The Vineyard and Wine Museum of Focșani

The Vineyard and Wine Museum in Focșani is a section of the Muzeul Vrancei, officially inaugurated on 20 December 2024 in the former Palace of Justice of the city, located at Strada Cuza Vodă no. 8. The building is a historic monument, constructed between 1909 and 1912 at the initiative of prefect P. Panaitescu and inaugurated on 12 April 1912 — remarkable for having been built in just three years, at a time when Romania was still a developing country. It housed the Vrancea Tribunal and the Focșani Court until 2011, after which it passed into the patrimony of the County Council and was restored over three years with an investment of 30 million lei, largely from European funds. The museum documents the history and viticultural civilization of the Carpathian Curvature zone, with a focus on the three renowned vineyards of Vrancea: Cotești, Odobești and Panciu. The halls are organized thematically — vineyard, winemaking, cooperage and brandy — tracing the evolution of viticulture in Vrancea from the earliest times to the modern era. At the inauguration ceremony, busts were unveiled of three prominent figures connected to the history of viticulture and wine in Vrancea: academician Valeriu D. Cotea, vintner Vasile I. Țiroiu, and the ruler of Moldavia Eustratie Dabija — who issued the first documentary attestation of the Odobești vineyard in 1661–1665. The first event hosted by the museum was the 2023 International Vineyard and Wine Festival "Bachus", the most important wine competition in Romania.