The Roman Buridava archaeological site in the Stolniceni district of Ramnicu Valcea will be added to the county's tourist map and opened to visitors this summer, with final preparations currently under way for a museum exhibition area to be inaugurated on site, the management of the Aurelian Sacerdoteanu County Museum announced on Friday.

'We are about to set up the exhibition, which will consist of ten display cases containing heritage artefacts discovered at the site itself. The exhibition will include bricks bearing the inscriptions of the auxiliary troops that built the baths, ceramic fragments, as well as restored pottery vessels. It will also feature both organic and inorganic material. I cannot give an exact date, but I believe that by the end of this month or the beginning of next month the site could be inaugurated and the museum point opened to visitors,' Claudiu Tulugea, director of the Valcea County Museum, told AGERPRES.

In addition to the exhibition, visitors will be able to tour the archaeological site itself, which is included on UNESCO's World Heritage List together with other Roman structures along the Olt River, including the forts at Titesti, Racovita (Praetorium I and Praetorium II), Arutela (Porta Praetoria) near Calimanesti and Radacinesti in Berislavesti commune, as part of the Alutanus Limes.

The Roman Buridava site is one of the largest archaeological sites in Valcea County. In recent years, archaeologists have carried out extensive work to uncover the Roman baths and enclosure walls in preparation for opening the site to the public.

'Over the past four years, excavations have focused on rediscovering two key structures whose exact location had previously been unknown. Last year, we installed temporary protective shelters above them. One is a praefurnium, a furnace used to heat water that was then channelled into bathing pools, and the other is a sudatorium, rediscovered three years ago, which functioned as a Roman steam bath. We will continue archaeological research in the area. Although we have temporarily suspended systematic excavations, preventive archaeological investigations are continuing because the area is densely inhabited and new construction projects require archaeological clearance,' Tulugea added.

The Roman Buridava site is located on the outskirts of Ramnicu Valcea, in the Stolniceni district, about 15 kilometres from the Dacian Buridava site at Ocnele Mari.

The first discoveries in the area were made in the mid-20th century. Subsequent archaeological research identified two groups of Roman baths and several occupation layers dating from the period following the First Dacian War. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Ramona Dinca; EN - writing by: Simona Iacob)