Mining Museum

Str. Nicolae Balcescu, No. 2;

Tel. 0254/541 744

The location of Petrosani Mining Museum is located in a historic building category B, included in the List of Historical Monuments in Romania (LMI 2010) at position no. 394, with HD-II code-MB-03409, under the name “The first location of SAR Petrosani, Mining Museum today”; it is dated in 1920.

The well-known Mining Museum from Petrosani was established by the Decision of the People Council of Hunedoara Region, number 750 of August 4^th , 1961. The first location of the museum was on Ion Luca Str., No. 1 in a house situated on the area of the current Central Park, opposite site of the House of Culture. During 1961-1966 the activity took place in that building, which had a role of warehouse more, exhibition space being very small.

According to the presentation of Mr. Ioan Dumitru Puscasu, the historian:

The first exhibition organized by the newly established institution under the government of its first director, Professor Nicolae Cerchez, was dedicated to the Cuban Revolution and took place at the State Theatre hall (it is about the oldest theater in the colony).

In the summer of 1964, director of the museum is named Professor Ion Poporogu; who activated as a teacher at Theoretical High School until then.

In 1966, the museum moved in the current location. The Museum development in inside and outside the building was realized by the cooperative “Decorative” from Bucharest, a company specialized in exhibition design.

Starting with 1965-1967, the building started to operate as “mining museum”, hosting a museum collection with pieces attesting the history of mining in the Jiu Valley: original documents, photocopies, drawings, equipment, mining equipment, badges, technical mining evolution in the Jiu Valley, represented by different tools and machines together with different specific appliances and objects of the life in the region as well. Also, the museum collection comprises a section of geology, represented by vegetal and animal rocks and fossils.

On October 18^th 1970, it was established the first section of Numismatics in Romania inside the halls of the Mining Museum.

In the years that followed, the Mining Museum was run by the teachers Cornel Plato (1977-1978) and Dumitru Peligrad (1978-1993), and starting with 1993 by  Eng. Gheorghe Poncis.  Between 1996 and1998, it was a purely administrative period when he made a complete overhaul of the building.

In time, the museum has become an institution integrated into national and international cultural circuit. On August 4^th, 2011, they celebrated 50 years of its existence and the musem was already sheltering more than 4,000 specific exhibits. According to the Museums and Public Collections Law, No. 311/2003,  updated in 2012, and the Classification  rules published in the Official Monitor in 2007, the institution from Petrosani is a science and technology museum of local importance, which owns the museum heritage, movable cultural heritage representative in this area.

The museum was also the host of countless exhibitions that have diversified themes compared to previous years, moving from the plastic art – without neglecting it – to numismatics, exhibits of mining engineering, tourism, photography, vintage photos of the mining towns etc.

Museums and public collections, regardless the formation, the ownership and the management of the Heritage Museum, works in accordance with the methodological rules for the museums and public collections, developed by the Ministry of Culture, with the approval of the National Commission of Museums and Collections, and approved by Order of the Ministry of Culture.

Opening hours:

Monday: closed

Tuesday – Friday: 9.00 – 16.00

Saturday – Sunday, 9.00 – 15.00

Ticket Price:

Adults: 3 lei

Children, students: 1.5 lei