IMMA

OLIMPIA – Museum of Sports and Mountain Tourism

OLIMPIA – Museum of Sports and Mountain Tourism is the first museum in Romania dedicated to the history of sports and mountain tourism.

It is hosted by the former headquarters of the Brașov Skating Association, a building inaugurated in 1896, the year in which the first edition of the modern Olympic Games in Athens was organised. Also here, in 1964, the first exhibition dedicated to the history of sports in Romania was opened (since 1967, the “Sports Museum”). The historical sports heritage objects that belonged to the closed communist museum in the 1970s constituted the core of the “Sports and Mountain Tourism” collection of cultural assets established within the Brașov County History Museum, in 2018.

In November 2016, the manager Nicolae Pepene proposed to the Brașov County Council the establishment of a section of the Brașov County History Museum in the building called “Olimpia”. The owner of the building agreed and the historic building was taken over by the museum in 2018.

Between 2021 and 2023, the Brașov County History Museum, with the support of the Brașov County Council, restored the former headquarters of the Brașov Skating Association. In parallel with the rehabilitation of the building, the museum implemented the museum design project, financed by the EEA Grants 2014 – 2021, within the RO – CULTURA Programme, the call for “Supporting innovative exhibitions with restored mobile cultural goods”.

Also, the first temporary exhibitions in the country and abroad were organized: History in White (Piața Sfatului, Brașov, 2016), The Peștera chalet from Padina Crucii, the cradle of Romanian mountain tourism (Ialomiței Cave, 2022), The beginnings of winter sports in Romania (Brussels, 2023; Leuven, 2024).

With a historical heritage enriched by donations and acquisitions, OLIMPIA – Museum of Sports and Mountain Tourism, a section of the Brașov County History Museum, was opened to the general public in March 2024.

Olimpia – The Museum of Sports and Mountain Tourism represents the display of an extraordinary sports and mountain historical heritage made up of historical goods over 100 years old (climbing, skating, skiing, fencing, shooting), from the beginning of the practice of sports on the territory of Romania. Then, for the interwar period and popular sports, plaques, cups, trophies, medals, diplomas, sports equipment are exhibited, representing both team sports (handball, football, volleyball, basketball, hockey) and individual sports (athletics, skiing, fencing , wrestling, judo, tennis, skating, cycling). Over 300 cultural assets have been restored and prepared for permanent exhibition by the care of the museum’s restorers. Many of them have a historical value of national and international interest, including 25 historical pieces listed in the National Heritage, including two in the “Tezaur” category.

Upstairs, the exhibition “The beginnings of winter sports in Romania” inaugurated the temporary exhibition hall. Also on the first floor is the “Mountain Civilization” documentation centre and a room for courses and workshops.

Thus, the Museum in Brașov’s Olimpia aims to be a meeting place for former champions and for lovers of sports and mountain civilization, a way of communication between generations, a place where we will discover the cultural values of sports and mountain tourism.

Contacts

Olimpia
Olimpia
Olimpia
Olimpia

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