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The main parts of the camera include the body, bellows, lens, and viewfinder system. The body consists of two lacquered walnut wood frames, joined by a folding black textile bellows that allows the necessary extension for focusing. On the front panel is the Agfa anastigmat lens, mounted in a Compur-type shutter produced by F. Deckel in Munich. It features a foldable "brilliant" viewfinder for both portrait and landscape orientation. It uses glass photographic plates coated with a photographic emulsion, mounted in walnut wood holders, with a frame size of 9x12 cm.
The walnut wood model, considered the flagship "Agfa Isolar Luxus," was designed by the A.H. Rietzschel factory in Munich, acquired by AGFA in 1925, which continued producing this type of camera under its own name until the late 1920s.
The piece was restored by Mihail Culașco, Restoration Department of NMHM.
Brief History of the Camera
The history of the camera spans 200 years, evolving from the camera obscura to today's digital devices. Key milestones include: the first permanent photograph in 1826 by French physicist Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, using a wooden box and a plate coated with bitumen of Judea; the invention of the first photographic process - daguerreotype - in 1839 by Frenchman Louis Daguerre, marking the official birth of photography; the invention of calotype, based on the negative/positive principle, by British physicist and chemist Fox Talbot; the invention of wet collodion plates by Englishman Frederick Scott Archer and dry glass plates by Richard Leach Maddox and John Huds Bennet; the introduction of flexible roll film and the launch of the first Kodak camera by American inventor George Eastman; the release of the first 35 mm film camera by German company "Leica"; the launch of the first instant camera "Polaroid," invented by American Edwin Land. Finally, starting in 1975, this path led to the digital photography revolution. Each successive step made cameras smaller and faster, significantly improving image quality.
The first photographic studio in Chișinău was opened in 1854 by Eduard Glewski, and before World War I, there were already about 100 photography studios in Bessarabia.
The collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova includes over 30 cameras, made in Austria, Germany, France, USSR, Japan, and China, dating from the late 19th century to the 2000s. Among them are folding bellows cameras, BOX-type cameras, single-lens reflex (SLR) and twin-lens reflex (TLR) cameras, as well as digital (DSLR) cameras.

Virtual Tour


Exhibitions

“War on the Dniester”

March 2 - 21, 2021

March 2, 2021 marks the 29th anniversary of the outbreak of armed conflict in the eastern districts of the Republic of Moldova, a conflict provoked by political adventurers and pro-imperialist revenge forces of the former Soviet empire.

Under the invented pretext of "defending Russia's southern borders", they encouraged Transnistrian separatism, armed paramilitary guards, and sent thousands of mercenary Cossacks, criminals released from prisons, tanks, and Alazan missiles, hoping that with their help they will be able to revive the lost empire.

On March 2, 1992, when the President of the Republic of Moldova Mircea Snegur delivered, in the plenary session of the UN General Assembly, the speech of thanks on the occasion of the reception of the Republic of Moldova in the United Nations, groups of guards and Cossacks armed with submachine guns and armored vehicles stormed the headquarters of the Dubăsari district police station. There were the first fallen. To the south, in Vulcăneşti, another armed group attacks the district police headquarters. The same happens, simultaneously, in Tighina, Grigoriopol and Cocieri... Among the first to fall on duty then are: lieutenant-colonel Mihai Moraru, commissioner of the Hânceşti district police station; Iurie Bodiu, Valentin Slobozenco, Tudor Buga, Sergiu Ostaf, Vitalie Păvăluc, Victor Lavrentsov, Russian of nationality, a native of Tighina; Boris Dovgani from Pârâta, Serghei Culaţchi, the son-in-law of the brave fighter General Anton Gămurari... The lifeless bodies of Sergeant V. Purice and driver N. Galben from Tighina were taken from the waters of the Dniester.

Thus, the political conflict in the Dniester area degenerated into a real fratricidal war. Peaceful people were being attacked, entire villages were being held under Cossack fire, and more than 50,000 peaceful inhabitants of the Dniester area were forced to leave their homes, saving themselves from the scourge of war.

The ordeal begun in Dubăsari left behind hundreds of dead and crippled, orphans, widows, mothers with souls hardened by grief; it caused immeasurable material damage and loss on both banks of the Dniester.

More detailed sketches and chronicles of those dramatic events can be found in various sources: albums, monographs, collections of documents, memoirs, newspaper reports.

The commemorative exhibition "War on the Dniester" is also an attempt to reconstruct the reality of the Dniester tragedy.

It was conceived as a tribute to all participants in the struggles for the defense of the integrity and independence of the Republic of Moldova and, first of all, to those who sacrificed their lives on the altar of freedom of the Fatherland.

The exhibition brings together shocking images made in the conflict area by photojournalists T. Iovu, N. Pojoga, M. Vengher, A. Mardare, S. Voronin, T. Anghel, and others. The images reconstruct the ordeal that Moldavian defenders went through in the battles of Dubăsari and Tighina, on the plateaus of Cocieri and Coşniţa, immortalized the heroism and manhood of Moldavian police and volunteers, the hardships and humiliations of war, destroyed families, houses and villages, faces of women and children contorted by the pain of losing loved ones.

A special section of the exhibition is dedicated to the fallen fighters in defense of the independence and integrity of the Republic of Moldova.

The exhibition "War on the Dniester" was organized on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the outbreak of the armed conflict on the Dniester and is dedicated to all defenders of the integrity and independence of the Republic of Moldova.


 




Independent Moldova
Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
Bessarabia and MASSR between the Two World Wars
Bessarabia and Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the Period between the Two World Wars
Revival of National Movement
Time of Reforms and their Consequences
Abolition of Autonomy. Bessarabia – a New Tsarist Colony
Period of Relative Autonomy of Bessarabia within the Russian Empire
Phanariot Regime
Golden Age of the Romanian Culture
Struggle for Maintaining of Independence of Moldova
Formation of Independent Medieval State of Moldova
Era of the
Great Nomad Migrations
Early Middle Ages
Iron Age and Antiquity
Bronze Age
Aeneolithic Age
Neolithic Age
Palaeolithic Age
  
  

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#Exhibit of the Month

The main parts of the camera include the body, bellows, lens, and viewfinder system. The body consists of two lacquered walnut wood frames, joined by a folding black textile bellows that allows the necessary extension for focusing...

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The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
©2006-2026 National Museum of History of Moldova
Visit museum 31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Phones:
Secretariat: +373 (22) 24-43-25
Department of Public Relations and Museum Education: +373 (22) 24-04-26
Fax: +373 (22) 24-43-69
E-mail: office@nationalmuseum.md
Technical Support: info@nationalmuseum.md
Web site administration and maintenance: Andrei EMILCIUC

 



The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
©2006-2026 National Museum of History of Moldova
Visit museum 31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Phones:
Secretariat: +373 (22) 24-43-25
Department of Public Relations and Museum Education: +373 (22) 24-04-26
Fax: +373 (22) 24-43-69
E-mail: office@nationalmuseum.md
Technical Support: info@nationalmuseum.md
Web site administration and maintenance: Andrei EMILCIUC

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The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
©2006-2026 National Museum of History of Moldova
Visit museum 31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Phones:
Secretariat: +373 (22) 24-43-25
Department of Public Relations and Museum Education: +373 (22) 24-04-26
Fax: +373 (22) 24-43-69
E-mail: office@nationalmuseum.md
Technical Support: info@nationalmuseum.md
Web site administration and maintenance: Andrei EMILCIUC