Documents from the collections of the National Archives Agency about the opening of the first ecclesiastic educational institution in Bessarabia can be seen at the National Library of the Republic of Moldova. The exhibition entitled “Origins of ecclesiastic Bessarabian education (1813-1823)ˮ was timed to coincide with the 210th anniversary of the opening of the Theological Seminar in Chisinau, IPN reports.

Among the exhibited documents are the Letter of 1813 of Metropolitan Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni concerning the intention to open two seminar classes and lists of students who attended the Theological Seminar in Chisinau in 1813.

The documents are accompanied by epoch pictures from the phonotheque of the General National Archive Directorate and from the private collection of Vladimir Tarnakin. Through these, the public can see how the Cleric Consistory, which housed the two classes of the Theological Seminar initially and was built in 1813-1816, looked like, to admire the exterior and interior of the Church of the Three Holy Hierarchs Theological Seminar erected in 1862.

Even if the Theological Seminar in Chisinau was founded by the tsarist administration as an instrument that was to be used in the process of Russifying the Church in Bessarabia and also the population of Bessarabia through this, this institution was touched only partially owing to the proper organization through the agency of personalities, to the high level of the teaching process and to a part of the graduates (in 1813-1913 the institution was graduated by 2,436 persons), said the National Library.

The exhibition can be visited until March 31, 2023.