Tudor Vladimirescu kula

On the 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 area is accessible from the national road that connects Targu–Jiu to Drobeta Turnu Severin or from the North of the county capital city.

This is not a public building.

The land on which the kula is built used to be owned by Cozia Monastery. According to historical tradition, it seems it had been built around 1800 by Tudor Vladimirescu, after the Turks burned down Cerneţi. After Tudor’s death, Vasile Strâmbeanu takes possession of the kula, and from 1838 the kula belonged to Ion Gărdăreanu and his wife, Sevastiţa. Afterwards, the kula was inherited along the female line. In the first years of WWI, the building was used by the military. From 1959, this kula was home to a memorial history museum dedicated to Tudor Vladimirescu. Restoration works were performed in the 1960s.

The kula is built of brick and wood and is formed of a ground floor and a first floor. The ground floor includes a big cellar, a room and the staircase leading to the veranda. The first floor has a veranda standing on ten massive brick pillars, three rooms and a narrow corridor, at the end of which there is a WC or “umblătoare’’. At the ground floor and at first floor a few shooting holes are maintained (ramparts). The windows were enlarged, when the fortified house lost its defence function. The ceilings of the ground floor are vaulted and made of brick, while the ceilings of the first floor are made of wood. The roof is covered with shingle cladding.