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The Textile Museum of Băița: a national treasure created by an international specialist, Florica Zaharia

25/05/2026 by Animawings / General

In the heart of Băița commune, in Hunedoara County, lies the Textile Museum, the first museum in Romania dedicated exclusively to the art and technology of traditional textiles. Opened to the public in 2018, the museum aims to reveal not only the beauty of textile objects, but also the complexity of their creation process — from raw fiber to the finished fabric.

Founded by Florica Zaharia, PhD in Textiles and Emeritus Conservator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the museum brings together rare pieces dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries, alongside traditional spinning and weaving tools, natural fibers such as flax, hemp, wool, and silk, as well as examples of natural dyeing techniques. The FARZ Collection (Florica, Ana and Romulus Zaharia), which can be visited in Băița, includes both Romanian textiles and pieces from cultures around the world, offering a comparative perspective on global cultural heritage.

The exhibitions are housed in restored historic homes, one dating back to 1902, which serve not only as exhibition spaces, but also as conservation storage and research centers. Here, visitors can discover how each textile was made and understand its role in traditional everyday life.

For enthusiasts of history, art, and traditional craftsmanship, a visit to the Textile Museum in Băița becomes a fascinating journey through time and color, in a place where every thread tells a story. In fact, the Textile Museum has three locations — two in Băița commune and one in the village of Hărțăgani, all situated in Hunedoara County.

The idea behind this museum was born from a simple yet fundamental question: where does Romanian culture stand in relation to the cultures of the world? In search of an answer, Florica Zaharia began a research journey that, over the course of 40 years, grew into an extraordinary collection. When Ms. Zaharia and her family returned to Romania in 2016, they brought with them nearly ten thousand textile pieces, around 40% originating from the Romanian cultural space, while the rest came from cultures across every continent.

At that point, the collection had already become a responsibility. It could no longer remain hidden in storage or confined to a private collection. After nearly two years spent studying legislation and consulting specialists, the solution emerged: the creation of a museum — an institutional framework that would allow for research, publication, and international dialogue.

The Textile Museum operates differently from many cultural institutions. There are no long-term permanent exhibitions. Instead, the collection is presented through thematic exhibitions that change periodically and are the result of research projects that can take years to complete.

In fact, each exhibition represents the culmination of an extensive academic process involving fieldwork, collaboration with specialists, and cross-cultural comparison. The museum’s program is planned years in advance, with some projects prepared as much as eight years ahead of their opening.

One example is the research dedicated to traditional costumes from Romania and Japan — a cultural dialogue initiated decades ago and developed together with Japanese researcher Midori Sato. In projects like these, textiles become tools for understanding cultural identity.

For the museum’s researchers, textile fiber is more than just raw material — it is an umbilical cord between people and nature. Every culture relied on the resources provided by its environment: plants, animals, and climate. In Romania, wool and hemp were essential materials. In Japan, where other accessible protein-based fibers were scarce, ordinary people used hemp, ramie — a fiber similar to nettle — and other textile plants.

From these differences, cultural identities emerged. Even when the same plant was used, the way it was processed and transformed into fabric reflected the needs and climate of each region. And no, it was not about seasonal fashion as we know it today.

In the past, a shirt was not made to last for a season or even a year, but for a lifetime. Sometimes it was passed down from one generation to another. Today, in the era of fast fashion, textiles have become disposable consumer products — something that, according to Florica Zaharia, causes significant harm not only to the planet, climate, and environment, but also to our sense of identity and individuality.

Implicitly, the museum proposes a different perspective: fewer objects, but created with respect for the material, for time, and for craftsmanship. At the same time, researchers involved in international projects are working to support the revitalization of traditional fibers and historical textile technologies, even if the process is challenging. Industrialization has largely severed the direct connection between people and the making of textiles.

The museum’s collection spans vastly different periods and cultures. Among its oldest pieces are Coptic textile fragments from the 5th–7th centuries and rare pre-Columbian objects recently donated by former director of the Museum of Arts and Design, collector Paul J. Smith. Still, most Romanian textiles found in museum collections date back only to the 19th century. Earlier textiles, handmade in households and used daily, are extremely rare because they naturally deteriorated over time.

The Visitor Experience

Today, the museum operates in two of its three locations and combines two complementary perspectives: artistic and educational. In the main exhibition space, textiles are displayed as works of art, with a presentation style inspired by some of the world’s leading museums.

Those interested in understanding the technological process behind textile production can visit another museum site — a traditional early-20th-century household where the transformation of fiber into fabric is presented step by step, from hemp or wool to the weaving loom.

There, visitors can even touch certain materials, allowing them to understand through direct sensory experience what might otherwise remain only a theoretical explanation.

A Story About Identity

In an increasingly globalized world, the Textile Museum offers an exercise in cultural memory. Not as a nostalgic look into the past, but as a way of understanding how the identity of a community is built from seemingly simple things: fibers, gestures, techniques, and everyday objects.

After all, every thread tells a story. And when these threads come together, they can trace the map of an entire culture.

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