The Roman Galleries of Roșia Montană

The Roman Galleries of Roșia Montană, located in the town of Roșia Montană, Alba County, form part of the most significant Roman-era underground mining complex known in the world. The area was called Alburnus Maior in Roman times and represented the most important source of gold for the Roman Empire in the province of Dacia. Mining reached its peak during the Roman period, in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. The total galleries carved into the mountain massifs surrounding the town exceed 80 km, of which approximately 7 km date from the Roman era. The Roman mining works show advanced techniques for their time: treadmill-operated waterwheels for drainage, trapezoidal-section galleries, helicoidal shafts and inclined galleries with steps cut into the rock, developed by migrant Illyrian-Dalmatian miners. On the gallery walls, the marks left by Roman chisels and hammers are still visible, testifying to sustained activity over many centuries. During the 18th and 19th centuries, wax-coated wooden tablets bearing Latin inscriptions were discovered in the galleries, legal documents considered among the most important epigraphic records of Roman antiquity. These tablets, together with the stone epigraphic monuments discovered in situ, provide detailed information on the organisation of the Roman mining community. The Roman Galleries form part of the Roșia Montană Mining Cultural Landscape, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2021, under criteria (ii), (iii) and (iv) of the World Heritage Convention. Part of the Roman galleries can be visited through the Mining Museum in Roșia Montană. Did you know that, according to UNESCO, in some 166 years of mining starting in AD 106, the Romans extracted about 500 tonnes of gold from Alburnus Maior?