Alexandru Ioan Cuza Palace at Ruginoasa

The palace stands at 34 Strada Unirii in Ruginoasa commune, between Târgu Frumos and Pașcani, about 60 km west of Iași. The complex includes the palace, the court church, the park, the enclosure wall with towers and the tomb prepared for Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza. The Ruginoasa estate belonged to the Sturdza family for almost two hundred years, from the late seventeenth century. In 1804 the treasurer Săndulache Sturdza hired the Viennese architect Johann Freiwald to rebuild the old manor house; the Neoclassical building was completed in 1813-1814, and the German gardener Mehler laid out the park. The court church behind the palace was built in 1811. His son, the boyar Costache Sturdza, rebuilt the palace in Neo-Gothic style between 1847 and 1855 to plans by the architect Johann Brandel. Mortgaged and put up for auction, the estate was bought in 1862 by Alexandru Ioan Cuza; Princess Elena Cuza furnished the palace with pieces ordered from Paris, and the prince officially inaugurated it at Easter 1864. Cuza died in exile in Heidelberg in 1873 and was buried at Ruginoasa beside the church; in 1907 his remains were moved inside the church, in 1944 they were taken to Curtea de Argeș, and since 1946 they have rested in the Trei Ierarhi Church in Iași. Badly damaged in the Second World War, the palace was rebuilt between 1967 and 1978, and the Alexandru Ioan Cuza Memorial Museum opened in 1982. The square, two-storey building has four almost symmetrical façades with wide steps and balconies resting on stone slabs. After consolidation work in 2008-2010, the exhibition was redesigned on the basis of Elena Cuza's furniture order, kept at the Romanian Academy Library, and an inventory of the palace from the years after 1864 held by the Union Museum in Iași; furniture and wall and ceiling decoration were reconstructed. The court church holds the Sturdza family crypt and the reliquary with the remains of Cuza's two sons, Dimitrie and Alexandru. The palace complex is a historic monument, LMI code IS-II-a-B-04238 (the palace itself is IS-II-m-B-04238.01). The museum is part of the Moldova National Museum Complex in Iași and is open to visitors.