The Palace of Culture (Romanian: Palatul Culturii) is one of the largest buildings of Romania, located in the city of Iasi.
The building hosts four different museums: The Museum of History, The Museum of Art, The Museum of Ethnography, and The Museum of Science and Technology (named after Stefan Procopiu).
The construction was started in 1906, on the old ruins of the Royal Court of Moldavia, by orders from King Carol I, but during World War I, the construction halted due to the limitation of resources. The monument was finished in 1925 and was inaugurated the following year by King Ferdinand.
Three architects were assigned to plan the building (Xenopol, Cerchez, and I. D. Berindei) and they designed it in flamboyant neo-gothic style. The Palace has 298 large rooms with a total area of 36,000 m² (387,500 ft²), 92 windows in the front part of the building and another 36 inside the building.
Up until 1955, the building served as the main courthouse of the county, with an interruption in World War II, when it was used by German, and later, Soviet troops. From 1975 to 1977, the Palace had its top floor renovated, as wooden structures were replaced in favour of cement and steel. Since 1977 the building has served as a museum.
The Cucuteni culture, better known in the countries of the former Soviet Union as Trypollian culture or Tripolie culture, is a late Neolithic archaeological culture that flourished between circa 4500 BC and 3000 BC in the Dniester-Dnieper region and in the modern-day Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine.
The culture was named after Cucuteni, Iaşi county, Romania, where first objects associated with this culture were discovered in 1884 and excavations started in 1909. In 1897, similar objects were excavated in Trypillia (Трипiлля; Russian: Trepolye), Kiev Governorate, Ukraine. As a result, the culture has been known in Soviet, Russian, and Ukrainian publications as Tripolie culture or Tripolian culture. A compromise name is Cucuteni-Trypillia.
The largest collection of artifacts of Cucuteni-Trypollia culture can be found at the museums of Russia, Ukraine, and Romania, including the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and the Museum of History & Archaeology in Piatra Neamţ.
The Cucuteni culture has been called the first urban culture in Europe. The Trypollia settlements were usually located on a plateau, fortified with earthworks and ditches. The earliest villages consisted of ten to fifteen households. At their heyday, settlements expanded to include several hundred large adobe huts, sometimes with two stories. These houses were typically warmed by an oven and had round windows.
Agriculture is attested, as well as livestock-raising, cattle mainly, but goats/sheep and swine are also evidenced. Wild game is a regular part of the faunal remains. The pottery is connected to the Linear Pottery culture. Copper was extensively imported from the Balkans. Extant figurines excavated at the Cucuteni sites are thought to represent the Mother goddess.
