The Brăila Museum of Ethnography and Folk Art (Muzeul de Etnografie și Artă Populară din Brăila) is an ethnographic museum house in the historic Alexiu House in central Brăila. Part of the Brăila Museum Carol I, it presents the traditional occupations, crafts, clothing, and customs of the Brăila region through a collection of agricultural implements, fishing equipment, household objects, textiles, and religious art.
The ethnographic collection began taking shape in 1969, when museum researcher Liviu Mihăilescu started documenting rural life in the Danube wetlands and the surrounding Bărăgan Plain. His research brought together fishing boats and equipment, agricultural tools, objects used by shepherds, and examples of domestic craftsmanship, forming the basis for the first permanent exhibition, which opened on Calea Galați in 1976. As the collection expanded, the museum moved to a larger building in Brăila’s Public Garden in 1984, where ten exhibition rooms were complemented by an outdoor display of a traditional rural dwelling and its outbuildings. After that exhibition closed, the collections spent almost 25 years without a permanent public display before reopening on May 27, 2015, in the Alexiu House.
Built in 1910 in a predominantly Neoclassical style, the Alexiu House was purchased after the First World War by lawyer and politician Constantin Alexiu from the heirs of merchant Evloghie Gheorghief. Alexiu, who briefly served as mayor of Brăila in 1907, was also an art collector and a prominent figure in local politics.
The residence features an ornate facade with classical columns, triangular window pediments, floral friezes, and sculpted decorative faces, while its interiors preserve painted ceilings and carved wooden doorframes. Later used as Brăila’s Municipal House of Culture, the building underwent extensive restoration, including structural reinforcement and the repair of its original decorative elements, before the ethnographic museum opened here in 2015.
The permanent exhibition begins with the occupations that shaped everyday life in these communities, illustrating fishing, agriculture, and shepherding through traditional tools and equipment. Subsequent rooms explore domestic crafts and customs, with woven carpets, embroidered towels, household textiles, and objects used in everyday life. A separate room contains religious icons painted on wood and glass, while the final section presents traditional costumes, including clothing from Gropeni and examples reflecting the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Brăila region.
