Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza's Decorations / The History of Romania in One Object

With the next episode of our historical saga we invite you to enter the fascinating realm of orders and decorations. Learn more about the making of Romanian modern state under Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza through four exceptional decorations, on display at the Union Museum in Iași, whose story recall the complicated political and diplomatic struggles that accompanied the rise of Romania as a significant South-East European player. Text by historian and curator Sorin Iftimi. Video presentation by historian and researcher Cătălin Hriban. A film by Mihai Neagu. A team of Moldavia's History Museum in Iași.

Watch and read on our FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE and WEBSITE from Monday, December 7, 2 p.m. EDT (or anytime later).

Sorin Iftimi graduated from the Faculty of History of the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iași in 1993 and since 1995 he has been working at the History Museum, part of the "Moldova" National Museum Complex in Iași. He has a PhD in history (since 2006) and is an expert in movable cultural heritage (since 2015). He has published 25 books and exhibition catalogues, as well as over 150 studies and articles. He is also a specialist in urban history, military uniforms and decorations, knives, genealogy and heraldry. He gave a course on mobile cultural heritage within the master's program Mobile Heritage and Cultural Tourism, organized by the Faculty of History at the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iași.

Cătălin Hriban is a historian with a special interest in the Central and Eastern European Middle Ages, particularly in urban history and historical topography, fields in which he published several papers in both English and Romanian. He has a PhD in medieval archaeology. Cătălin Hriban is currently a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology in Iași, affiliated with the Romanian Academy, and coordinates several archaeological excavations in the old city centers of Iași and Botoșani. One of the focuses of his latest researches are the medieval weaponry and its role as bearer of cultural meaning, as well as the cultural image of the sword and saber in both daily life and formal rituals during the Renaissance and Baroque Central and Eastern Europe.

Our online series THE HISTORY OF ROMANIA IN ONE OBJECT, developed in partnership with some of the most important history museums in the country, evokes decisive epochs in Romania's past starting from artifacts or vestiges with powerful symbolic, representative value.