#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 noblewoman Anastasia Dmitrievna Rizo, 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 mental 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 vignette, created in 1911 at the photographic 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. A notable figure is Praskovia 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."
By 1911, the school had 648 students across 17 classes. Its library contained 7,414 volumes, including 3,955 for students and 3,459 for teachers. Graduates, often becoming priests' wives or teachers in rural and urban schools, contributed to spreading faith and moral education, strengthening the cultural and spiritual role of the institution.
On the reverse of the vignette is a label reading: "Store and workshop for frames, paintings, mirrors, and window glass, A. D. Kon'gova, Chișinău, Gogol Street no. 37, next to the State Bank."
This unique vignette was donated at the end of 2025 to the National Museum of History of Moldova by the Dadiștian family from Drochia.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

„RVDR. Zaharia Cușnir”

2 March - 1 June 2020

The temporary exhibition "New encounter" is a retrospective of the transformation of time and people. The eyes that look at the visitor have the courage and sincerity to carry on the reality, "New encounter" has the purpuse to draw a parallel line between the visitor and the moments of the lives captured by Zaharia Cușnir's camera.

Zaharia Cușnir (1912-1993) was an amateur photographer who lived in Roșietici village, Florești district. He photographed the lives of people from the surrounding villages between 1955-1973, leaving behind a collection of about 4000 medium-sized negatives - 6x6 cm. In 2016, the negatives were discovered in the house where Zaharia lived.

After his death, in 1993, the house was left unoccupied, while the photographs were closed in a suitcase and stored in the loft. In the spring of 2016, a student discovered the negatives in the house which was already without doors and windows. For three years, the negatives were cleaned, indexed and scanned and now the collection that can be found online on www.zaharia.md and facebook.com/cusnirzaharia, or exhibited in the hall on the ground floor at the National Museum of History in Moldova between March 2 and 15, 2020.

#Exhibit of the Month

Vignette of Graduates and Teachers of the Chișinău Diocesan Girls’ School, 1911

„RVDR. Zaharia Cușnir”

2 March - 1 June 2020

#Exhibit of the Month