The Palace of Culture

The beautiful building represents an expression of late-century Romanticism and a touch of Neo-Gothic by architect I.D. Berindei. The inauguration took place in 1926 in the presence of the King of Romania, Ferdinand Hohenzoller. On June 5th, 1883, the city of Iaşi celebrated the unveiling of the statue of Štefan the Great and the main street of the city was filled with people, flags and fanfares. Since then, the statue of Ştefan the Great, built in Paris based on the drawings of Gheorghe Asachi, has been enthroned in front of the palace. In the same year, King Carol I donated two Krupp towers and a few trophies from the War for Independence to the palace. The watchtower next to the palace is a relic of the princely court and in the central tower there is a clock with a chime. It consists of a series of eight bells that play “Hora Unirii” (English Dance of Unity) every hour. The large and famous location of the salons along with the paintings decorating the palace continue to impress every tourist who comes here today. in the XVII. For centuries the palace’s luxury and label sometimes rivaled and sometimes surpassed that of Constantinople.

In 1955, the People’s Council venerated the seat of the palace, which would bring the new name: The Palace of Culture. The palace was designed by Al. Moruzzi was built between 1806-1812 and restored by Mihai Sturza between 1841-1843, and today it is the seat of the national museum complex “Moldova”. The current building has almost nothing in common with the old palace, wanting to recreate the forms of the old municipal palaces, always with a monumental tower in the neo-Gothic style of the architects. Under the silhouette of the city, the Palace of Culture stands out for a magistral monumentality, admirably appreciated by the surrounding space, which allows the building to freely carve out its contours on the background of the hills of the hesitating bucium (wind instrument).

The bronze statue of Ştefan cer Grosse happily completes the frame, evoking history through monuments of heroism and dramatic suspense.

The Vasile Pogor Memorial House

Of the private dwellings that, in the second half of the XIX. Century were built, more representative and well preserved is the building known as “Casa Pogor”. In its architecture one can notice the persistence of neoclassical forms. It is located right in the heart of Iaşi, before the start of the climb towards Eminescu’s linden tree on Copou Hill, among towering trees and surrounded by sights with historical resonance, such as the wall of Voda Lapușneanu’s private courtyard – here you can see the Admire the view of the house of the June mister Vasile Pogor. In addition to the value of this memorial built between 1855-1858, it is also worth noting that it is one of the first private houses in Iaşi to introduce electric lighting, hence the name “House with Illuminated Windows”.

The main entrance of the building is characterized by a long platform, under a peristyle with four Tuscan columns, above which there are two Ionic semi-columns on the first floor with balcony. An elegant frontispiece decorated with phytomorphic ornamental motifs in low relief crowns the main façade of the building. The date of construction is confirmed by a hexagonal stone found after restoration with the inscription in Cyrillic script: “Vasile Pogor 1850 and his wife Zoe.” It was converted into a museum, opened on December 26, 1972 and features a fortune of 20 000 pieces from the era of the great classics, Romanian and contemporary literature.

In the ten rooms we find objects that belonged to the well-known personalities of Iaşi: Eminescu’s gold watch, with his monogram, the gold ring with a ruby, a piece of furniture made by Mihail Kogalniceanu, a set for trips and correspondence by Costache Negri, the painting “Head of the Dacian” by G. Asachi and the piano by Duiliu Zamfirescu. The rooms are furnished with 19th century upholstery. Decorated in the 19th century, which came from Vienna. There is also the “Steinway” piano and a crystal mirror, all of which have I.L. belongs to Caragiale. Nichita Stănescu wrote in the museum’s book of honor about the Vasile Pogor house as “the place where Miorița became the ancient meters ode.” With their neoclassical architecture, all these boyar houses in the Copou area still keep the quaint urban mood of yesteryear untouched.

Iaşi Botanical Garden

With an area of 105 hectares, the botanical garden shines with the countless plant species that can be found here, divided into 12 sections. The systematic sector includes species under threat or rare species. A Moldavian-style fountain, a pool with aquatic plants and busts of the three former executives join the systematic sector.

The section “Romanian flora and fauna” presents the altitudinal zones of vegetation found in Romania. Small-scale artificial lakes represent the beautiful Danube Delta, with white water lilies, reeds, rushes and sand sedges. The ornamental sector includes 2200 taxons with unique, ornamental, grassy and woody plants. In this sector, snowdrops, violets, yellow spring crocuses, sweet violets, peonies and gladioli bloom in spring and in autumn there is an original exhibition of chrysanthemums planted in the form of a waterfall, pyramid, tree and bush.

In the “dendrological” area we can find two mineral springs: spring number 3, “Amphitheatre”, spring number 5, “Ruins”, as well as a tree nursery, collections of lilac, poplar, acacia and oak. “The Flora of the World” is famous worldwide with plants from South, North America, Africa, Asia, Mediterranean regions, Siberia and Central Europe. The complex of greenhouses consists of 12 greenhouses with their specificity: Mediterranean, tropical, subtropical plants (collections of cacti), ornamental plants (azaleas 36 varieties, chrysanthemums, 469 varieties), In the Rosary sector we find 800 varieties of cricket roses, which is a unique exhibition represent in Iaşi.

The leisure sector offers views over the vineyards “Vineyard Copou”, the orchards of the Agronomic University, in the direction of the church and the lake. In February there is an exhibition of azaleas, spring brings in Iaşi an exhibition of roses and in October when the chestnut leaves fall there is an exhibition of chrysanthemums called “autumn flowers”.

The Metropolitan Cathedral

The Cathedral was built on the site of the Stratenia Church and founded by Gheorghe Duca’s wife, Nastasia. After the ruler left the throne, it was abandoned for 4 decades. Its restoration begins on July 3, 1833 at the instigation of Mitra, because the covering and great vault in the middle of the building collapsed and looked like “a table with its feet above” or as “a building with four hats” remained. The technical implementation was done by the “architect” Iohan Freywald in Vienna, later helped by his son Gustav Freywald.

The paintings were made by the famous painter Gh. Tătăraşcu and the architectural style follows the forms of the Italian late Renaissance, similar to a large extent with the famous church “Trinita del Monte” in Rome. The paintings signify movement, life, monumentality, with warm colors. The founder wanted the church to be both spacious and stately, so the interior was carried out according to the architectural canon, without losing any attention to the Stratenia church, whose earlier existence is confirmed on a slab in the new church. The great cathedrals of Europe were also taken into account. When fully built and covered, it was covered in 1839 to prevent cracking. To avoid the catastrophe, the architect Singurov from Iaşi suggested building a wooden vault instead of brick, which was also built in 1840.

But things went from bad to worse, Metropolitan Veniamin Costache resigned from his position and on May 23, 1857 the accident happened, during which the dome collapsed and the cracks of the interior also ruptured. Ruined, with the four towers that remained alone, it remained abandoned until 1880 when Metropolitan Iosif Naniescu laid the second foundation stone and the management of the works was entrusted to the architect Al. Orascu taken over. The east facade consists of six columns, placed on a high stone base. The panel at attic level depicts the scene of “Candle Fair” in low relief and the west facade is crowned with a tympanum in which the image of Saint George appears, framed by columns and a curved pediment. The ridge of the roof is decorated with zinc fleurons and stylized crosses, and the four towers add to the charm and monumentality of the building.