Palace of Culture (Iași)
The Palace of Culture (Romanian: Palatul Culturii) is an edifice located in Iași, Romania. The building served as Administrative and Justice Palace until 1955, when its destination was changed, being assigned to the four museums nowadays united under the name of Moldavia National Museum Complex. Also, the building houses the Cultural Heritage Conservation-Restoration Centre, and hosts various exhibitions and other events.
Palace of Culture; Princely Palace
Palatul Culturii; Palatul domnesc
Romania
1906
11 October 1925
55 m (180 ft)
34,236 m2 (368,510 sq ft)
Ion D. Berindei
Filip Xenopol
Grigore Cerchez
1803
28 August 1806
1841–1843
1880–1883
1906 (for reconstruction)
Johan Freywald
Nicolae Singurov (1841)
The Palace of Culture is listed in the National Register of Historic Monuments.[1]
Other attractions[edit]
Besides the four museums, The Palace of Culture presents some other attraction points. One of them is the Gothic Room, where can be admired the mosaic that presents a medieval bestiarum (gryphons, bicephalous eagles, lions). There is also the Voivodes' Room, located at first floor, where there are the portraits of Moldavia's rulers and Romania's kings, starting with Decebalus and Trajan, paintings made by Ștefan Dimitrescu and his students. Then there is "Henri Coandă" Room, which was named after the carvings and relief works made by the famous Romanian inventor of a cement invented by him. On the right there is the Turnul de Strajă (the Watch Tower), reminiscence of the old Princely Court of Iași, along with the galleries underneath the court of the palace. On the left there is a collection of capitals and other stone architectonic elements grouped in a lapidarium. The hall is superposed by a glass ceiling room, where initially a greenhouse was arranged. In front of the palace there is the equestrian statue of Stephen the Great, framed by two Krupp cannons, trophies from the Romanian War of Independence.
Front view from the Palace Square
Aerial view
Details
General view
Palace Square and Princely Saint Nicholas Church
Interwar postcard
