Alexandru Plămădeală Republican College of Fine Arts

The Alexandru Plămădeală Republican College of Fine Arts on Strada Independenței traces its origins to 1887, when Terentie Zubco, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, established a private drawing school attached to the first district school in Chișinău. Reorganised as the Municipal School of Drawing in 1891, it was transformed into a School of Fine Arts in 1918 and placed under the direction of the sculptor Alexandru Plămădeală in 1919, under whose leadership it became a hub of Bessarabian artistic and intellectual life for over two decades. The institution operated under the name of Repin from 1940 before being renamed in honour of Plămădeală in 1990, and was reorganised as a college in 1991. Among its graduates are some of the most significant figures in Moldovan art, including Mihai Grecu, Ion Vieru, Glebus Sainciuc, and Eleonora Romanescu. The current building on Strada Independenței is a compact modernist block of four storeys, faced in pale limestone-toned render with a strongly vertical articulation on the central bay. Tall narrow pilasters frame the upper two floors of the entrance frontispiece, which rises slightly above the main cornice line to create a restrained monumental accent. The entrance is recessed beneath a wide shallow canopy reached by a flight of steps, with a carved relief panel to one side.