#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

„The Great Union. From Victory in World War I to the Coronation of the Great Romanian Sovereigns”

March 23 - April 14, 2018

The Cotroceni National Museum, in collaboration with the Romanian Cultural Institute "Mihai Eminescu" in Chisinau, organized on Thursday, March 22, 2018, at 15.00, at the National Museum of History of Moldova, the opening of the exhibition "The Great Union. From Victory in World War I to the Coronation of the Great Romanian Sovereigns", a photo-documentary project that is part of the series of cultural events that the Cotroceni National Museum dedicated to the Centenary of the Great Union.

After Brașov, Iaşi and Galați, the Cotroceni National Museum aims to display this exhibition outside the borders of Romania. Symbolically, the international travel of exhibition "The Great Union. From Victory in World War I to the Coronation of the Great Romanian Sovereigns" begins in Chişinău, in the context of the celebration of the 100^th anniversary since the Union of Bessarabia with Romania.

Through this exhibition, the Cotroceni National Museum highlights the role of the Royal Family of Romania in accomplishing the national unity of the Romanian state.

In addition to photographs portraying King Ferdinand and Queen Maria on the front of the Great War, the audience will also see original images from the collections of the Cotroceni National Museum, captured at the return of the sovereigns in Bucharest during the peace talks or the crowning ceremony at Alba Iulia from 1922.

The exhibition will be open to the public in the hall on the ground floor of the National Museum of History of Moldova from March 23 to April 14, 2018.