The Traditional Popular Art Gallery, Bucharest

What to buy here: Hand-painted Horezu Ceramics. Price range: $ 2-7.

It’s more than just something you can buy. It’s a way to another world. A world of simple, pure beauty, crafted by knowledgeable hands, accustomed to do this for hundreds of years. Color, clay, paint, and harmony came together and created the internationally acclaimed Horezul ceramics. During many generations, the craftsmen in the South-Western Romanian region of Horezu have developed their unique stile of painting, their preferred patterns and the heart-warming unmistakable look. Plants, fish, animals and geometrically-interpreted patterns adorn the clay pottery pieces, from cups and bowls, to plates and large trays. Whether using contrasting color backgrounds, like the powerful ultramarine, or the delicate combination of earthy shades and vibrant reds, the Horezu pottery stands for one of the highest symbolic expressions of freedom, love of nature and the never-ending power of imagination Romanian traditional pottery masters shared with their community and with their descendants. Still alive and highly regarded both by Romanians and foreigners alike, the Horezu ceramics craft is currently being transmitted from the elders to the young ones eager to learn this noble trade.

All original Horezu artifacts bear the hand signature or the stamp of the master artisans who made them, usually located on the back side of the objects.