Museum of History and Ethnography in Mereni

In the commune of Mereni, Anenii Noi District, the Museum of History and Ethnography in Mereni preserves the story of a community that has gathered its memory through people, objects, and testimonies. The history of the museum began in 1975, when teacher Emilian Baciu organized a small school museum, with objects brought by pupils from the households of their grandparents and older neighbours. In 1980, the Museum for the Study of the Native Land was inaugurated, and since 1989 it has functioned in the former Rejep Agricultural Bank, a building erected in 1910–1911.

The collections follow the history of Mereni from prehistoric traces to village life in more recent centuries. Visitors can discover fossil bones of deinotherium, pieces of petrified wood, archaeological artefacts, the inventory of a Sarmatian grave recently found in a local resident’s courtyard, as well as ethnographic pieces: old icons, a painted dowry chest, a triptych carpet depicting Stephen the Great, weights for a vertical loom, and a carriage repaired in 1926.

The ethnographic section recreates the world of the village through the peasant courtyard, household occupations, the Casa Mare, and traditional clothing. The museum also preserves the memory of painful periods: wars, deportations, collective farms, and the War on the Dniester. The visit can continue toward the open-air museum complex dedicated to the victims of political repression, where the deportees’ wagon and the “corridor of death” give shape to a history that is difficult to speak about. In Mereni, history does not remain only in display cases; it is tied to families, to the village, and to the way people chose to preserve their roots.