#Exhibit of the Month

The Chișinău Diocesan Girls' School opened its doors on May 3, 1864, addressing a pressing need: in Bessarabia there were no institutions dedicated to the education of clergy's daughters. According to the 1864 circular, teaching was conducted in the Romanian language, a provision applied throughout the diocese. The school's first headmistress was Anastasia Rizo, of noble origin, invited by Archbishop Antonie.

The curriculum, approved by the Ministry of Public Education and the Chișinău Diocese, combined theoretical subjects with practical training. Students studied religion, reading and writing in Romanian, Slavonic, and Russian, arithmetic and exercises in calculation, world history and geography. The program was complemented by church singing and practical skills such as sewing, embroidery, knitting, as well as household management - baking bread and prosphora, preparing meals and preserves, caring for livestock, and cultivating gardens.

The composite, taken in 1911 at the studio of Z. N. Sumovski in Chișinău, depicts 29 graduates and 13 teachers. At the center are portraits of Bishop Serafim (Ciciagov), headmistress N. R. Mihelson, teacher V. E. Bejerian, and priests F. Ghiliarov and P. Jurikas. Among the teaching staff was Paraskovia Vasilievna Cuciurenko, a calligraphy teacher for 37 years, who in 1911 became senior educator and assistant headmistress. For her dedication, she was awarded the gold medal "For Long Service."

On the reverse of the vignette is a label from the store and workshop of frames, paintings, mirrors, and window glass owned by A. D. Kon'gova, Chișinău, Gogol Street no. 37, near the State Bank.

This graduation composite was donated at the end of 2025 to the National Museum of History of Moldova by the Dadiștian family from Drochia.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“Echoes of War”

4-31 October, 2023

"Echoes of War", witness silent symphony of tales etched in forsaken homes and faded toys - remnants of laughter and life once vibrant. Amidst the rubble, silent voices hum and whisper. From this void, new stories arise, life persists.

In this deeply poignant exhibition, the Syrian photographer Omar Sanadiki provides a reflective visual journey contrasting the silent echoes and turbulent atmospheres from the war that broke out in 2011 in Syria with those captured in 2023 in Ukraine.

In his body of work, Sanadiki captivates the essence of shared human resilience and struggle evident in the faces, landscapes, and stories immortalized in each photograph. This exhibition is not a mere depiction of wars; it unearths the universal human spirit encased in time and space, a whispering echo between two disparate nations intertwined in a common saga of conflict and hope.

The photographs reveal the stories of those who have been forced to endure the irreversible consequences of political folly, the echoes of their silent voices resonating through the powerful imagery of destroyed homelands and shattered lives. It is a contemplative exploration of war, weaving together a mosaic of suffering, strength, loss, and survival, transcending geographical and cultural or linguistic boundaries.

The exhibition has been created as a result of the study visit organized by the European External Action Service to Ukraine in June 2023.

The War as I Saw it:

It is not my habit to talk about anything until I see it with my own eyes.
When I got the chance to visit Ukraine and see the war first-hand, I had an instant flashback to the war in Syria and I started remembering...
...remembering hundreds of images that I had seen in Syria, stories I have heard before, the suffering inflicted by the war and the photographs I had taken there. I began to compare the realities of the two wars: their commonalities and their contrasts.
War is war, wherever it happens, with its repercussions of homelessness, death and widespread destruction. Regardless where and when it happens, civilians are the first ones to suffer the consequences of a manmade tragedy.

The exhibition can be seen from October 4 to 31, 2023 on the fence of the National Museum of History of Moldova.