On the trail of gold prospectors in the Gold Mine of Rosia Montana, Romania

On the trail of gold prospectors in the Gold Mine of Rosia Montana, Romania

Hello everyone

I wish you to have a wonderful Sunday with your loved ones and invite you to join me in an amazing place in Romania.

Today we go together to one of the most beautiful villages in the Apuseni Mountains, namely Roșia Montana.

Over the years Rosia Montana has been an extremely important area in terms of gold mining, it seems that after explorations it was discovered that the mountains here are rich in gold deposits.

Due to the toxic procedures used in gold mining, and the destruction in the area, it was included in the UNESCO heritage and gold mining was stopped.

It seems that the richness of this area has been known since almost 2000 years ago since the time of the Romans, yes, since then gold deposits have been extracted from here, some say that over 220 tons of gold have been extracted from this mine.

Where is Rosia Montana?

This commune is located in Alba Iulia county in Romania, a particularly beautiful commune and perhaps in the heart of the Apusian mountains, a real treasure.

What are we doing here?

We will follow in the footsteps of the gold diggers, but not those of modern times but those of Roman times, yes, we will visit the Roman galleries dug in the mine here.

Our visit here today will be divided into three parts which I will share with you in turn, the first part will be the most interesting because we will go directly into ALBURNUS MAIOR (the Roman galleries), then we will continue our visit and we will see the machines used in gold mining, very old machines and we will end our visit here with the Mining Museum.

Probably the easiest way to visit this place is to come by car, here you can definitely find parking places and also here you will find stalls where you can leave with a souvenir.

The price of a ticket for adults is 20 lei/4euro/person and if you want to take pictures inside the mine you have to pay a fee of 5 lei/1 euro/apparatus.

Opening hours: Tuesday-Sunday 09.00-14.30, closed on Mondays.

The visit of the mine is done only accompanied by a guide on the condition that a group of minimum 5 people is gathered.

Let's move on, time flies.

ALBURNUS MAIOR

After paying the entrance fee and the fee to take pictures we entered the courtyard of the complex and not two minutes later we were in front of the underground entrance.

When I passed in front of the underground access door I felt a very strong and cold draft, yes, the temperature inside is around 7 degrees, you can imagine that at first I had a shock because of the temperature difference, outside it was 30 degrees and inside 7.

The guide tells us that we will descend 157 steps equivalent to a 10-storey building and then we will enter the galleries, here we have to be careful because their height is about 1.70 meters (I had a little difficulty in the sense that my height is 1.82 meters, hehe).

Inside the humidity is increased, so if you have allergies or problems with cramped spaces I don't recommend wintering here, plus you have to be careful not to slip the floor is wet and muddy, yes, you will pickle your shoes.

The visit inside the mine lasts over an hour, thanks to the fact that the guide will tell you many spectacular details about the mine.

Now we go to the surface again, I must admit that climbing those 157 stairs on the way back created difficulties for me.

Gold mining equipment

In the courtyard in front of the mine entrance we can see some of the machines used right here in the mine, some of them are quite old, others were used in the communist era.

Do we have gold here?

Also here in the inner courtyard we can see a former entrance to the mine which today is blocked up.

We visited only one floor, but above us there were several other floors that were not visited and below us there were three floors, some of them flooded.

Mining Museum

Our visit today will end with a visit to a former administrative building of the mine that has been turned into a museum, here we can find many photos of the people who were there during the program and who did their job of mining gold, as it was practiced in those days.

Some machines used in the communist era, today nature takes over.

If these pictures could talk, they would have so much to tell us, but unfortunately they can't and will take all the secrets with them to the grave.

Dear followers and visitors, I hope that the foray into the past of this gold mine will attract you and, why not, if you are in Romania and in Alba Iulia county, maybe you will schedule a trip through the Apuseni Mountains and this place.

If you liked what you saw and read here please don't forget to give a LiKe, Follow, reBlog or a Comment, for all this I thank you, and until the next post I say goodbye.

P.S. The attached pictures you have just seen are taken by me with my mobile phone, and the text is also designed by me.

Yours @triplug!😊