Transsylvania Nostra Journal

The particularly evolved Transylvanian vernacular architecture research did not follow in every aspect the western examples and from multiple points of view dropped behind compared to the systematic processing of Hungarian research results. After the change of regime the vernacular architecture manifested an upswing, although at the turn of millennium was followed by an intense decline, practical results were brought about mainly by open air museums and built heritage protection. Even though the history of research on Transylvanian vernacular architecture has more than a century, the process is far from being concluded. From the synthesis-like evaluation of the tendency’s post-transition history turns out, that accelerated social and economic transformation resulted in the radical change of the lifestyle creating and maintaining vernacular architecture and highlighted the outmost importance of field work.
Keywords: Transylvanian vernacular architecture, open air museum, protection of built heritage, ethnography