Custodian of the Crown of Romania, Her Majesty Margareta has accepted the proposal to grant her High Patronage to Iasi City’s Palace of Culture.
„I am pleased to inform you that Her Majesty Margareta will grant the Palace of Culture in Iasi her High Patronage. (…) The High Patronage certificate will be presented during a ceremony, at a date to be communicated later,” reads a letter sent to Palace of Culture manager Andrei Apreotesei by Master of Her Majesty’s Household Constanta Iorga.
The granting of the High Patronage to the Palace of Culture – which at first served as Palace of Justice and Administration – occurs almost 100 years after the building’s inauguration by King Ferdinand I of Romania and Queen Maria.
„The Custodian of the Crown of Romania, Her Majesty Margareta, has agreed to grant her High Patronage to the Palace of Culture in Iasi, and, implicitly, to the Moldova National Museum Complex. It is a great joy for us, and a great honor. At the same time, we can say that from King Ferdinand and Queen Maria who inaugurated the Palace of Culture 100 years ago, Her Majesty Margareta symbolically takes over again, if we may say so, under her care, the Palace of Culture as an icon of national unity,” Andrei Apreotesei told the media.
The building known today as the Palace of Culture was designed by architect I.D. Berindei in neo-Gothic style. Construction began in 1907, during the government of D.A. Sturdza. The execution was awarded through tender to the Schultze construction company.
During the WW I, the still unfinished building was occupied by the allied Russian troops.
The inauguration of the Palace of Justice took place on October 11, 1925 in the presence of King Ferdinand, who was accompanied by the royal family. The original copy of the inauguration act, beautifully ornamented and bearing the signatures of the members of the royal family and the officials present, was handed over to Sever Zotta, the then director of the State Archives of Iasi, to be kept in the collections of this institution.
The building was renamed as Palace of Culture in 1955, when it was no longer used by the Iasi judiciary, and was instead picked to house various cultural institutions: the Culture Directorate, the Heritage Office, publishing houses, cultural magazines, museums. Today, the building accommodates four of the eleven museums of the Moldova National Museum Complex.
AGERPRES
