Oldest natural science museum in Romania to be refurbished with EU funds

The Natural History Museum in Iași, a city in northeastern Romania, will be refurbished after the Iași City Hall signed last week the EU financing contract worth RON 14 million (EUR 2.9 million), G4media.roreported.

The funding will come from the Regional Operational Program 2014 – 2020, the axis dedicated to the rehabilitation of cultural patrimony. The City Hall launched the bid for the works, and the offers are to be opened on March 14.

The restoration project entails the consolidation of the building, the restoration of the interior and exterior fittings, adding a lift and a video surveillance system, among others.

After being refurbished, the building will remain a museum, with a library and a conference hall, seven exhibition halls and two halls for scientific collections, and one historic hall.

Throughout the duration of the works, the patrimony of the museum will be hosted by the Municipal Museum, an institution recently established by the Iași City Hall, and hosted in another refurbished, historical building.

The Natural History Museum has been closed for six years because the building risked collapsing. The museum was established in February 1834, being the oldest such institution in the Romanian principalities. On January 3, 1859, in one of the museum’s halls, Alexandru Ioan Cuza was designated as candidate to ruling Moldavia. One of the museum’s most famous exhibits, from among the over 300,000 ones it hosts, is the skeleton of the Gaba elephant, purchased by ruler Mihail Sturdza more than 150 years ago.

(Photo: Primaria Municipiului Iasi Facebook Page)