Roșia Montană’s Miners' Club

Over time the building has belonged to prosperous members of the local community, who sought to express their prosperity, role in the community, and privileged social position through architectural expressiveness. This construction functioned as a single-family residence and was originally part of an ensemble of a typical mining household, alongside other related constructions or traditional technical equipment.

The architecture of the house is an interpretation of a cultured architectural style leaning in a traditional construction structure. Built on one floor with spacious vaulted spaces, the upper floor has a traditional layout, with an external gallery, similar to a traditional porch, called a "târnaț." The initial roofing, with a baroque truss structure, is evidently an urban influence, while the shingle covering represents a strong, local, traditional imprint.

The period photograph on the website, most likely taken in the early 20th century, captures this imposing edifice, with an L-shaped footprint and a complex architectural composition, including a dominant main body facing the main street, with a robust volume given by the historic baroque roof truss.

During the communist period, the building lost its imposing baroque-style roof, with a massive volume, broken pitch, and traditional shingle covering. It was replaced by a simplistic multi-pitched roof with asbestos-cement tiles. Also during this time, a series of interventions were carried out that affected the facade's plasticity and various other elements of the building, leading in turn to an attenuation of the architectural expressiveness of the building.

The building was modeled after the traditional specificity of individual family dwellings but was designed to testify, through the richness of its architectural resolution and the expressiveness of its forms, the prosperity of its owners and the prosperity of the mining household to which it belonged. After World War II, with the installation of Communism, the property was nationalized, and the old residential building was transformed from a private space into a Social Club for the mining community of Roșia Montană. These are the times and images that locals still fondly tie to the miners' club.

So, here it is, Roșia Montană is not just a village with "country" houses... it is a very special settlement that, even in terms of its buildings alone, deserves its fame and status of UNESCO protection. And if you're not yet convinced, we invite you to head up towards the market square, towards the old village fair, where we await you with more stories and  information.

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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.