Since the European Museums Night is done for this season, a night at the museum is no longer an option (unless maybe in cinemas), but how about a day at the museum in Iasi?
Iasi is one of the most important cultural centers in Romania. It even used to be the capital city once and its elegance and style remain defining features for the city that has witnessed the birth of so many personalities. Such a culturally active city does indeed have many museums and cultural centers that deserve all our attention:
The first museum on our list is the Moldova National Museum Complex located in Iasi, at the Palace of Culture. The museums of the ansemble are: the History Museum of Moldova, the Art Museum, the Ethnographic Museum and the Science and Technics Museum. For the moment, the location is undergoing restoration, but it will reopen to the public in 2016. Until then, other centers belonging to the Moldova National Museum Complex can be visited, the first of which is the Center for Conservation-Restoration of the Cultural Heritage.
Also, the Union Museum, seated in a historical building erected in the first half of the 19th century, used to be the royal residence of Al. I. Cuza intre between 1859 and 1862. Reopened in 1959, a century after the Union, the museum features collections owned by the Hohenzollern royal family and a series of objects of numismatic value.
On M. Kogalniceanu Street, you will find the Poni-Cernatescu Museum. The house is particularly important from the historical point of view, dating back to the year 1839. It used to serve as residence to the scholar Petru Poni and then to Radu Cernatescu. Here is where you will find countless documents and a fabulous collection of books.
We already talked about the Memorial Palace in Ruginoasa dedicated to Al. I. Cuza, so today’s last destination will be the Memorial Museum Mihail Kogalniceanu in Iasi, also located on Kogalniceanu Street, the house of the famous politician, journalist, lawyer and writer.
The best way to negotiate the town is with a car from Iasi Car Rental.