National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History

The National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History is the oldest museum in Moldova. It is located in Chisinau, the capital of the country. It was founded in October 1889 by initiative of Baron A. Stuart.

At the beginning it was museum of agriculture and was situated in another building. The name of museum has changed for several times however the main idea – research of nature and culture of Bessarabia – had never changed. The building of museum was constructed in 1903-1905 by the project of architect V. Tsigankov. This is the building the museum is situated in till present day.

Nowadays the museum is an important scientific and cultural center of Bessarabia which is also known abroad.

The museum is divided into 2 logical parts. The first one is dedicated to flora and fauna on the territory of Moldova. Here visitors see the flora and fauna of the country nowadays and also how it looked many years ago, how the nature here changed. The history of nature development from Achaean till nowadays is shown here. The other part of the museum is dedicated to people living on this territory, their customs and traditions. Here visitors see many ancient things which where used in every-day life. Here the history of their developing is visible. Traditional costumes, interior of house and the scene of local wedding are of great interest.

The museum includes geological, palaeontological, zoological, entomological, archaeological ethnographic and numismatic collections. The museum also has its own botanical garden which was based in 1906. It was the first botanical garden in Bessarabia and it exists till nowadays. Among the showpieces of museum there are also the unique ones. For instance, the skeleton of gigantic dinothere who lived during the Pliocene Epoch (5.3 million to 1.8 million years before present). The skeleton was discovered in 1966. The collection of museum was exhibited in Europe, America, Asia and Africa as national-cultural heritage of Moldova.

The museum works every day except Mondays and official national holidays from 10:00 to 18:00. Access to the museum is possible until 17:00. Entrance fee requered. The fee for adults is 5 lei. Photo and video is extra-charged. There's no car parking near the museum however you may find place to stay. It is easy to reach the museum by public transport.

Address: M. Kogalniceanu str. 82