The beginnings of the existence of the museum of the “Ancestral Floor” dates back to the beginning years of the XXth century, more precisely in 1912, when the teacher Marin Georgescu exhibited for the first time his personal collection, firstly in the place of the primaru school from the commune Gostavăț (the county of Olt) and then at the primary school from Marotinu de Sus (county of Dolj). When it started the First World War, Marin Georgescu was mobilized and the collection remained in the school’s teacher room from Marotinu de Sus, therefore at the beginning he found it half destroyed. He continued his activity of passionate collector and he exhibited the objects in the building of his personal house from Celaru.
Therefore, in the year 1972 it was possible the opening of the “Museum point Celaru”, at the event participating the first secretary of the county Dolj – Constantin Babalan.
At the same time, the priest of the village Celaru, Ion Budulan, executes in the congregation house of the Saint Nicholas church a rich collection of icons, cult objects and popular clothes. After the death of the teachers Marin and Zenovia Georgescu, the collection of the museum point was donated to the local council Celaru and, with the approval of the mitropoly of Oltenia, the two collections were reunited, the objects being exhibited in the Celaru School under the attention and the supervision of the professor Victor Ancuța, but the inauguration was made on the day of the Palm Sunday of the year 1992;
It must be mentioned the fact that in the year 1993 it was organized the exhibit at the Băniei House from Craiova the exhibit “Ancestral Floors – Celaru” with objects from this museum point of view.
In the summer of the year 1999 the museum changed again its location, this time in a most spacious place, and occupied the 1st floor of the building of the kindergarten from Marotinu de Jos with a surface of approximately 260 m2.
In present the museum “the Ancestral Floors” presents over 1300 exhibits distributed in 8 rooms.
Therefore, here we find brothel doors from the XVIIIth centurt, weavers, tools, objects of clothing and foot plates which help the visitor to imagine the way in which the people from these parts used to live.
The household objects from the beginning of the XIXth century, the lamps with gas, the sewing machines which are still functional, the ironing machines with coals and the impressive collections of coins sit near the “oka of Cuza”, measuring unit for cereal, used in the times of the prince. The collection of weapons from the period of the Independence War is a testimony of the fact that even in this area lived people who received military honors for the facts of courage on the front.
A separate category of exhibits are the icons and the church objects.
Among the exhibits there are a few icons of over three hundred years of age and a gospel which belonged to Alexandru Ioan Cuza.
In the museum there also are the objects belonging to some periods much distant: some of them agricultural and domestic from the XVIIIth century, clothing objects and weapons from the Middle Ages, among them there even is a mace, ceramic vessels shards from the Getae – Dacian period.
The objects are grouped chronologically and they were studied by the specialists at the beginning of the century, when the teacher and the priest of the village set the base of the museum.
