Traditional wood-fired bread baking, local gastronomy and folk crafts will take centre stage at the 'Longing for Homemade Bread' festival in Romania's Maramures region on Aug. 14-16, highlighting rural traditions at risk of disappearing, the director of the Village Museum in Baia Mare told AGERPRES on Monday.

'We wanted to use the period around the Feast of the Assumption to showcase the very best of the Maramures village to the public and to Romanian and foreign tourists. A local gastronomy workshop and a traditional bread-making workshop will be among the main attractions. The bread will be prepared and baked in the museum's wood-fired oven. Although this custom is gradually disappearing, it is encouraging to see that many people moving from towns to villages are building traditional ovens to bake bread, sweet bread and other dishes,' museum director Monica Mare said.

She noted that the tradition of baking festive dishes in household ovens remains well preserved in some Maramures villages during major religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas.

According to Mare, food baked in a traditional wood-fired oven has a distinctive flavour that cannot be replicated in a conventional oven, recalling that such ovens were once a standard feature of rural households.

The festival, which offers free admission, will also feature a folk crafts fair, traditional music performances, creative workshops, exhibitions, tastings of local products and performances by children's folk ensembles representing the region's four ethnographic areas.

The programme also includes a photography exhibition entitled Maramures - The Land of Four Lands, celebrating the region's cultural heritage.

'Our event is intended to encourage people to rediscover the Maramures village and the values that shaped traditional rural life, while preserving customs that risk being forgotten if they are not brought back into the public eye. Maramures possesses priceless cultural heritage that deserves to be preserved, promoted and passed on to younger generations and visitors alike,' Mare said.

Located on the outskirts of Baia Mare, the Village Museum is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Maramures County, second only to the County Museum of Mineralogy. AGERPRES (RO - writing by Leontin Cupar; EN - writing by: Simona Iacob)