Bellu Manor Museum, Urlați

The Bellu Manor Museum stands on Strada Orzoaia de Sus in the town of Urlați, in a park of about 5 ha. It is a branch of the Prahova County Museum of History and Archaeology. The house was built in the mid-19th century in the old Romanian architectural style as the home of Baron Alexandru Bellu's family. It has a raised ground floor with nine large rooms and a cellar, with features borrowed from the peasant houses of the Cricovul Sărat area, and its entrance tower was modelled on the bell tower of Vărbila Monastery. In 1926 the Bellu family donated the whole complex at Urlați to the Romanian Academy. The complex became museum property in 1953 and operated as a regional museum from 1954; since 1990 it has been part of the Prahova County Museum of History and Archaeology. The large manor of the ensemble, with 24 rooms on two floors, was destroyed by an earthquake and only its foundations survive. Of the outbuildings (storehouses, stables, workers' quarters) only ruins remain. The exhibition includes period furniture, mostly from the Bellu family, 19th-century paintings (Theodor Aman, Pavel Dincovici, Eugen Maximovici), lithographs by Carol Popp de Szathmari, faience, Oriental and Far Eastern art, icons, 18th- and 19th-century weapons and ethnographic collections: pottery, textiles, tools and Romanian carpets. Carved stone architectural pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries are also on display. The ensemble „Curtea lui Alexandru și Radu Bellu” is a listed historic monument, LMI code PH-II-a-A-16805: the manor, the foundations of the large manor, the gate pavilion, the ruins of the outbuildings and the park. The museum is run by the Prahova County Museum of History and Archaeology under Prahova County Council and is open to visitors.