Life In The 17th Century

Two weeks ago I visit and exhibition, that was not only unique in its theme but also very nicely designed. It was not the traditional exhibition where you see the objects, the description and that's all. Being about the 17th century, made everything different right from the beginning, starting with organizing it.

There were these huge posters on the wall, detailing what the visitors needed to know about the history of Marosvásárhely (Targu Mures) in the 17th century. I found these posters more interesting than brochures or audio guides you see at any exhibition. I have a pretty good visual memory and these posters helps me remember better what I need to know.

What you see here is the blueprint of the bastions, part of the fortification built around the Calvinist church of Marosvásárhely (Targu Mures), which is a reformed christian church today and still in use. There are six bastions if I'm not mistaken, today used for hosting exhibitions.

If you think life is difficult today, please read this to see what life was in the 17th century and try to imagine yourself living back then, under those circumstances.

This is where things started to get interesting. Learning about guilds is always a pleasure. Guilds those days had a huge role in any society and had their own way of operating. Look at the cup on the poster. It's a real masterpiece and was done manually. It's a real beauty.

Bastions of the fortified walls were occupied by guilds. Some guilds had an entire bastion for themselves, others had to share. During the excavation works, objects belonging to these guilds were discovered. I can imagine archeologists working on the site. It is a real pleasure to be the first to find objects belonging to people who lived centuries ago and I can also imagine the disappointment when these work don't bring the desired results.

What you see here is the seal of a guild and the key of the chest in which the important assets of the guild were kept. Please note, back in those days the only communication methods were sending a letter or sending word. Letters had their seals, to protect the content and provide authenticity. However, forgers existed even then, they are not the invention of modern era.

A wonderful wooden chest, a very popular and needed item in those days. As the above photo says, this was the chest of a guild. It was under glass, so ... this was the best I could do. Even so, you can see it is a nice one.

As I mentioned before, there were these screens with animated videos about what life was like back in the 17th century. This video you see on the screen was about guild life and the life of Ferencz Nagy Szabó, a representative of the city's elite of those times.

Here you could read about his life journey. I don't know about you, but I found this design amazing. You had the map of the region, old illustrations, dated, everything in a nice visual mode to help you remember better. Add to that the video I mentioned earlier. The designer really did everything to make the experience unique and also help visitors understand easier and remember what they see.

This poster was made to look like printed on old paper. They made sure to have some old paper rust on it as well. I love it!

The next room was a very interesting one.

What archeologists find most of the time is fragments of pottery, mosaics and household objects that were used by people living before us. In this case archeologists were able to find fragments of houses, ceramics to be more precise.

Time and weather conditions can have a pretty harsh effect on these pieces, but what you see here are quite nice.

When you look at this piece of tile, please remember that it was made in the 17th century. Look at those details.

Most of the decorative elements are about flora, fauna.

These pieces were under glass as well, but still, it's impressive how well they were preserved over time.

This is an interesting description about how one could become a citizen. Obtaining citizenship in 2023 is not easy in the world, but it wasn't easy in the 17th century either. You needed to fulfill a lot of requirements and only the wealthy ones could do that, as far as I can tell from this text.

These are two very important documents, both testimony of the past. On the left, you see a map of the region. On the right there are the family trees of some nobles and a map.

While walking through the exhibition, reading and looking at what it was displayed, one can't stop thinking about how much life has changed since then. The interesting fact is that many people, especially women are envying different eras, mostly for the clothes they were wearing back in those days. I know woman who would give anything to go back to the Victorian era just because of those dresses. However, life must be evaluated taking all aspects into consideration. I'm glad I don't have to live in the 17th century though.

You can check my previous post about the exhibition here:

• Justice System Of The Past
• The Fortified Town Exhibition

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