The glass icons museum of Sibiel, unique in Europe
03.08.2009
Biserica
Sibielul
Sibiel, one of the ten villages belonging to the town called
Saliste is currently
the most important tourist destination in Sibiu Marginimea with over 30 agro-tourist
pensions. An ancient establishment which is situated near the Salgo Citadel ruins
and which defended the passage through mountains, Sibiel was until the middle of
the century a common mountainous village whose inhabitants dealt with animal breed
and fruit-farming. All of a sudden, their life style changes but at the beginning
of the ’70, when parson of Sibiel church, priest Zosim Oancea opens the Glass Icons
Museum, a unique collection of its kind.
Dorina Petra
‘In this museum , that is situated in the yard of the Holly Alliance Church in Sibiel,
priest Zosim Oancea collected the most representative glass icons in Romania, but
also in Europe,’ the supervisor of the Glass Icons Museum bearing the name Priest
Zosim Oancea , Dorina Petra says. ‘We have about 700 glass icons and most of them
donated by the inhabitants of this village, the rest of them having been collected
by Priest Oancea from all the regions of our country.’ .
Icons - Northern Transylvania
‘The religious glass painting was born in Byzantium and around the year 1400 this
art spread all across the countries in the Central and East Europe and got to us
after the year 1700’, she continued. ‘As you can well see in the case of the exposed
icons there is a naïve picture, made by peasants , mostly anonymously painters the
used colors had vegetal and mineral pigments and the glass was manually expanded;
because it is made in manufactures, in glajaries, the glass presents curliness that
reflect light in a special way.’
Icons
Priest Zosim Oancea began collecting icons in 1969. Between 1970-1971 he rebuilt
an old store room in the yard of the church, the headquarters of the first museum
which shortly became scanty. In 1976 the priest was obliged to begin the construction
of the actual museum which started its activity in 1983. Apart from the glass icons,
the museum also holds important old volumes, for example a Slavonic liturgical text
dated since the fourteenth century, the New Testament of Belgrade, a rare exemplary
of Serban Cantacuzino Bible as well as local handicraft objects.
Interior Museum
‘The icons are geographically arranged and according to painting schools in our museum;
we have six Catholic icons, the rest of them being totally Romanian Orthodox icons.
They are icons painted in the north of Moldova, in Valea Muresului, but most of
them are from Transylvania, Tara Fagarasului, Sibiu Marginimea, Alba Iulia region-
Lancram, Sebes, Laz, and Tara Barsei, Brasov region,’ Dorina Petra added.
‘The icons are different from one region to another in colors- each region has its
specific relief, style, but also its religious orientation, bible, these painters
used local elements too in the creation of the icons, elements of the folklore they
belonged to like folk themes or folk motives.’
Museum
The glass icons museum Zosim Oancea is given on the Internet too. ‘In the summer
we have many tourists, especially groups from Spain, Italy, France, Germany and
Austria. But during the year we receive visits from many Romanian tourists who wish
to see the Museum live, after they have found its
presentation on the Internet or
they have seen various television reports,’ Dorina Petra concludes.
Online resources
Ministry of Culture and Religion Affaires
Naţional
Keywords: articons