„Mihai Băcescu” Museum of Waters, Fălticeni

The „Mihai Băcescu” Museum of Waters stands at no. 8, Strada Nicolae Beldiceanu, in the centre of Fălticeni, Suceava County, in the building of the former court of Baia County. The museum was set up in 1980-1982 and opened on 17 August 1982, on the initiative and under the guidance of Academician Mihai Băcescu (1908-1999) and Professor Ileana Crăciun, as a natural science museum. On 28 March 1993 it took its present name in memory of its founder. In 2009 the building was rehabilitated: the roof was replaced, the architectural details restored and the windows and wiring renewed. Until 2023 two rooms also housed items from the old Fălticeni Museum, which were then moved to a new space in a wing of the „Eugen Lovinescu” Municipal Library. The exhibition presents Romanian contributions to hydrobiology through the work of Emil Racoviță, Grigore Antipa, Paul Bujor, Ion Borcea and Mihai Băcescu. Two rooms hold more than 700 specimens given by Băcescu from his expeditions in three oceans: sponges, corals, pearl oysters, squid, lobsters, starfish and sea urchins, sturgeons, turtles and crocodiles. The aquarium has 13 tanks holding more than 11,000 litres of water, with native and exotic fish, turtles, molluscs and crustaceans. The museum also keeps a globe showing to scale both the relief of the land and that of the sea floor, made over five and a half years by the geography teacher Isaic Neculai of Vadu Moldovei and donated in 1986. The museum is run by Fălticeni City Hall and is open to visitors.