Tourist In My Home Town #4 - The Buzău County Museum And The Pietroasele Treasure
Have you ever viewed your hometown through the eyes of a tourist? When immersed in daily routines, it's challenging to adopt an explorer's mindset as familiar landmarks lose their allure when they've been part of your backdrop since childhood.
Back in 2011, I departed from Romania, returning each summer for brief visits. These stays were often consumed by administrative tasks and family commitments, leaving little room for leisurely exploration.
In the hills of Buzău County, history is buried not just in stone but in gold. The Buzău County Museum stands as the guardian of this heritage, weaving together the story of a land where Romans, Goths, and local tribes once crossed paths.
Its most dazzling chapter is tied to the Pietroasele Treasure, a glittering hoard of late-antique craftsmanship discovered in 1837 beneath Istrița Hill. Known as the "Hen with golden chicks”.
The treasure has survived looting, war, and time itself, leaving behind twelve masterful pieces that still spark debate and wonder. The museum and the treasure remind us how Buzău’s soil carries both mystery and memory from the depths of antiquity!
The Buzău County Museum welcomes visitors throughout the year, with seasonal opening times. The museum operates Tuesday through Sunday and remains closed on Mondays. The entry costs less than £3 so a cheap visit!
Special hours may apply on holidays or for temporary exhibitions, including occasions when the Pietroasele Treasure is displayed. Before we dive into an immersive tour of the Museum, feel free to read the other parts of this exploration:
Tourist In My Home Town #1 : Exploring Buzau City As A Guest
Tourist In My Home Town #2 : Buzau City Train Station And Ilie The Vulture
Tourist In My Home Town #3 : Passion For Football And Sports In Buzau
The Buzău County Museum is the heart of cultural preservation in Buzău, safeguarding archaeology, history, and art that span from prehistoric times to modernity. From Iron age to ancient civilisations!
Dive into a journey through space and time, and explore corridors lined with weapons, ornaments, tools, and sacred objects that whisper the stories of those who came before us.
Each artifact carries its own weight of history, from the blades once raised in battle to the jewellery crafted for pride and protection. The air itself feels charged with memory, as though every shard of pottery or worn coin has absorbed centuries of struggle and triumph.
Its collections reflect the region’s rich past, with exhibits of religious art, local crafts, and artifacts linked to the Dacians, Romans, Goths, and later medieval communities.
Beyond exhibitions, the museum connects the local community to its heritage through research, publications, fieldwork, and immersive programs that keep history alive. Good day out with the family!
What begins as a simple walk soon transforms into an encounter with entire civilizations, preserved in gold, stone, and iron, waiting for new eyes to uncover their meaning.
Cârlomănești is one of the region’s most important archaeological sites. Perched on terraces above the meeting point of the Nișcov and Buzău rivers, it preserves layers of history stretching from the Bronze Age to the time of the Dacians.
In the 1st century BC, during the reign of Burebista, the settlement grew into a fortified dava, serving as a political, economic, and religious hub for the Geto-Dacian tribes of the valley.
Excavations have revealed public buildings, homes, storage pits, hearths, and a wealth of artifacts, from ceramics and tools to weapons, ornaments, and a hoard of silver coins.
Particularly striking are the anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, rare finds that shed light on the spiritual world of the Dacians. The site also holds a vast necropolis, with over a hundred graves that speak to funerary traditions across centuries.
Perhaps most impressive are the remains of five Dacian temples uncovered here, two built with apses, which highlight the settlement’s religious role. You can see how the temple was set up, including the figurines, at the museum.
The Cârlomănești artefacts stands as a window into the daily lives of its ancient inhabitants, and as a place where ritual, community, and history converge in the heart of Buzău.
Among the stories tied to the museum, none shines brighter than the Pietroasele Treasure, known as Cloșca cu puii de aur. It was discovered in 1837 beneath Istrița Hill, and the hoard originally contained 22 golden objects, though only 12 survive today!
The whole discovery weighing nearly 20 kilograms. These surviving pieces include ornate brooches, a twelve-sided cup, necklaces, a tray, and a richly decorated patera. The most enigmatic artifact is the Ring of Pietroassa, inscribed with Gothic runes, though damaged over time.
The treasure’s journey has been as dramatic as its discovery. Pieces were lost, stolen, broken, poorly restored, exhibited abroad, hidden during wars, and finally returned to Romania.
The archaeological complex at Pietroasele further enriches the story, with necropolises, Roman baths, and traces of fortifications that mark the region as a crossroads of cultures in late antiquity.
Want more? Dumitru Dan’s story is one of those rare tales where adventure, endurance, and folklore collide into legend. Born in 1890 in Buhuși, Romania, he became famous as the first official world globetrotter, recognized by the French Touring Club in 1910.
Alongside three fellow students from the University of Bucharest, he accepted a challenge to walk around the world on foot, wearing only traditional Romanian clothing and promoting their homeland as they went.
The journey was brutal. Starting with four companions, Dumitru Dan was the only one to complete it, after more than six years of wandering across continents. His friends either fell ill, died in accidents, or had to give up.
Dan pressed on, covering roughly 100,000 kilometers across 76 countries, performing Romanian folk dances and songs to fund his journey. What sets his legend apart is not just the distance, but the toll it took on his footwear.
Over the course of his odyssey, Dumitru Dan is said to have worn out 497 pairs of shoes. Each pair tells its own story! Trudging through deserts, crossing mountains, treading the endless roads of Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
By the time he finished, shoes had become a symbol of his resilience, as essential as the traditional costume he proudly wore. When he finally returned to Romania, he was celebrated as a national hero.
His feat remains etched in history as both a test of human will and a piece of living folklore! This is a proof that determination can carry you around the world, one pair of shoes at a time.
The Buzău County Museum brings all these stories together under one roof, turning the county’s layered history into a vivid journey. From the dazzling gold of the Pietroasele Treasure to the sacred Dacian temples of Cârlomănești!
Come and see ancient necropolises and ornaments of forgotten communities! Rvery hall holds echoes of resilience, belief, and creativity. Even the modern legends, like Dumitru Dan and his 497 pairs of shoes, find their place in this continuum of memory.
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