#Exhibit of the Month

Fire artillery in Romanian space is attested from the first half of the 15th century. The oldest pieces of artillery are the bronze and iron bombards discovered in the fortresses of Giurgiu, Severin, Bârlad and Orheiul Vechi.

The exposed cannon was discovered in the village of Grinăuți-Moldova, Ocnița district, it dates from the second half of the 15th century. From a typological point of view, in the central-eastern European space, the cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova is a unique piece.

It is a short-barreled mortar-type artillery piece that fits perfectly into the line of bombards in Europe used in the second half of the 15th century - the beginning of the 16th century.

The cannon was used to launch projectiles (bullets) at the enemy behind fortifications or natural obstacles. The projectiles were loaded through the mouth of the barrel. The firing angle was over 45 degrees, and the trajectory of the projectile was curved with a range of up to 300-400 m. In Europe, these cannons were called mortars, and in Romanian space they were designated by the word piua, thanks to the shape of this object.

The cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova was discovered by chance in the "Red Bank" location, located 15 km southwest of the Lipnicu plain where Lord Stefan the Great defeated the Tatars in 1470. According to a legend from the village of Grinăuți-Moldova, in the "Red Bank" location, a military confrontation between Moldovans and Tatars would have taken place prior to the battle of Lipnic.

The cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova is made of cast iron by the casting method. The barrel is provided with a single hole in the front, the opposite side being blocked by the flat bottom with flared edge. The inside of the pipe is a relatively wide channel that narrows slightly towards the bottom. Loading with powder and cannonballs was done through the mouth of the cannon. A hole is provided near the base for the wick to ignite and detonate the dust inside the cannon. The surface of the cannon is embossed. The edge of the mouth is thickened, slightly curved. Two cylindrical supports with a diameter of 3.5 cm are provided in the central part of the body of the cannon in the axis, which served as handles for the installation and handling of the cannon on a wooden frame.

The length of the cannon is 30.0 cm, the maximum diameter of the body - 17.8 cm, the outside diameter of the mouth - 19.4 cm, the diameter of the body in the middle - 13.5 cm, the outside diameter of the base - 17.0 cm, the caliber of the cannon (mouth diameter) is 12.8 cm, the length of the inner chamber of the cannon - 27.4 cm, the weight of the cannon - 18,730 kg.

The cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova entered the custody of the National Museum of History of Moldova through the care of local history teacher Vlad Lvovsky.

The conservation of the piece of cultural heritage was carried out by Valeriu Bubulici, and the reconstruction of the atmosphere by the restorer Mihail Culașco.

Virtual Tour

International relations

In the spirit of development and expansion of cooperation in scientific research and promotion of cultural heritage, between the National Museum of History of Moldova and similar institutions in other countries there were concluded the following agreements:

Agreement of scientific cooperation between the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova) and Eurasien Abteilung des Deutschen Archeologichen Institutes (Berlin, Germany), March 23, 2007
Agreement of cooperation between the Institute of Archaeology, Iași, from the structure of the Romanian Academy, and the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova, from the structure of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, April 11, 2007
Agreement of cooperation between the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova and the Odessa Museum of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, April 12, 2007
Agreement of partnership between the District Museum of Mures (Romania), the Department of History, and the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova, May 4, 2007
Agreement of partnership between the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova and the Museum of History of Transylvania (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) the District Museum Complex of Neamt (Piatra-Neamt, Romania), the National Museum of the Eastern Carpathians (Sfantu Gheorghe, Romania), May 14, 2007
Agreement of museum and scientific collaboration between the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova) and the National Museum Complex “Moldova” (Iasi, Romania), February 4, 2008
Agreement of collaboration between the National Museum of History of Ukraine and the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova, October 17, 2008
Agreement of collaboration between the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova and the National Museum of History of Romania, October 20, 2008
Record of collaboration between the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova) and the Commercial and Cultural Centre GEOPAN (Burgas, Bulgaria), November 7, 2008
Agreement of museum and scientific collaboration between the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova) and the Museum “Vasile Parvan” (Barlad, Romania), December 1, 2008
Agreement of collaboration between the Institute of Archaeology “Vasile Parvan” from the structure of the Romanian Academy and the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova from the structure of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, December 10, 2008
Agreement of collaboration between the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova and the Institute of Material Culture of the Academy of Sciences of Russia, December 1, 2008
Agreement of collaboration between the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova and Museum Europischer Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany, January 10, 2009Collaboration agreement between the Institute of Archaeology „Vasile Pârvan" from the structure of the Romanian Academy and the National Museum of History of Moldova, signed on November 12th, 2012. The agreement provides for the organization of research programmers with topics of common interest
Collaboration agreement signed between the National Museum of History of Moldova and the County Museum „Ştefan cel Mare", Vaslui (Romania), on December 4th, 2012. The object of the agreement is inter-museum cooperation with the aim to make more effective the activities of research and promotion of cultural heritage
Collaboration agreement signed between the National Museum of History of Moldova and the Museum of National History and Archaeology from Constanța (Romania), on October 7th, 2013. The agreement provides for the organization of some common activities, mutually beneficial, in fields of scientific research and museology
Collaboration agreement between the German Institute of Archaeology (Berlin) and the National Museum of History of Moldova regarding the common publication of archaeological research results, signed on November 4th, 2013
Collaboration agreement signed between the National Museum of History of Moldova and the Cultural-Historic and Natural Reserve „Kiev-Pechersk", Ukraine, regarding research and valorization of cultural heritage, January 15, 2014
Collaboration agreement between the National Museum of History of Moldova and the Museum of Archaeology from Odessa, Ukraine, regarding archaeological research and participation at scientific events, June 27, 2014
Collaboration agreement between the National Museum of History from Moldova and the Museum of Ethnography from Saint Petersburg, Russia, regarding research of ethnographic heritage collections and publication of volume „Bulgarians", 2015
Collaboration agreement between the National Museum of History of Moldova and the Museum of Archaeology from Batumi, Georgia, February 26, 2015. The agreement provides for participation in common research and scientific events
Collaboration agreement with the Institute of Archaeology „Vasile Pârvan" from the Romanian Academy, regarding scientific research, organization of common scientific events and exchange of publications, March 31, 2015
Loan contract signed between the National Museum of History of Moldova and the National Museum Complex „Moldova" from Iași, Romania, regarding the organization of temporary exhibition „Heritage values from the collections of the Museum of Science and Technique Ștefan Procopiu", July 25, 2015
Collaboration agreement between the National Museum of History of Moldova and the Czech Center from Bucharest regarding the organization of the temporary exhibition „Portrait of Václav Havel" in Chișinău, December 7, 2015
Contract for submission signed between the National Museum of History of Moldova and Herendi Porcelánmanufaktúra Zrt., Hungary, regarding the organization of exhibition „Herend Glow", April 29, 2016
Partnership contract between the National Museum of History of Moldova and the Polish Institute from Bucharest regarding the organization of exhibition „War in Polish poster. Krzysztof Dydo Collection", May 20, 2016
Collaboration Agreement between the National Museum of History of Moldova and the Academy of Science of Republic of Tatarstan regarding archaeological research and exchange of publications, June 2, 2016
Collaboration agreement with Sachsen-Anhalt Land and Prehistoric Museum from Halle, Germany, regarding participation in common archaeological research projects, June 6, 2016
Agreement of cooperation between the National Museum of History of Moldova and "Stefan cel Mare" University of Suceava, Romania, 08.04.2019
Agreement of cooperation between the National Museum of History of Moldova and the Bucharest Museum, 13.03.2019
Partnership Agreement between the National Museum of History of Moldova and the Țării Crișurilor Museum - Museum Complex, November 3, 2022