Attraction
Prahova County Museum of History and Archaeology
The Prahova County Museum of History and Archaeology, founded in 1953-1955, has since 1970 occupied the Neoclassical building of the town's first secondary school, Saints Peter and Paul (1865-1867, architect Alexandru Orăscu), at 10 Strada Toma Caragiu in Ploiești. Its displays cover the county's archaeology, including the finds from Târgșoru Vechi, the beginnings of Ploiești, coins and medals, and the modern history of Prahova.
The Prahova County Museum of History and Archaeology is at 10 Strada Toma Caragiu in Ploiești and is run by Prahova County Council. It was founded in 1953-1955, and the teacher Nicolae Simache is remembered as a founder of the Prahova museums. The building, designed in Neoclassical style by the architect Alexandru Orăscu, who also designed the University of Bucharest, had its foundation stone laid on 31 May 1865 and was completed in 1867. Until 1970, when it became the museum's home, it housed schools, starting with the first secondary school in Ploiești, Saints Peter and Paul. It is a listed monument (LMI code PH-II-m-A-16246), and its last major restoration took place in 1990-1995.
The ground floor is devoted to archaeology. One room presents the finds from the Budureasca valley, where research has focused on the Getae and the first millennium AD. The Prahova Archaeology room brings together material from sites across the county, including the Roman forts at Drajna de Sus and Mălăiești (with a brick stamped by the Fifth Macedonian Legion), and two rooms are devoted to the site at Târgșoru Vechi. Also on the ground floor, the Michael the Brave Room holds the remains relating to the beginnings of Ploiești as a town.
Upstairs are the coin and medal rooms, an exhibition on the events of the nineteenth century (1848, the Union of 1859 and the War of Independence of 1877), a room dedicated to the writer Ioan A. Bassarabescu and interwar Prahova, a philately and postcard room and two rooms on the history of sport in Prahova. The upper halls display jewellery, paintings by Nicolae Grigorescu, weapons and two medieval dugout canoes.
The entrance is flanked by statues of Saints Peter and Paul, and the courtyard holds busts of Mircea the Elder, Vlad Țepeș, Michael the Brave and Alexandru Ioan Cuza. The museum's lapidarium also holds the memorial cross for the defeat of the Seimeni revolt (1655), a listed monument brought from Valea Urloii. The museum runs several branches, among them the Nicolae Simache Clock Museum and the Târgșoru Vechi Archaeological Reserve.
Strada Toma Caragiu nr. 10, Ploiești, județul Prahova