in 2008, it can be seen that the tympanum had not yet been worked on and that the other surfaces have a calmer appearance than they do now.

This may be related to Bernard Rein's increasing skill and daring in treating the walls with a mixture of plaster, cement, water and natural pigments, which he now adds resolutely to the area to be decorated, in order to transform it into creative items or to incorporate found items into it.

the house as situated along the road

Documentation

*  Article (July 2023) in regional journal l'Alsace with a large series of photographs showing in particular details of the decoration

* Article (August 2024) in journal France 3 Grand Est

* Entry (September 2024) on the newspaper of BFM TV Alsace, with a short video (can't be added here)

Bernard Rein, 

Decorated house

14, rue des Jardins 

68680 Kembs, dept Haut-Rhin, region Grand Est, France

the decorated house can be seen from the street

Google Streetview

Lino Corradi, Giardino e interno decorati / Decorated garden and interior

picture as on the website created by the family
in honor of Lino Corradi

The tower pictured above is a replica of the tower of the La Ghirlandina, the tower next to the main cathedral of the city of Modena, located in the province with the same name in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna

Life and works 

This replica was constructed by Lino Corradi (1935-2023), who was born in the municipality of  Bastiglia. He worked his whole life in the marble sector, where he gained a lot of experience and skill in manually processing pieces of hard rock.

He married Bassoli Osvalda in 1962, and in 1973, when he was 37 years old, he and his wife decided to build a house in a small village in the Apennine area of ​​the province of Modena..

With his manual skills he also made parts of the furnishings himself, such as tables and cabinets.

a marble seagull

When he retired in the 1990s, Corradi did not opt ​​for a quiet life, but he began kind of a a new career in making sculptures which he used to decorated his house and garden.

He made creations from marble, such as the seagull in the image above.

canon

But he also made creations from wood, such as the cannon above, and a series of wooden figures depicting all kinds of types, such as a cowboy, an Indian, and Pinocchio below.

a cowboy

an Indian

Pinocchio

Below an image of l due angeli (the two angels), a creation made of sheet metal, which was not situated in the garden, but on a nearby hill .

In selecting the images of Corrari's artistic work for this article, the emphasis was put on creations that are situated outdoor. this in order to stress the concept of carving as part of an art environment.

During Lino Corradi's lifetime his creative work received virtually no recognition. Fortunately, thanks to Giada Carraro, an art specialist and writer who publishes articles about art environments in Italy, his artworks were given publicity with an article about Lino Corradi that appeared in her website Bric-à-brac Italia.

Documentation

* Website about Corradi's creations made in his honor by the family after he passed away 

* Article about Corradi's life and work by Giada Carraro on her website Bric-à-brac Italia

Lino Corradi

Decorated garden and interior

Located in a small mountain village called Riolunato

in the Apennines of Modena,

region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Pentti Kangasaho & Mervi Rintala, Polttopuista tehdyt rakennukset / Buildings made from firewood

this photo and the next four courtesy of Minna Haveri

A recent post in this weblog, published on January 24, 2025, was dedicated to Veikko Salo from Padasjoki, Finland, who in 2017 began building small-scale houses and other buildings from stacked firewood, which he situated in a wooded area along road 24.

From the responses to the article it became clear that there is at least one other art environment in Finland that focuses on creations made with wooden materials collected in the forests as firewood.

Life and works

This refers to an art environment created by Pentti Kangasaho and Mervi Rintala, living in a hamlet that is part of the municipality of Urjala in the Finnish region of Western and Central Finland.

This hamlet, called Pertunkulma, is located some 5 km east of the built-up area of ​​Urjala and is situated in a very wooded area.

Pentti Kangasaho and his wife Mervi Rintala live here in a rural home, which means that there is plenty of space around the house to situate piles of firewood, a fuel that in Finland is widely used for heating homes, especially in rural wooded areas. 

This was also the case at Pentti and Mervi's house, and so it happened that Pentti, who always found it very attractive to make something with his hands, came up with the idea of ​​transforming piles of firewood into small buildings. 

And so, in 2005 Pertti, assisted by Mervi, began constructing firewood buildings which got situated in the space near their house. as shown in the photos.

The first building the couple created, was a stacked construction of firewood, covered with a ridge of a fiber cement plate, which protected the stack from too much moisture.

After more than ten years of creative construction and partly also the burning of some creations, in the summer of 2017 a cozy village had been established, comprising a church, a rectory and several residential buildings.

The church, depicted below, named Ketunaho Chapel, occupies a special place amidst all other creations.

Fifteen cubic meters of birch and spruce wood were used for its construction.

The roof, in the shape of a saddle roof, has been made of old mineral wall plates and the whole is decorated with a small square tower with a spire made of residual wood.

The church was consecrated in 2013 by the Reverend Kauko Keränen, who stated in his speech that Mervi and Pentti had the right to set fire to the building if this was considered as convenient and appropriate.

Another notable event involving the church occurred in 2014, when the Finnish newspaper Yle Tampere organized a competition for the most beautiful photo of a self-created wooden structure, which was won by Mervi Rintala who had made the photo of the church which she herself had helped to create.

The above text describes the situation of the art environment as it had developed in around 2015. No information is available on the internet about the developments of the site in the ten years or so that followed.

This also means that it is currently unclear whether the site can be visited, which in the early years was possible once a year during a weekend in a summer month.

Environmental and health aspects of collecting and burning wood

For followers of this blog who live in other countries then Finland it can be interesting to hear more about environmental and health aspect of working with firewood. 

The Finnish website Puu-info, a promoter of responsible wood use, states that in Finland, despite the use of wood from forests (which account for 75 percent of the country's total area) thanks to forest management measures, the amount of wood in Finnish forests has increased by 60 percent in 70 years. 

 As for the use of wood as fuel, it is stated that this doesn't lead to an increase in the concentrations of carbon dioxide and sulphur in the air or to an increase in the greenhouse effect of the climate. The combustion of wood releases the same amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the decomposition of wood in nature. 

Finland also has an annual prize, the Wood Award, which is awarded for an interesting and responsible use of wood.

Documentation

* Article (undated) on the website Maaseudun Sivistysliitto, ITE Pirkanmaala/Urjala

* Article  (July 2014) about the site in newspaper Yle Tampere

* Article (July 2016) about the site in regional periodical Luonnon Varassa, p 20-23

* Article (July 2014) in newspaper Yle Tampere about the photo contest, with a series of photos of all kinds of stacked firewood in Finland

Pentti Kangasaho & Mervi Rintala

Buildings made from firewood

143 Pertunkulmantie

Hamlet of Pertunkulma, municipality of Urjala, dept Pirkanmaa, region Western and Central Finland, Finland

it is not clear whether the site can be visited today

an image on Google Streetview, most likely shows the location of the art environment because of the church building that can be seen

Viktor Kompaniichenko, Прикрашений будинок / Decorated house

photos by Olga Stenko, as in her article (May 2019) 
in newspaper Gazeta

Founded in the late 17th century and an estate for many years, the small village of Yakovtsi in 1929 was incorporated in the Ukrainian municipality of Poltava, traditionally a transportation node and an important cultural center. 

In the 1950s the village experienced urbanization, with many newly built houses and other buildings

However, the modest, long-standing house of Viktor Kompaniichenko was not urbanized in the 1950s. It was transformed into an art environment when its  occupant rather lavishly began decorating its exterior walls.

He would spend  about forty years designing the site.

 

Viktor Kompaniichenko was born in the early 1930s and died at the age of 72 in the early years of the 21st century.

After that, his son Oleksandr Viktorovich, born in 1957, became the owner of the house. At a young age, Oleksandr Viktorovich must have witnessed the transformation of the house.

His father had only a primary education and he was a lover of painting, wood carving and making sculptures. He also built the house himself, probably starting after he completed his military service in the early 1950s.

The house has only a ground floor, with an iron roof above. 

In the middle of the front facade is the slightly forward-facing entrance, flanked on the left and right by windows. 

The interior space has an area of ​​over 100 square meters, with a central hall of 25 square meters and two small rooms on either side. 

The front of the house is decorated with stucco work and along the upper edge there is a garland of flowers.

As the image above shows, the decorations Viktor Kompaniichenko added to the exterior of the house also included sculptures, which he made of concrete. Some of these sculptures are now damaged, but Oleksandr does not have the means to restore them.

Along the front of the house is a low concrete fence, decorated with stone flowers. There were also decorations with sculptures of musicians, which are partly damaged.

The brief description of the nature and content of this art environment is based on the documentation dated 2019. It is not inconceivable that the site has deteriorated further in recent years.

Documentation

* Article (May 2019) by Olga Stenko in newspaper Gazeta 

Viktor Kompaniichenko

Decorated house Dykanska street Yakovtsi district, city of Poltava, region Poltava, Ukraine can be seen from the street