Reverse
Bust facing left
Script: Latin
Lettering:
ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA
*** 1859 - 1866 ***
Comment
The Palace of Alexander Ioan Cuza in Ruginoasa is a neo-gothic built, which until 1804 belonged to the Sturdza family. The palace is a single-storey building in the shape of a square with four symmetrical façades, wide and straight, and balconies supported on all sides by stone slabs. The central staircase is currently built of wood. The palace is now a museum. The village of Ruginoasa is 60 km west of Iasi, between Târgu Frumos and Pascani, and has an ancient origin, the first documents dating back to 1596. The Ruginoasa Palace was officially opened by Prince Cuza on the occasion of Easter in April 1864. During the First World War, the Ruginoasa Palace was used as a military hospital. The following rooms were reconstructed in the palace: the library (with books from Paris), the ruler's cupboard (where the archive cupboard, the library cabinet, the Gothic table and the swing cabinet were located), the Gothic dining room (with 31 carved oak furniture, of which there are now two dressing rooms with barometer and pendulum, and on a table covered with white olives silver or alpaca cutlery, Sèvres porcelain plates, Baccarat crystal glasses, all of which bear the coat of arms of the United Duchies), a 24-seat Louis XV style, several of which have been preserved, a Hermann Heiser piano and two Dutch tapestries and a female statue in ivory bronze, the work of the sculptor E. Barras.
