The NBR Treasure Museum at the Tismana Monastery was inaugurated in 2016, inside a cave in the vicinity of the monastery, where, in World War II, the National Bank of Romania Treasure was relocated, as well as part of the gold from the Polish National Bank Treasure.

Visitors will discover the story of the events that led to the decision to move the gold stock to the Tismana Monastery, during a covert operation codenamed Neptune. Alongside documents from the NBR archives about the rescue of the NBR Treasure, most of them unpublished, the museum showcases reproductions of the boxes that were used to store the gold.

The Story of Operation “Neptune”

The action of relocating the gold from Bucharest to Tismana took place between 8 and 22 July 1944. Five vans per day made a total of 75 rides to transfer to Tismana 192.40 tonnes of gold that were stored in the monastery cellar. Subsequently to the events of 23 August 1944, the NBR Board realised that the gold stock was no longer safe there and decided to relocate it again, from the monastery cellar to a cave nearby.

Thus, the treasure remained hidden in the cave until January 1947. For almost three years, the cave was opened only once, at the beginning of 1945, when 210 boxes containing 10.2 tonnes of gold were taken for the manufacturing of Ardealul nostru medal.

Operation Neptune ended successfully: all the gold returned to Bucharest, and its hiding place was shrouded in secrecy until the end.

Read more in the illustrated chronology dedicated to the odyssey of the NBR’s gold at Tismana (1944-1947): The Odyssey of the National Bank’s Gold - Tismana 1944-1947