#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

“Walking around Chișinău of the 20th century”

January 4 - February 15, 2021

Chișinău is without a doubt a city of contrasts. This is a locality that exists between "was" and "is". We are keenly experiencing this contrast, we see and feel it every day, and the architecture of the city clearly indicates a transition from the old to the new, being a witness and the main indicator of change.

In the pictures of the beginning of the last century, it appears as a small but very pretty town, and today we are increasingly confronted with the nostalgic expression "here was...": "here was the Diocesan House", "here was the Swiss Hotel", "here was a girls' gymnasium, and in this place the deputies of Sfatul Țării voted for the Union in 1918". Of the pearls of architecture that once delighted citizens, today we have only pictures left. These pictures are the subject of the collection catalogs and today, the unknown treasures of architecture and urban life, reflected in 48 images, are brought to the public's attention in an exhibition dedicated to Chişinău of the 20th century.

Chişinău is an open-air museum where thousands of people lived, loved, created with wisdom and humility the image of a city "carved in white stone". Each street retains the footsteps of those who admired it, whether they were commoners or nobles. Each villa retains a vivid memory of its owners, and some are still waiting for them, and the holy churches of Chişinău are illuminated by the thoughts of those who admired them or crossed their threshold.

This exhibition is a challenge for all of us to rediscover Chișinău at the time when we have and devote so little time for beauty. This is an invitation to take a virtual walk through the streets from the old days and recall known or forgotten views, places loaded with history or feelings. And, like any place that tends to affirm its authenticity through culture, Chișinău, today, perhaps more than ever, needs the exercise of memory in order to survive and develop.