Zosim Oancea Glass Icons Museum

Top choice in Transylvania


This museum of painted icons, named after the priest who collected them, is a true hidden gem. Unlike the sombre wooden icons you’ll see elsewhere in Romania, these religious images were painted using a 300-year-old method: on the back of glass, with gold leaf decoration stuck down using egg white and garlic. Proud St Georges, tearful Virgin Marys and allegorical Bible scenes are among the 700 icons displayed across two floors, most of them in a luminous naive style.

The museum is behind the late-18th-century Sfânta Treime church, which has a finely frescoed interior and time-worn graveyard.