Romanian parking crater uncovers medieval wine cellar

A crater formed in a parking lot in the city of Ramnicu Sarat, in eastern Romania’s Buzau county, could have uncovered an archaeologically significant site. A two-meter deep crater formed the night of Wednesday to Thursday in a parking lot in Ramnicu Sarat, and one of the parked cars fell into the existing hole. “There were no signs of an infiltration, an arch of the channel that crosses the European road caved in,” Sorin Carjan, the mayor of Ramnicu Sarat, told Agerpress. The car had been parked right above the arch that caved in. The mayor explained that the situation could have been worse, as “this is about the catacombs of the old town, which cross the European road.” The site of the incident could be a nationally important medieval site, and archaeologists will start researching it. The collapse may have uncovered “a medieval wine cellar which caved in and a tunnel linking it to a nearby monastery,” Laurentiu Grigoras, the director of the Buzau County Museum, told Agerpres. Daniel Costache, the deputy director of the museum, said that the winery was built in the Romanian, Brancovenesc style. “Brancovenesc – style wine cellars are definitely found underground, because, at a first sight, they are made of bricks, specific to the Middle Ages to the end of the 17

th

century. This is not a novelty for the Buzau county archaeological landscape, as many more such cellars were uncovered [in the county],” he said, quoted by Gandul. The underground cellars can be found throughout the downtown area of the city but not in the vicinity of the apartment buildings, according to the Ramnicu Sarat mayor. At the time the blocks were built, ten-meter deep excavations were made so the residential area is not in any danger to collapse, he added.

editor@romania-insider.com (Photo: print screen of Adevarul Buzau video)