Cătălina Monulești Area

The buildings from Catalina Monulesti area show a clear concern for treating the facades facing the public space, while preserving the essence of the traditional layout - rooms facing the street, and the courtyard towards the inside of the plot.

The "House with buttresses" or the Henis House stands out, as its name suggests, for the structural solution of adapting to the terrain, by punctuating the corners with massive masonry, an atypical solution for the area. If you look closely at the house, you will notice the profile of a bricked-up tunnel, through which the water used to pass from the gold processing stamp mills  above and fed the stamp mills  below (you will learn the story of these stamp mills in detail shortly). The House with buttresses was once the headquarters of the gold gendarmes, who were responsible for the security of the gold galleries to prevent them from being looted by thieves or holongari, as they were called in the village. One of the gendarmes' duties was to make evening rounds in the village. They would ride around the houses and call out the names of the people living there. All suspicious individuals had to be at home in the evening. If the next day it was heard that gold had been stolen from a gallery, all those who were not at home during the calling were considered suspects and were investigated.

Let's move on to the buildings to the left of the House with buttresses. Here, you will encounter the house with a baroque roof and historical ironwork on the windows containing the miners' symbol in embroidery, and further to the left, you will notice the Szekely House, which also has the miners' symbol built into the facade. The inclusion of this symbol in all these details, even on the tombstones in the cemeteries, shows us that the profession of a miner had a certain status, was respected, and considered a source of pride in those times.

Let's return to the main street alongside which flows the Roșia stream, locally known as Foieș. Over the bridge you can find the Catalina-Monulesti gallery system, dating back to Roman times and now closed. There well-preserved Roman wax tablets were discovered, a rare find. One tablet dated February 6, 131, confirms the existence of Rosia Montana and its Roman name, Alburnus Maior, making it one of the oldest documented localities in Romania. These tablets, made of wooden planks filled with beeswax and inscribed with a stylus, provide valuable socio-economic, demographic, and linguistic insights into the Roman Empire. They are preserved in museums in Romania and beyond.

The Roșia stream locally known as Foieș, played a crucial role in operating the stamp mills, powered by water from artificial reservoirs called Tauri. From ancient times until 1948, over 240 stamp mills installations in the Roșia Valley were powered by water from these reservoirs, used to crush ore and separate gold. Water management was meticulous, as it determined the success of miners' work, sometimes leading to disputes. Stamp mills were essential in the gold extraction process, and visitors can explore their world further up the street at the "stamp mills and the Forge" site.

You have listened to the content dedicated to Catalina Monulești area.

The UNESCO tour of Rosia Montana is a project implemented by the non-governmental organization ‘Rosia Montana in Patrimoniul Mondial’. The audio-tour is co-financed by Romania’s Administration for National Cultural Funds. We based our story telling on local anecdotes and the works listed on the bibliography on our website. We encourage you to follow the trail that we prepared for you via our website. This will ensure that you discover all objects and their stories of Rosia Montana. Have a pleasant journey and ‘drum bun’ as we say here.