Gold Museum, Brad

The Gold Museum in Brad has operated since 1896, growing out of the mineral and mining-tool collections of the companies that worked the gold deposits of the Metaliferi Mountains. Today it holds over 2,000 exhibits — minerals and native gold pieces, none of them reworked by a jeweller — regarded as one of the most important collections of its kind in the world.

Among its best-known pieces, visitors have given proper names to native gold formations, such as “The Ballerina”, a twelve-faced crystal unique in the world, and the gold “lizards”, one of which was insured for €500,000 during transport for display at a German museum. The museum stands on Independenței Street no. 3 and is open daily.