📜The Land and People of Găleșoaia - Old Găleșoaia

     Găleșoaia was once a famous pottery centre. In 1971, the craft used to be practised by over 90 families. People have lived in the area for millennia, using what the land gave them: working clay and wood, raising animals and weaving, only to be forced to leave because of the coal resources hidden in the earth.  

     ”The Land and People of Găleșoaia” presents the complicated destiny of a displaced community, highlighting the relocated households of Găleșoaia village, in Gorj county. All the buildings were demolished, forests and orchards were cut down, the landscape became unrecognisable as a result of the the lignite quarry expansion in the area. 

     Donated by the Harets, this old house has earth-plastered walls and is covered with straw. It was arranged as a functional space where the two last potters of Găleșoaia, Dumitru Coneru and Ion Retezeanu, come back periodically to work. They are demonstrating and teaching in the workshops arranged in the house but also in the shed, shaping and decorating pots, firing them in the kiln, helping visitors to understand the secrets of the craft through a direct experience with the clay.