When we are already in Targu Neamt, to reach Petricani, we use DJ155 Targu Neamt – Petricani – Topolita, 7 km. From the center of Petricani, we swerve left to Târpeşti, and finally, after about 3 km we reach the craftsman Museum Nicolae Popa. Nicolae Popa was born on August 13th, 1919, in Târpeşti Village, Petricani Commune, Neamt County and died on October 20th, 2010, in his native village.  Former student of the priest Constantin Mătasă from the school of church musicians in the city of Piatra Neamț.

From childhood he was attracted to the sculpture in wood and sandstone, working especially faces of  our Dacians and Romans ancestors. Through the naive lines and style approached, his sculptures are strikingly similar approached to those of the far away Easter Island.

Starting from the year ’65, we note Neculai Popa’s debut as a naive sculptor. Participates in the year 1967, in numerous exhibitions personal and group, exhibitions zonal, national and international, and in particular to competitions of naive art and folklore festivals. In the country, his work (sculptures and masks) have been presented, among other things, in Bacau, Bucharest, Piatra Neamt, Curtea de Arges, Iassy, Mamaia, Constanta, Slanic Moldova, Mangalia. Abroad, sculptures and popular masks created by him have been valued at its best in Czechoslovakia, Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia, France, Switzerland, West Germany., Argentina, U.S.A., Mexico, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Mongolia, China, U. R. S. S, Sweden, France, Japan, Canada, Bulgaria. As a result, in the year 1972, we note the first groups of foreign tourists who want to visit your house creator in Tarpesti. In the year 1976, near The House Masks, is inaugurated a building which lodges museum collections made from its own resources, the largest private museum in Romania, a holiday for the traditions and customs, presented in vivid color, unequalled.

Nicolae Popa was also enamouredof culture, local traditional values, ​​of the habits of life of the congregation in which he lived and which he has gathered in his work entitled “WORLD VILLAGE – lost customs and traditions “.

“Tarpesti of yore”, along with “The Book of my life”, “From the seen and unseen world” or “From the world gathered”, you will find them at an honoured place in the museum of the master.

There you’ll see exposed awards and medals obtained at national and international exhibitions in which he participated, together with a wide range of exhibits, from coins to costumes, from tools to scrap iron, from naive paintings to icons, covering over three thousand of given objects, gathered or worked by hand, a lace of wood unparalleled welcomes you as you open the gate.

Go ahead, please, come and see! You can buy souvenirs, items manufactured by craftsman and his wife!