Hunting Museum of Posada

Romania has a long history of hunting. The country remains a remarkable hunting destination, drawing many a hunters because of its large numbers of brown bears, wolves, wild boars, red deer, and chamois. The concentration of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Carpathian Mountains of central Romania is largest in the world and contains half of all Europe's population, except Russia.

Today, dedicated hunting museums exist, like the small Hunting Museum of Posada (Rom: Muzeul Cinegetic Posada), belonging to city of Comarnic, in Prahova County, Muntenia, hosting nationally celebrated writer Mihail Sadoveanu's collection. Mention should be made here of the fact that the first National Hunting Museum was created in 1931, in the Carol I Gardens of Bucharest. At that time it was the second cultural establishment of this kind in Europe.


African Trophies

The opening of the Posada Hunting Museum of the Carpathians, in 1996, throws a bridge to the Romanians’ hunting traditions. Unfortunately, after more than ten years the museum as well as its priceless collection, was destroyed by a fire. The Hunting Museum of Posada displays, in a most adequate arrangement, varied hunting exhibits, including impressive collections of trophies, works of arts, specific hunting tools characteristic for several stages of human development.


Lynx

Like in any other museum, experts have created and ennobled specific atmosphere of the place with some ingredients such old furniture, tiles, floor lamps, valuable glass and crystal objects. Together they can be admired - but not photographed - tapestries, carpets, paintings, silverware, ceramic from Austria, Germany, China etc., many of them suggesting hunting pursuits. Of course, the museum could not deprive hunters hunting specific items arsenal of weapons used over time to hunt - spears, crossbows from 17th century, swords, musketry, rifles, modern shotguns, beautiful knives, other hunting items.


Brown Bears

True galleries of art, the halls of the museum catch the visitor’s eyes both thanks to the considerable number of exhibits and the distinct personality of each piece, from the ebony and ivory forest of roe deer and stag horns, to the comprehensive panoply of wild boar fangs or the harmonious, rich pearly quality and color contrast of roebuck horns.


Wild Boars

From the category of predators stand out the furs of wolf, lynx, bob cat and, above all, bear, giving an inkling of the vigor and number of these populations of wild animals. The art of hunting finds thus a formidable expression in the Hunting Museum of Posada that puts forth numerous assets of this occupation in Romania against a backdrop of genuine aesthetic and cultural emotion.


Deer Trophies

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Panoramas by Michael Pop, from www.360trip.ro.

Lăpuşna Castle

Lăpuşna is a village belonging to Ibăneşti commune, Mureş County, Transylvania, Romania. It is located in Gurghiu Mountains, 45 km far for Reghin, in an area of outstanding beauty.

The story of the Lăpuşna Hunting Castle (or the Royal Hunting House) starts in 1923, when King Ferdinand I of Romania (1914-1927) had visited for the first time the area of Gurghiu Mountains. Charmed by the picturesque beauty of the landscapes, he decided to build in Lăpuşna a hunting lodge. The castle was built between 1925-1926.

The ensemble is composed of of 7 buildings with 35 rooms and a park of 4 hectares. It seems that the firs planted around the buildings form the contour of Romania. Not far is the wooden Lăpuşna Monastery (1779), brought here from Comori village by King Carol II, church that served as a place of worship for the Royal House. Once the relocation of the church, were brought here icons which proves the strong links between Moldavia and Transylvania during the 18th century.

The Hunting Castle was owned by the Royal House of Romania. King Ferdinand I, King Carol II (1930-1940) and King Michael I (1927-1930 and 1940-1947) often came here to hunt. It was nationalized in 1947, and was administrated by the commune of Ibăneşti.

Then, the castle became the favorite hunting place of the Ceauşescu family, the dictator bringing here numerous heads of state as Nikita Khrushchev, Todor Jivkov or Josip Broz Tito. Ceauşescu used the castle at least three times a year.

After the fall of Communism in 1990, the castle was used as a hunting base by Ion Ţiriac, Prince Dimitrie Sturdza, and many American and European hunters. Here were established several world records for trophies of Carpathian brown bear, black goat and deer. In total, there were obtained more than 300 gold medals for hunting trophies. Here is also a good place for trout fishing in Gurghiu River.

Images from here.

Sibiu "August von Spiess" Museum of Hunting

The Museum of Hunting is named after one of the important personalities of the city of Sibiu in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries: Colonel August von Spiess, the Keeper of the Royal Hunting under the King Ferdinand I of Romania.


The Museum opened as the first of its profile on the national level, in the year 1966, being accommodated in the Von Spiess residence, donated on this porpoise by the Colonel’s daughters. The collection comprises about 1600 items, arranged in five sections.


Arms and hunting instruments: the exhibition begins by a short history of arms and tools used in the process of hunting, starting in the Stone Age. Among exhibits are chopped flint items, spears, javelins, bows and crossbows along with firearms from the 14th century matchlocks to the modern cartridges, adjoining accessories as gunpowder containers, cartridges holders, daggers, blowing horns, dummies and traps used in poaching. The concept of the room is introductory, aiming for a general-notion presentation.


Small and medium sized trophies: starting in the second room, there are exhibited the impressive hunting trophies. The thematic message of this section is that today hunting is no more a cruel practice but a way of selecting and administrating the cynegetic trust, having as porpoise the conservation of the biodiversity of the wild fauna. There are presented exhibits representing bird-trophies adjoining small and medium sized game as foxes, wolves, wild-cats etc.


The “August von Spiess” Memorial Room: Dedicated to August von Spiess, the memorial room presents his personality and activity through his portrait, photos, gun, trophies, written literature, along with the presentation of his hunter-fellows and his family. There is also o section dedicated to Emil Witting, forestry engineer, who donated a great part of the extent Museum’s collection. The room is reconstituting one of the rooms in the Von Spiess’ residence after one of the interior photos, taken during the time of his life.


Large Sized Trophies: The present room displays impressive trophies of large, Carpathian game (stag, bear, wild boar, chamois) most of them awarded at national and international contests of the period between World Wars, reflecting the exceptional value of the Romanian game.


African Trophies: The last of the rooms describes the two African expeditions Von Spiess enterprise at ages 72 and 74, presenting African trophies: antelopes (Gnu, Impala, Oryx, etc), Caffer buffaloes, rhinoceros, zebra and many more.


The Museum courtyard in the back of the building was arranged to serve as a relaxation open space for the visitors and a proper environment for ecological education of children as it hosts many species of plants, a dog, fishes and a tortoise. (From Brukenthal National Museum)

Hunting world records

The tradition of hunting is a vigorous component of Romanian material and spiritual culture, the originality and diversity of its forms of manifestation having its origin in the richness of fauna characteristic of the space around the Carpathian arch, along the Danube to the shores of the Black Sea. "...An universe dominated by the mystical solidarity between hunters and animals"(Mircea Eliade).


The impressive number of medals and recognition as a world record for the most representative species of big game in Europe, confirm the great value of the Romanian fauna heritage.

Thus, Romania holds:
*** the absolute world record at horns of chamois, the famous trophy Hessheimer (141,10 points), obtained in the Făgăraș Mountains in 1934; 16 of the first 20 world trophies come from Romania.
*** the absolute world record at wild cat skull, from 1967, with 21,40 points.
*** the world record at brown bear skull, from 1997, with 69,47 points.
*** the world record at bear fur with 687.7 points (1985); in fact, the first ten trophies in bear fur in the world ranking are from Romania.
*** the world record at wolf fur, from 1997, with 186,17 points; 7 of the first 10 world trophies are from Romanian wolfs.