Homestead and Workshop of Stave Maker, Râşculiţa, Hunedoara County

The stave and wheel maker's („spătar”) homestead of Râşculiţa comes from Ţara Zarandului. It was transferred to the museum in 1971 and dates back to the second half of the 19th century. The homestead contains: the house, the barn with two stables, the sheep pen and pigsty and the well and it is surrounded with a wattled fence covered with juniper. The house stands on a stone base and has two rooms on the upper floor and each of them has is accessed through the „târnaţ” that is as long as the front facade. The balcony has a plank rail joined with wooden nails. On the lower floor there is one room, dug into the slope whose walls form the stone base. The entrance is in on one side. The roof is high and covered with straw. The living quarters are made of oak and beech carved logs. The walls are plastered with mud on both sides and whitewashed. The floor is made of massive beams with boards in between, on top of which there is a layer of pressed dirt. The ceiling is made of beech boards sustained by transversal beams whose ends stick out and it is the sustaining surface for the „cosoroaba” (longitudinal beam that holds the rafters of the roof with wooden nails). On the inside, under all the transversal beams is the sustaining master beam. The two rooms are not equal and have different functions. The bigger one is used as living quarters and workshop while the smaller one serves as food pantry and storage for household items and clothes. The living quarter has a „camnita” stove with enamel cahle, and two beds in the opposite corners of the stove. In front of them there are the backed benches and the table is under the window. Against the wall of the stove there is the kitchen cabinet.
The „spatar” master does not have a special room for his craft; he works everywhere, in every corner of the homestead in winter and while raining. The wooden material is stored in the barn where he splits them with the hatchet and cut them at dimension. The dents of the „spete” are made of nut tree wood that is split with a special knife in thin slices. This process takes place everywhere in the homestead. Just like the women who spin, the Râşculiţa women go out in front of their gates with pieces of nut tree wood to make the dents. The long and thin oak rods are fastened with the dents that are tied with hemp rope. The „spata” is a component of the loom and has various dimensions, from 10 to 100 meters, according to the dimension and quality of the material used to knit. Making „spete” is a normal phenomenon for the Râşculiţa inhabitants and performed by all women and men. Men also bring the wood from the forest, they cut and prepare it while making the component parts and men and women do the tying of the „spete”. The „spătar” masters sell their products all over the country. They go to places with a sack on their backs and sell their products for money only.