The Amber Museum from Colti village and its unique collection

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Colti is a commune in Buzau County, Romania, 13 kilometers away from Patarlagele town. The commune is special not only for its old houses, churches, monasteries or its secular trees but for amber, the valuable euosmite (a fossil resin).

Amber Museum was built by the inhabitants of Colti in the ’70s and opened in June 1980. The building is similar to a peasant’ house, with three floors: the underground floor, the ground floor and the first floor. The ground floor consists of three rooms where is located the amber collection, crystal clusters, rocks, fossils and tourmalines (gemstone). The yellow amber is a semiprecious stone resulted from the organic fossilization of some pine resins, tens of million years ago.

The precious collection is unique in our country and among the fewest in the world. Between 1937 and 1948 eight amber mines were functioning in Colti, but they were closed one by one. Locals continued to seek these gemstones, very demanded in jewelry industry.

DSC_1769The Museum of Colti hosts a piece of amber weighing 1,785 grams, and another one of 1,500 grams, amber objects in different shades of colors, from yellow to opaque black, transparent or multiple color shades in one piece.

The museum’s collection, the second in Europe, hosts the oldest amber, dating back 60 million years. The amber from Colti is considered the world’s most famous amber color diversity, with 160 shades that researchers have discovered so far.

Amber is a common accessory for the people of Colti, who wear amber pieces as good luck charms. The amber of Colti is a protected area of national interest from 2000.

If you’re in the area, you can also visit, in about 6 kilometers, the rupestral settlements from Alunis, a church carved in stone by two shepherds around 1274 and officially documented in 1351.

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