The "Victor Gorduza" County Museum of Mineralogy from Baia Mare

The "Victor Gorduza" County Museum of Mineralogy from Baia Mare, an institution that initially operated within the Natural Sciences Department of the Maramureș County Museum since 1976, received the legal status of museum in 1992. During its approximately 45 years of activity, the "Victor Gorduza" County Museum of Mineralogy from Baia Mare succeeded to be on top of geological museums in Romania. The museum’s heritage, which comes exclusively from the outcrops and mines of the northwest of the country, has brought the institution the status of the largest museum of mineralogy with regional representation on the entire European continent. The museum's four collections, namely the mineral, fossil, rock and ore collections, include over 20,800 pieces. In addition to the permanent exhibition, organized in four different departments, namely petrography, mineralogy, deposits and mine flowers, the famous museum brought to the public's attention over 195 temporary exhibitions, organized both in the country and abroad. During the permanent exhibition, the unique samples of stibin, calcite, barite, pyrite, rhodochrosite, fluorine, quartz, amethyst, gypsum and realgar fascinate visitors, revealing never-before-seen shapes, varieties, sizes and colors. Precisely this character of rarity of such exhibits, doubled by their spectacularity, gives some of them the quality of treasure of the national cultural patrimony of Romania.