#Exhibit of the Month

The work In Memoriam. In Memory of the Heroes Who Fell at the Nistru (1992) was developed within the Center for Culture and Military History and published under the auspices of the Government of the Republic of Moldova, the Bureau for Reintegration, and the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Moldova. Authors: Gheorghe Bălan, Vitalie Ciobanu, Gheorghe Cojocaru.

This work provides a retrospective of the events that led to the outbreak of the war on the Nistru, accompanied by photographs of the heroes who lost their lives in the battles to defend the independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova.

On March 2, 1992, the political conflict in the Nistru region escalated into a true fratricidal war. Under the fabricated pretext of "defending Russia's southern borders," political adventurers from the former Soviet metropolis encouraged Transnistrian separatism by arming secessionist paramilitary groups. At the same time, thousands of mercenary Cossacks and prisoners released early from jails, along with tanks and missiles, were sent against Independent Moldova, in a desperate attempt to revive the fallen empire.

Russia's undeclared war against the Republic of Moldova left behind hundreds of dead and wounded, shattered families, and villages in ruins. More than 50,000 peaceful residents from the conflict zone were forced to flee their homes, seeking refuge from the horrors of war.

For the sake of freedom and the future, Moldova's defenders faced death, enduring the hardships and humiliations of war.

During the Nistru war, 198 soldiers of the National Army and 89 personnel from the Ministry of Internal Affairs lost their lives, while 40 combatants went missing without a trace, and nearly 300 were left disabled.

Virtual Tour

Rescue archaeological research at Piata Veche of Chisinau in 2012

During April-May 2012 researchers from Archaeology sectors of NMAHM carried out rescue archaeological investigations in the historical center of Chisinau, at Piata Veche (Old Market), 10.

Here during the digging the foundation pit for the construction of a multistoried building, there were damaged, and largely destroyed cultural layers from the medieval and pre-modern age, several housing complexes, workshops, household and domestic pits of the Chisinau fair.

Note that the micro-area in which surveys were conducted for archaeological discharge of the land is part of the historic core of Chisinau (no. 308 in the register of monuments protected by the State of the Republic of Moldova), and from the protection of the Armenian Church of Virgin Birth of Lord (No. 23 in the Register), built between 1803-1804, which sites are protected by state national category.

As a result of archaeological investigations there have been cleaned wall remnants of the old cellars and foundations of buildings from the medieval and pre-modern age. It was highlighted by the embankment and scientifically documented the stratigraphy of the historical development of Chisinau from the mid seventeenth century until modern times. Two complexes were investigated, one of which (L.-A.1) have walls from wood with an annex that was formed by the remains of a craft kiln destroyed by the blades of bulldozers; remains of another kiln and several waste pits. In these complexes there was found an impressive collection of tools and pieces, decorated tiles with Byzantine double-headed eagle image, candlesticks, various pottery or glass, belonging to the mentioned period. Also there were found many coins of brass or white metal, of Tatar, Turkish and Russian provenance, which allows to determine the exact chronology of remains investigated in the rescue excavations.

Archaeological materials found in the Old Market area of Chisinau come to complete with new and striking evidence, the little information that reached up nowdays from written documents or travelers sparse mentions of foreign travelers (Niccolo Barsi, Evlia Celebi etc.). They enable us to reconstruct, closer to social and economic realities, the emergence and development stages of the old town near the Mazaraki hill, the repository of historical artifacts particularly important for understanding our past.