The memorial house where architect, academician, historian and art theoretician Alexei Shchusev, who is a remarkable personality of the Moldovan culture, spent his childhood is reopened to the public on September 24. The house has been under internal and external renovation for a year and a half.

According to the National Museum of History, the permanent internal exhibition was reorganized and extended chronologically and thematically so as to create an epoch atmosphere and to better transmit the family atmosphere in which Alexei Shchusev lived and worked.

Within the rehabilitation works that were started in November 2013 and completed in May 2014, the house’s roof was repaired and the internal and external brickwork and plaster were restored. Contacted by IPN, vice director of the National Museum of History Aurelia Cornetski said that about 650,000 lei was allocated from the state budget and 82,500 lei from the museum’s special funds for the works.

The house was built by the architect’s parents in the 1850s. Alexei Shchusev was born in this house on October 8, 1873 and lived here until 1897. The building was inherited by the architect’s elder brother Sergey Shchusev and was owned by the family until 1928. On September 18, 1947, the house became the first museum of architecture in Moldova, while later was reorganized into the Memorial House “Alexei Shchusev”. Since 1990, it has formed part of the National Museum of History of Moldova and has the status of protected monument.

The reopening of the memorial house located at 77 Shchusev St will take place within the European Heritage Days at 3:30pm on September 24.