Trovanților Museum, Costești, Valcea

Living stones witness the might of the miners' troops

Where is it? When can you visit? How much does it cost?

Trovan Museum is located on DN67 Drobeta Turnu Severin - Targu Jiu - Ramnicu Valcea, 38 km before Ramnicu Valcea and 9 km after Horezu on the direction named here. After crossing the Costesti river in front of the homonymous Valcene locality, drive another 1.5 km and park before a curve, on the side of the road, off the road, when you see "a wall like sand", from a distance it looks like a quarry. For those who remember the shots of the mineriada when the ortacii started on foot from Targu Jiu to Ramnicu Valcea, it is exactly where the miners broke through the barricade of the authorities taking them by the invaluire. In the right of the objective there is also a panel. Although it is called a museum, it is not an objective with any building, it is 100% "in natura". Visiting is free and can be done at any time of day or night.

What are trovans?

TroubadoursThe sandstones, which are also called "living stones", are sandstones developed in sand "grown together", i.e. "glued" with natural carbonate cement. Thus these resulting formations grow from the center to the edge about 1 cm every 300 years. Their shapes are interesting resembling cylinders, ellipsoids, spheres, 8's with a somewhat polished outer surface. In Romania trovanti are found in several areas: on V. Bezdeadului (DB), at Ulmet in the Buzaului Mountains (where there are the most interesting and most numerous forms), in the area of Cluj, Hunedoara, Bacau, Suveava, Bistrita Nasaud counties. In Valcea, beside the spectacular trovanti from Costesti, there is another location, but I didn't reach it, 16 km south of Horezu towards Craiova, on the Gresarea pass.

Our impressions from Costești

The "Museum" of Costesti appeared in 2005 and is maintained with European funds by a non-governmental organization. An area of about 1 ha was declared geological reserve and protected area.

Here in Costesti, as in Ulmet, the density of trovanti is high so it is well worth a visit to admire and photograph them. I've read that the trovantids are 6.5 million years old. At that time, there was a delta in the area, which formed a large sand deposit. The material carried by the rivers was deposited on top of each other, the new layers pressing down on the old. Water flowed out through the voids, and in the presence of carbonates, these bizarrely shaped sandstones, the trovantians.