Nistor Kula

Gârdanului Hill, in the former village integrated in Piatra Albă, Cerneţi Village, Şimian Commune, Mehedinţi County.

Cerneţi, a former capital city of the Mehedinţi County, is located on Topolniţa River Valley, about 4 kilometres away from Drobeta Turnu Severin. The access to the settlement can be made from the national road connecting Targu–Jiu to Drobeta Turnu Severin or from the North of the county capital city. As a reference point, the Nistor kula is located near the Tudor Vladimirescu Kula.

Telephone: 0252/312177

Built around 1810 by colonel Istrate Sălişteanu, the kula was burnt by the Turks in 1815. Pandúr captain Nistor rebuilt it after 1821. In 1974, the Historical Monuments and Art Directorate prepared a restoration project drafted by architect Micaela Adrian. The intention was to organise a museum sheltering peasant houses in the Mehedinti area, unsuccessfully however. It was only in 2009 that an ethnographic museum operated in the building.

The kula house is a two-floor building. The high ground floor has ramparts and the access is protected by a massive wooden door. There is a cellar inside, too. A staircase leads upstairs, to the veranda and the other accommodation areas. The veranda roof stands on nicely-sculpted pillars. The ceilings and the floor are padded with wooden beams and the roof is covered with shingle cladding.