About 46 kilometers away from Ploiesti, Prahova county, an impressive stone museum, unique in Romania, can be found, sheltered in Sangeru commune, precisely at the village’s heart, right near Sangeru Peasant Museum.
The museum was born out of a Romanian poet’s passion for collecting stone-carved sculptures made by handicraftsmen from the Istrita Hill in Buzau. Almost 1,000 such sculptures are now sitting in state in the courtyard of the stone house that poet Lucian Avramescu inherited from his grandparents.
Here in this story-like place, there is stone as far as the eye commands. The manor house, the outbuildings, the sculptures unveil as if they were depicted from the Stone Age.
The stone is a defining element of the region. The manor house is a massive stone building, with 80 cm-thick walls, typical to the rural architecture of two centuries ago. However, the house has been revamped also using wood. For instance, one of the rooms, pillared on wooden piers, shelters a generous chimney, stone-carved tables and benches where huge coffee cups carved in white stone are quietly resting.
The museum gates are opened at every hour and there is no entrance fee.