The Museum of History and Archeology Piatra-Neamţ was founded in 1934 by Constantin Mătăsă, one of the most famous intellectuals of Neamţ county.
Constantin Mătasă transformed in a museum the „Queen Mary” National House, built in 1929 by the author.
The Museum of History and Archeology in Piatra Neamt includes two floors, which host 24 halls representing the period between the Paleolithic and the Second World War.
The 24 halls have been opened to the public since November 27th, 2008, at the occasion of the Scientific Session dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the establishment of Great Romania. The exhibition provides a convincing picture of the past of the human communities living on these lands.
In this article, we will present what each room presents us.
- Hall 1: It includes the palaeolithic places of Bistrita Valley, from Ceahlau to Piatra-Neamt, the oldest salt mines in Europe and the way of life of the Paleolithic people. Among the presented exhibits are objects used for hunting.
- Hall 2: Reconstruction of a specific house to Precucuteni-Cucuteni culture.
- Hall 3-8: Information and materials on Precucuteni culture, ceramics, discoveries and reconstitutions, pots, bowls, axes, bone and horn processing, copper metallurgy in the Eneolithic.
- Hall 9: Bronze Age; tombstone in stone, pots, ceramics, bone parts and stone in the grave; sausages and vessels; vessels belonging to Costişa culture.
- Hall 10: The Early Bronze, represented by the New Culture, with a huge number of discoveries.
- Halls 11-13: The Dacian civilization; Geto-Dacian ceramics, pottery worked at the hearth; ornaments, bronze pieces and bone-specific Geto-Dacians, types of Dacian sanctuaries.
- Halls 14-15: Archaeological realities, specific ceramics, wheel pottery, coins, weapons and tools
- Hall 16: Sites dating back to the 4th-12th centuries belonging to the sub-Carpathian tumuli. The archaeological discoveries, the ceramics worked on the wheel, the coin issued by Bella III of Hungary, the crosses-relic or the two spades generated a series of controversy over the role and importance of this fortification. The most important discoveries from the archaeological layer dating from the medieval period from Bâtca Doamnei are the two relics, which belong to a category of Byzantine pieces adorned with human figures and schematically incised motifs.
- Hall 17: Ages XIV-XVI; the first documentary mentions of the urban settlements, the everyday life of the rural localities, the boyars courts from Ortesti-Giulesti and Netezi; Neamţ and Noua of Roman; Prince’s Court from Piatra; the foundations of the Neamţ Monastery, Bistriţa, Războieni, Tazlău and the Roman Episcopate; necropolises from Dărmăneşti and Piatra-Neamţ.
- Hall 18: Medieval Culture, represented by monastic centres; adornments, bullion, coins-the Treasure of Buruieneşti; cahle with a Moldavian coat of arms from the Neamt Fortress.
- Hall 19: Reconstruction of a unique medieval dwelling, discovered in Targu Neamt; a dwelling of the semi-buried type, consisting of a single room, made of round oak-pillars, fixed in wooden soles, also of carved oak.
- Hall 20: The beginnings of the modern age, the events that took place in the first part of the nineteenth century, culminating in the Unification of the Principalities of 1859; objects belonging to Elena Cuza.
- Hall 21: The Independence War of 1877.
- Hall 22: Development of the localities in the county until the First World War and the contribution made by the inhabitants of the Neamt and Roman counties to the Great Union of 1918.
- Hall 23: World War II.
- Hall 24: Exhibition on white and firearms used in the 19th-20th centuries.
We recommend this museum to passionate tourists or people who want to know as much as possible about the history of Paleolithic people.This tourist attraction is one of the most interesting in terms of history because of the way the information is presented.
We are waiting for you at the Museum of History and Archeology Piatra-Neamt.
Vîrvarescu Iulian-Alexandru
Chiric Mihaela-Valeria